Religious aspects of sexuality, gender and relationships Books

Book SynopsisA new approach to thinking about the representation of the Other in Western society, The Jew's Daughter: A Cultural History of a Conversion Narrative offers an insight into the gendered difference of the Jew. Focusing on a popular narrative of The Jew's Daughter, which has been overlooked in conventional studies of European anti-Semitism, this innovative study looks at canonical and neglected texts which have constructed racialized and sexualized images that persist today in the media and popular culture. The book goes back before Shylock and Jessica in The Merchant of Venice and Isaac and Rebecca in Ivanhoe to seek the answers to why the Jewish father is always wicked and ugly, while his daughter is invariably desirable and open to conversion. The story unfolds in fascinating transformations, reflecting changing ideological and social discourses about gender, sexuality, religion, and nation that expose shifting perceptions of inclusion and exclusion of the Other. Unlike previous studiTrade ReviewSicher makes the interesting choice of focusing on two related literary tropes: the “Jew” and the “Jew’s Daughter.” In this relationship as it is depicted in poetry, song, drama, art, architecture, and literature, Sicher presents a compelling argument for “how the narrative of the Jew and his daughter informs discourses about gender, sexuality, race, and nationhood in European societies from the eleventh to the twenty-first centuries” (2). He does this through a comparative, interdisciplinary analysis of various texts. This analysis is also informed by historical anecdotes.... Sicher’s text is an impressive presentation of research from many times and places that serves to support and illustrate his thesis well. * Reading Religion *The present book is a multifaceted, deeply historically imbued narrative about the pervasive motif in European culture of “the Jew’s daughter”. . . . The Jew’s Daughter is a literary tour de force; its scope is impressive. . . it is a large-scale historical descriptive overview. * The European Legacy – Toward New Paradigms *Ugly Jewish father; beautiful daughter with a Christian boyfriend—what could possibly go wrong? Efraim Sicher has written an original as well as exhaustive study of one of the core images of anti-Semitism. How is Jewishness in the eye of the anti-Semite gendered and how does the conversion of the daughter (think Shylock’s Jessica) herald the victory of Christianity over Judaism? A must read in our age of renewed anti-Semitism and misogyny! -- Sander L. Gilman, author of "Are Racists Crazy? How Prejudice, Racism, and Antisemitism Became Markers of Insanity" (2016)This exhaustively researched study, the scholarship of which ranges over literary works from the 13th to early 20th century, is a definitive guide to how the cultural icon of “the Beautiful Jewess” became a primary ground of European “objectification based on hostile stereotyping . . . that constructs gender difference along racialized lines.” The Jew’s Daughter is destined to become an essential work for scholars of Jewish Cultural Studies, Gender Theory, and Critical Race Studies alike. -- Neil Davison, author of "Jewishness and Masculinity from the Modern to the Postmodern"Sicher makes a powerful argument about the role of the father-daughter pairing as a centerpiece in the construction of Jewish representation. More than an analysis of conversion or anti-Semitism, this study leads us on an encyclopedic journey across time and space to explore an understudied pattern of constructed Jewish difference. The Jew and his daughter, Sicher demonstrates, have an impressive history of shaping discourses of gender, sexuality, race, and nation throughout Europe. -- Heidi Kaufman, University of OregonTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1.Genesis: Eve and Anti-Eve 2.The Books of Esther: The Jewesses of Toledo 3.Daughteronomy: Conversion and Exchange in Early Modern England 4.Exodus: The Jew’s Daughter in Germany (with Noa Sophie Kohler) 5.Second Daughteronomy: Romance and Conversion in Nineteenth-Century England 6.A Song of Songs: The Orientalization of the Belle Juive Epilogue In the Name of the Daughter: The Belle Juive Strikes Back Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA new approach to thinking about the representation of the Other in Western society, The Jew's Daughter: A Cultural History of a Conversion Narrative offers an insight into the gendered difference of the Jew. Focusing on a popular narrative of The Jew's Daughter, which has been overlooked in conventional studies of European anti-Semitism, this innovative study looks at canonical and neglected texts which have constructed racialized and sexualized images that persist today in the media and popular culture. The book goes back before Shylock and Jessica in The Merchant of Venice and Isaac and Rebecca in Ivanhoe to seek the answers to why the Jewish father is always wicked and ugly, while his daughter is invariably desirable and open to conversion. The story unfolds in fascinating transformations, reflecting changing ideological and social discourses about gender, sexuality, religion, and nation that expose shifting perceptions of inclusion and exclusion of the Other. Unlike previous studiTrade ReviewSicher makes the interesting choice of focusing on two related literary tropes: the “Jew” and the “Jew’s Daughter.” In this relationship as it is depicted in poetry, song, drama, art, architecture, and literature, Sicher presents a compelling argument for “how the narrative of the Jew and his daughter informs discourses about gender, sexuality, race, and nationhood in European societies from the eleventh to the twenty-first centuries” (2). He does this through a comparative, interdisciplinary analysis of various texts. This analysis is also informed by historical anecdotes.... Sicher’s text is an impressive presentation of research from many times and places that serves to support and illustrate his thesis well. * Reading Religion *The present book is a multifaceted, deeply historically imbued narrative about the pervasive motif in European culture of “the Jew’s daughter”. . . . The Jew’s Daughter is a literary tour de force; its scope is impressive. . . it is a large-scale historical descriptive overview. * The European Legacy – Toward New Paradigms *Ugly Jewish father; beautiful daughter with a Christian boyfriend—what could possibly go wrong? Efraim Sicher has written an original as well as exhaustive study of one of the core images of anti-Semitism. How is Jewishness in the eye of the anti-Semite gendered and how does the conversion of the daughter (think Shylock’s Jessica) herald the victory of Christianity over Judaism? A must read in our age of renewed anti-Semitism and misogyny! -- Sander L. Gilman, author of "Are Racists Crazy? How Prejudice, Racism, and Antisemitism Became Markers of Insanity" (2016)This exhaustively researched study, the scholarship of which ranges over literary works from the 13th to early 20th century, is a definitive guide to how the cultural icon of “the Beautiful Jewess” became a primary ground of European “objectification based on hostile stereotyping . . . that constructs gender difference along racialized lines.” The Jew’s Daughter is destined to become an essential work for scholars of Jewish Cultural Studies, Gender Theory, and Critical Race Studies alike. -- Neil Davison, author of "Jewishness and Masculinity from the Modern to the Postmodern"Sicher makes a powerful argument about the role of the father-daughter pairing as a centerpiece in the construction of Jewish representation. More than an analysis of conversion or anti-Semitism, this study leads us on an encyclopedic journey across time and space to explore an understudied pattern of constructed Jewish difference. The Jew and his daughter, Sicher demonstrates, have an impressive history of shaping discourses of gender, sexuality, race, and nation throughout Europe. -- Heidi Kaufman, University of OregonTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1.Genesis: Eve and Anti-Eve 2.The Books of Esther: The Jewesses of Toledo 3.Daughteronomy: Conversion and Exchange in Early Modern England 4.Exodus: The Jew’s Daughter in Germany (with Noa Sophie Kohler) 5.Second Daughteronomy: Romance and Conversion in Nineteenth-Century England 6.A Song of Songs: The Orientalization of the Belle Juive Epilogue In the Name of the Daughter: The Belle Juive Strikes Back Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisUsing the methodology of modern scholars in the fields of Arabic lexicography, linguistics, and psychoanalysis, Tunisian feminist scholar Olfa Youssef investigates the rulings about inheritance, marriage, and homosexuality in the Qur'anic text itself and compares them with the interpretations provided by male Muslim theologians and legal scholars from medieval times to the present. In this book, she makes five central arguments: (1) There is a discrepancy between the layered signification in the Qur'anic text itself and the sutured explanations by religious scholars which have been enacted into law in many Muslim countries today; (2) the plurality of meanings is the quintessential essence of the Qur'an as evidenced in the absence of any sura over which there was unanimous agreement among Muslim scholars; (3) when male privilege was at stake, male legal scholars, to protect their own interests, ignored the divine text and based their rulings on human consensus; (4) Muslim medieval viewsTrade ReviewThis fine work is the first ever Arabic work in Islamic Studies written by a woman scholar to be translated into English. . . . Reading this courageous work, I felt the same sense of elation as when I first read the Christian Feminists Rosemary Ruether and Mary Daly. . . Many of her perplexities are shared with Christians too. Both of our faiths need the prophetic questioning and hope this book provides." * INTAMS review: Journal for the Study of Marriage & Spirituality *The Perplexity of a Muslim Woman: Over Inheritance, Marriage, and Homosexuality is a tour de force of reason and erudition in the course of which Youssef holds a critical conversation with classical and contemporary Qur'anic exegetists and jurists to show how human interpretations throughout the centuries have closed the Qur'an to possibilities of readings for justice. It is a valuable contribution to a new genre of literature that is opening Islam's sacred texts to new readings in line with twenty-first-century values, concerns, and questions, enabling Muslims to remain within their faith yet be critical of dominant interpretations of the texts and the laws made, and discriminations justified, in their name. * Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy *Provocative, insightful, and rigorous best describe Lamia Benyoussef’s translation of Perplexity of a Muslim Woman, the first Arabic work in Islamic Studies by a woman scholar to be translated into English. The work explores the nuances on marriage, inheritance, and homosexuality within Islam. This text goes against the grain as it offers a woman’s interpretation of fundamental issues that have entirely been extrapolated by a male-dominated religious institution that has given itself the right to theorize such matters. At last a Muslim woman’s voice comes to us in a beautiful translation that has brought together content and meaning to the Western world. Without this work, Olfa Youssef’s voice on the perplexity of a Muslim woman would have not reached the Anglophone world. A must-read for anyone interested in discovering what a Muslim woman theorizes when she interprets the Qur’an in matters pertaining to marriage, inheritance, and homosexuality. Do Muslim women inherit half of what men do? Is homosexuality condemned in the Qur’anic text? Reading this work will answer these questions and more. -- Douja Mamelouk, Le Moyne CollegeIn a world context of terrorism where inhumane crimes are systematically blamed on the teachings of Islam and the classic interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunnah, Olfa Youssef opens the eyes of both Muslim and non-Muslim readers to new possibilities of textual interpretation that aim to keep up with the expectations of modernism and the principles of universal human rights. One of the indubitable merits of Youssef’s book is the very serious and up-to-date debate that it provokes. Apart from Arab innovative thinkers, Islamic scholarship in English has seldom tried to question or to rewrite tradition. This study actually explores areas that have always been thought inaccessible or unchangeable; it questions unanimous beliefs that almost no one else has dared to question from inside the Islamic paradigm. -- Wassim Jday, University of Monastir, TunisiaTable of ContentsTranslator’s Preface Introduction Chapter 1. Perplexity over Inheritance Perplexity One: Inheritance: Between Divine Compulsion and Human Choice Perplexity Two: Who Are They Who Inherit? Perplexity Three: Does the Male Get Twice the Share of the Female? Perplexity Four: Do Grandchildren and Grandparents Inherit? Perplexity Five: Agnatic Inheritance (Al Ta’seeb) Perplexity Six: Disinheritance Perplexity Seven: Al Kalāla That Which Lies After Perplexity Chapter 2. Perplexity over Marriage Perplexity One: Is the Dowry a Marriage Requisite? Perplexity Two: Is the Dowry a Payment for a Woman’s Sex? Perplexity Three: The Obedience to the Husband in Bed Perplexity Four: The Marriage of Pleasure Perplexity Five: Anal Intercourse Perplexity Six: Child Marriage Perplexity Seven: Polyandry and Polygamy Perplexity Eight: The ‘Iddah Perplexity Nine: Sex with One’s Hand That Which Lies After Perplexity Chapter 3. Perplexity over Homosexuality Perplexity One: Bisexuality in the Qur’an Perplexity Two: Sihāq stories, or why did the Qur’an remain silent over sihāq? Perplexity Three: Sihāq in Qur’anic Rulings Perplexity Four: Liwāt Stories Perplexity Five: Liwāt in Qur’anic Rulings Perplexity Six: Why Was Lot’s Wife Punished? Perplexity Seven: Punishment for Sihāq and Liwāt Perplexity Eight: Are the Ghilmān of Heaven for Sexual Service? That Which Lies After Perplexity Chapter 4. Conclusion Appendix A. Index of Qur’anic Verses Appendix B. Index of Hadiths

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Book SynopsisUsing the methodology of modern scholars in the fields of Arabic lexicography, linguistics, and psychoanalysis, Tunisian feminist scholar Olfa Youssef investigates the rulings about inheritance, marriage, and homosexuality in the Qur'anic text itself and compares them with the interpretations provided by male Muslim theologians and legal scholars from medieval times to the present. In this book, she makes five central arguments: (1) There is a discrepancy between the layered signification in the Qur'anic text itself and the sutured explanations by religious scholars which have been enacted into law in many Muslim countries today; (2) the plurality of meanings is the quintessential essence of the Qur'an as evidenced in the absence of any sura over which there was unanimous agreement among Muslim scholars; (3) when male privilege was at stake, male legal scholars, to protect their own interests, ignored the divine text and based their rulings on human consensus; (4) Muslim medieval viewsTrade ReviewThis fine work is the first ever Arabic work in Islamic Studies written by a woman scholar to be translated into English. . . . Reading this courageous work, I felt the same sense of elation as when I first read the Christian Feminists Rosemary Ruether and Mary Daly. . . Many of her perplexities are shared with Christians too. Both of our faiths need the prophetic questioning and hope this book provides." * INTAMS review: Journal for the Study of Marriage & Spirituality *The Perplexity of a Muslim Woman: Over Inheritance, Marriage, and Homosexuality is a tour de force of reason and erudition in the course of which Youssef holds a critical conversation with classical and contemporary Qur'anic exegetists and jurists to show how human interpretations throughout the centuries have closed the Qur'an to possibilities of readings for justice. It is a valuable contribution to a new genre of literature that is opening Islam's sacred texts to new readings in line with twenty-first-century values, concerns, and questions, enabling Muslims to remain within their faith yet be critical of dominant interpretations of the texts and the laws made, and discriminations justified, in their name. * Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy *Provocative, insightful, and rigorous best describe Lamia Benyoussef’s translation of Perplexity of a Muslim Woman, the first Arabic work in Islamic Studies by a woman scholar to be translated into English. The work explores the nuances on marriage, inheritance, and homosexuality within Islam. This text goes against the grain as it offers a woman’s interpretation of fundamental issues that have entirely been extrapolated by a male-dominated religious institution that has given itself the right to theorize such matters. At last a Muslim woman’s voice comes to us in a beautiful translation that has brought together content and meaning to the Western world. Without this work, Olfa Youssef’s voice on the perplexity of a Muslim woman would have not reached the Anglophone world. A must-read for anyone interested in discovering what a Muslim woman theorizes when she interprets the Qur’an in matters pertaining to marriage, inheritance, and homosexuality. Do Muslim women inherit half of what men do? Is homosexuality condemned in the Qur’anic text? Reading this work will answer these questions and more. -- Douja Mamelouk, Le Moyne CollegeIn a world context of terrorism where inhumane crimes are systematically blamed on the teachings of Islam and the classic interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunnah, Olfa Youssef opens the eyes of both Muslim and non-Muslim readers to new possibilities of textual interpretation that aim to keep up with the expectations of modernism and the principles of universal human rights. One of the indubitable merits of Youssef’s book is the very serious and up-to-date debate that it provokes. Apart from Arab innovative thinkers, Islamic scholarship in English has seldom tried to question or to rewrite tradition. This study actually explores areas that have always been thought inaccessible or unchangeable; it questions unanimous beliefs that almost no one else has dared to question from inside the Islamic paradigm. -- Wassim Jday, University of Monastir, TunisiaTable of ContentsTranslator’s Preface Introduction Chapter 1. Perplexity over Inheritance Perplexity One: Inheritance: Between Divine Compulsion and Human Choice Perplexity Two: Who Are They Who Inherit? Perplexity Three: Does the Male Get Twice the Share of the Female? Perplexity Four: Do Grandchildren and Grandparents Inherit? Perplexity Five: Agnatic Inheritance (Al Ta’seeb) Perplexity Six: Disinheritance Perplexity Seven: Al Kalāla That Which Lies After Perplexity Chapter 2. Perplexity over Marriage Perplexity One: Is the Dowry a Marriage Requisite? Perplexity Two: Is the Dowry a Payment for a Woman’s Sex? Perplexity Three: The Obedience to the Husband in Bed Perplexity Four: The Marriage of Pleasure Perplexity Five: Anal Intercourse Perplexity Six: Child Marriage Perplexity Seven: Polyandry and Polygamy Perplexity Eight: The ‘Iddah Perplexity Nine: Sex with One’s Hand That Which Lies After Perplexity Chapter 3. Perplexity over Homosexuality Perplexity One: Bisexuality in the Qur’an Perplexity Two: Sihāq stories, or why did the Qur’an remain silent over sihāq? Perplexity Three: Sihāq in Qur’anic Rulings Perplexity Four: Liwāt Stories Perplexity Five: Liwāt in Qur’anic Rulings Perplexity Six: Why Was Lot’s Wife Punished? Perplexity Seven: Punishment for Sihāq and Liwāt Perplexity Eight: Are the Ghilmān of Heaven for Sexual Service? That Which Lies After Perplexity Chapter 4. Conclusion Appendix A. Index of Qur’anic Verses Appendix B. Index of Hadiths

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Book SynopsisThis book borrows from the intellectual labor of queer theory in order to unsettleor queerthe discourses of religion and science, and, by extension, the science and religion discourse. Drawing intellectual and social cues from works by influential theorists such as Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Eve Sedgwick, chapters in this volume converge on at least three common features of queer theory. First, queer theory challenges givens that on occasion still undergird religiously and scientifically informed ways of thinking. Second, it takes embodiment seriously. Third, this engagement inevitably generates new pathways for thinking about how religious and scientific truths matter. These three features ultimately lend support to critical investigations into the meanings of science and religion, and the relationships between the two.Trade ReviewUnsettling Science and Religion is a volume eager to be useful to teachers and researchers. The introductory materials contain an overview of the scholars most frequently drawn on by the contributors, a brief intellectual history of the volume’s major areas, and promptings for what direction the conversation is, and should continue, developing in. The contribution of each author is summarized by the editors at the beginning, and in the afterword by Morton, and here again in this review, giving each author and reader ample opportunity to see how the work has been glossed. Each short chapter has a substantial bibliography, and the collection closes with an annotated bibliography that will be useful to readers trying to choose from among the wealth of resources suggested throughout. * Reading Religion *The science-religion-queer theory relationship is like a challenging game of three-dimensional tic-tac-toe. These erudite writers demonstrate the complexities as assumptions that grounded each leg of the tripod are not so systematically dismantled. They bravely acknowledge that all intellectual bets are off, but just as courageously insist that all justice claims are on. This book opens a conversation that will span generations and reshape reality. -- Mary E. Hunt, Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and RitualThis exciting volume of essays represents one of the first collective attempts to ‘queer’ the relationship between religion and science. Ranging across a number of scholarly topics, the authors show not simply how queer theories and religious studies can engage science, but more importantly how science and religion need to be rethought in relation to queer theories—especially since nature, bodies, evolution, religious traditions, and even the physical universe and the divine are already in certain respects queer. They also address a series of complex, and often controversial, social and political issues, including racism, colonialism, and ecological devastation. The book should be widely read by scholars from many fields, but especially those interested in science and religion discourses and queer theories. -- Ken Stone, Chicago Theological SeminaryAs the first volume in the news series “Religion and Science as a Critical Discourse,” Unsettling Science and Religion: Contributions and Questions from Queer Studies, convincingly demonstrates the value of pursuing potentially unsettling questions across a number of disciplinary fields in order to tackle complex questions raised in religion and science. Stenmark and Bauman’s introduction alone, together with the helpful annotated bibliography at the end of the volume, will be useful to a great variety of readers interested in an introduction to current challenging issues at various queer-religion-science intersections. The essays collected offer a range of intriguing explorations of the academic disciplines, explore possible and necessary connections and challenges, often in (intentionally) unsettling ways. Topics can range from Adam to the Apocalypse; they might explore rabbinic discourse on dissident bodies or engage in dialogue about the queerness of theology and science; authors might unsettle and queer authority in science, propose a queer African-American naturalism, or examine historical shifts in Colonialism alongside those in religion and science. Readers assuming what topics and approaches they will encounter are in for a surprise, as this book takes them on a wild ride, exploring a dizzying (but entirely necessary) variety of approaches to central topics and important problems at the complex intersection of religion and science. -- Claudia Schippert, University of Central FloridaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Lisa Stenmark and Whitney Bauman 1. Both/And: Science, Religion, and the Fluidity of Identity Philip Clayton and Kirianna Florez 2. If You Quare It You Can Change It: Changing the Boxes That Bind Us Emilie M. Townes 3. Thinking through Three Revolutions: Religion, Science and Colonialism Lisa Stenmark 4. Queering Authority in Science and Religion Whitney Bauman 5. Polyamorous Bastards: James Baldwin and Desires of a Queer African-American Religious Naturalism Carol Wayne White 6. Slenderman: A Trans Hermeneutic of the Apocalypse Teresa Hornsby 7. ‘Nothing in This World is Indifferent to Us’: A Dialogical Reflection on the Queerness of Theology and Science Catherine Keller and Laurel Schneider 8. Queering the Dissident Body: Race, Sex, and Disability in Rabbinic Blessings on Bodily Difference Julia Watts Belser 9. ‘Adam is Not Man: The Queer Body before Genesis 2:22 (and after) Zairong Xiang 10. Gender and Indeterminacy in Jewish Mystical Imagery Fern Feldman 11. Toward a Bright and Messy Future: The Global Ecological Crisis, the Problem of Heteronormative Bias, and the Necessity of a Queer Ecological Imagination Alex Carr Johnson 12. Queering the Library of Congress Carlos Fernandez Petrichor: An Afterword Timothy Morton Annotated Bibliography About the Contributors

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Book SynopsisRape Culture and Religious Studies: Critical and Pedagogical Engagements stages a critical engagement between religious texts and the problem of sexual violence. Rape and other forms of sexual violence are widespread on college and university campuses; they also occur in sacred texts and religious traditions. The volume addresses these difficult intersections as they play out in texts, traditions, and university contexts. The volume gathers contributions from religious studies scholars to engage these questions from a variety of institutional contexts and to offer a constructive assessment of religious texts and traditions.Trade ReviewThis volume offers crucial intersectional analyses of sexual violence and rape culture from the disciplinary space of religious studies. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to engage in critically-informed conversations on sexual violence in college classrooms. -- Nami Kim, Spelman CollegeTable of ContentsIntroduction: Engaging Rape Culture, Reimagining Religious Studies Rhiannon Graybill, Meredith Minister, and Beatrice Lawrence 1. Reading Biblical Rape Texts beyond a Cop-Out Hermeneutics in the Trump Era Susanne Scholz 2. Constructions of Hindu Mythology after the Rape of Jyoti Singh Pandey: Coupling Activism with Pedagogy T. Nicole Goulet 3. Teaching Rape, Slavery, and Genocide in Bible and Culture Gwynn Kessler 4. On #MosqueMeToo: Lessons for Nuancing and Better Implementing the Lessons of #MeToo Kirsten Boles 5. Judges 19 and Non-Con: Sado-Kantian Aesthetics of Violence in the Tale of an Unnamed Woman Minenhle Nomalungelo Khumalo 6. To Confess the Fundamental Marian Dogma: Postulating the Doctrine of Mary’s Reproductive Justice Jeremy Posadas 7. Rape Culture in the Rabbinic Construction of Gender Beatrice Lawrence 8. Sex and Alien Encounter: Rethinking Consent as a Rape Prevention Strategy Meredith Minister 9. Good Intentions are Not Enough Rhiannon Graybill

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Book SynopsisRape Culture and Religious Studies: Critical and Pedagogical Engagements stages a critical engagement between religious texts and the problem of sexual violence. Rape and other forms of sexual violence are widespread on college and university campuses; they also occur in sacred texts and religious traditions. The volume addresses these difficult intersections as they play out in texts, traditions, and university contexts. The volume gathers contributions from religious studies scholars to engage these questions from a variety of institutional contexts and to offer a constructive assessment of religious texts and traditions.Trade ReviewFramed by the current #MeToo movement, Rape Culture and Religious Studies: Critical and Pedagogical Engagements seeks to start conversations within religious studies about “sexual violence, especially sexual violence on college and university campuses” (2). Whether or not the authors explicitly frame their discussion around classroom contexts, they all provide valuable food for thought about engaging students in meaningful conversations about sexual violence, rape culture, and religion in both their studies and their everyday lives. * Reading Religion *This volume offers crucial intersectional analyses of sexual violence and rape culture from the disciplinary space of religious studies. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to engage in critically-informed conversations on sexual violence in college classrooms. -- Nami Kim, Spelman CollegeTable of ContentsIntroduction: Engaging Rape Culture, Reimagining Religious StudiesRhiannon Graybill, Meredith Minister, and Beatrice Lawrence 1. Reading Biblical Rape Texts beyond a Cop-Out Hermeneutics in the Trump EraSusanne Scholz2. Constructions of Hindu Mythology after the Rape of Jyoti Singh Pandey: Coupling Activism with PedagogyT. Nicole Goulet3. Teaching Rape, Slavery, and Genocide in Bible and CultureGwynn Kessler4. On #MosqueMeToo: Lessons for Nuancing and Better Implementing the Lessons of #MeTooKirsten Boles 5. Judges 19 and Non-Con: Sado-Kantian Aesthetics of Violence in the Tale of an Unnamed WomanMinenhle Nomalungelo Khumalo 6. To Confess the Fundamental Marian Dogma: Postulating the Doctrine of Mary’s Reproductive Justice Jeremy Posadas7. Rape Culture in the Rabbinic Construction of GenderBeatrice Lawrence 8. Sex and Alien Encounter: Rethinking Consent as a Rape Prevention Strategy Meredith Minister 9. Good Intentions are Not EnoughRhiannon Graybill

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Book SynopsisMethod as Identity: Manufacturing Distance in the Academic Study of Religion emphasizes the inexorable influence that social identities exert in shaping methodological choices within the academic study of religion, as witnessed in sui generis appeals to particularity and reliance on (or rejection of) identity-based standpoints. Can data speak back, and if so, would scholars have ears to listen? With a refreshing hip hop sensibility, Miller and Driscoll argue that what cultural theorist Jean-François Bayart refers to as a battle for identity forces a necessary confrontation with the (impact of) social identities (and, their histories) haunting our fields of study. These complex categorical specters make it nearly impossible to untether the categories of identity that we come to study from the identity of categories shaping our methodological lenses. Treating method as an identity-revealing technique of distance-making between the proper scholar and the less-than-scholarly advocate for rTrade ReviewThe study of religion needs this book. With an eye toward institutional decolonization and conversational revitalization, Driscoll and Miller ask us to reflect on the lies we tell when we talk about proper discipline and right method. Departments of religious studies should read this book and ask themselves what they can do to forge better interpretive futures from the bad normative assumptions of our academic past. -- Kathryn Lofton, Yale UniversitySome scholars of religion object when religious identities are brought into the academy. They hold that academic work requires a method that maintains a distance from the people one studies. In this incisive book, Christopher Driscoll and Monica Miller push back against this narrative. Rejecting the claim that there is a method free of identity politics, and rejecting the ideology whereby a European, “white” world became modern by painting others as anti-modern, tribal, and religious, Driscoll and Miller offer a very welcome interrogation of those approaches that call themselves the critical study of religion. -- Kevin Schilbrack, Appalachian State UniversityMiller and Driscoll offer a brilliant and dialogical engagement with leading scholars argue that theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of religion in which they argue that by the very idea of location implies that the scholar of religion cannot ignore identity as an as an important theoretical tool because it embraces and has broad implications for culture, race, gender, class, and ethnicity. In arguing that identity, especially race constitutes a critical analytical tool they rightly call on scholars of religion to develop a critical posture towards race as one of the many social realities in developing a critical understanding of religion because whether intended or not, behind many disinterested approaches lurk the overriding notion of identity which if not checked through critical inquiry, colors the study of religion and deprives methods and theory of providing critical tools to an understanding of the very concrete personal and social dynamics of identity that animate the study (and one might add) the practice of religion. -- Elias Kifon Bongmba, Harry and Hazel Chair in Christian Theology, Rice UniversityThe authors argue that theory-and-method in the study of religion is no more sui generis than its object. Method is shot through with values and interests rooted in the identities of white male scholars from colonizing societies. Method indexes identity. Method is at the cutting edge of distinguishing analyst from data, civilized from primitive, and European “Man” from the rest. Method as Identity is an incisive interrogation of the study of religion that demonstrates how an uninterrogated whiteness haunts every move we make. -- William David Hart, Macalester CollegeMiller and Driscoll have produced a creative and provocative exploration of identity formation as it plays out in the lives of scholars. Their skillful application critical race theory to a discussion of how our methodological stances signal far more than disinterested analytical frameworks for the advancement of an abstract notion of un-situated knowledge represents an important challenge to any thoughtful scholar. This book will leave many readers uncomfortable, which signals it has something of value to offer. -- Craig R. Prentiss, Rockhurst University, author of Staging Faith: Religion and African American Theater from the Harlem Renaissance to World War IIChristopher Driscoll and Monica Miller challenge the authorizing discourses in the field of Religious Studies that deem “proper” method as being free from socially anchored interests or demands. Method as Identity disrupts disciplinary assumptions about identity-based research and will inspire renewed debate about the formation of our methodological presuppositions. With exuberant style, penetrating criticisms, and generative arguments Driscoll and Miller show the key role of identity in producing scholarship. This strikingly original and provocative reassessment of the field is a pioneering and convincing effort. Driscoll and Miller continue to rise up as indispensable voices in the study of religion. Method as Identity is essential for anyone interested in the past, present, or future of Religious Studies. -- Kristian Petersen, Old Dominion UniversityFor years I’ve been asking myself why scholars using critical, cog sci, or Foucauldian approaches to the study of religion are predominantly white. In this provocative manifesto, Miller and Driscoll begin to offer an answer. Throughout the nineteenth century, the study of religion consisted of white European men making objects of “primitive savages,” thereby establishing distance between the authoritative “science” of religion and foolish, misguided brown peoples all over the globe. Miller and Driscoll suggest that the rhetorical distancing of non-confessional from confessional approaches—the latter often including people of color in the discipline—perhaps serves an analogous rhetorical purpose: to buttress the privilege of white, Euro-American “scientific” approaches over that of others. Turning a “critical” eye back on “critical” approaches themselves, Method as Identity asks crucial questions we, as scholars, are obliged to offer an answer. -- Craig Martin, St. Thomas Aquinas CollegeTable of ContentsIntroduction: Manufacturing Distance in the Study of Religion 1. Method as Identity: The Battle for Identity in the North American Academic Study of Religion 2. Ghost Stories: How Method Reveals Identity in the Study of Religions 3. Long Division: How Identity Reveals Method in the History of Religions 4. What Is “Black” about “Black” Religious Studies?: Distinction and Diaspora in the Maintenance of a Field 5. What Identity Is Your Method?: Tracing Co-Constitution in the Twilight of (White) Normativity 6. Categorical Miscegenation: Strange Bitter Fruit and Uncertain Branches in the Field 7. N-Words and M-Words: Switching Codes, Shifting Realities, and Trading Metaphors of Authority Conclusion: Ghostbusters & Paranoiacs

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Book SynopsisMethod as Identity: Manufacturing Distance in the Academic Study of Religion emphasizes the inexorable influence that social identities exert in shaping methodological choices within the academic study of religion, as witnessed in sui generis appeals to particularity and reliance on (or rejection of) identity-based standpoints. Can data speak back, and if so, would scholars have ears to listen? With a refreshing hip hop sensibility, Miller and Driscoll argue that what cultural theorist Jean-François Bayart refers to as a battle for identity forces a necessary confrontation with the (impact of) social identities (and, their histories) haunting our fields of study. These complex categorical specters make it nearly impossible to untether the categories of identity that we come to study from the identity of categories shaping our methodological lenses. Treating method as an identity-revealing technique of distance-making between the proper scholar and the less-than-scholarly advocate for rTrade ReviewThe study of religion needs this book. With an eye toward institutional decolonization and conversational revitalization, Driscoll and Miller ask us to reflect on the lies we tell when we talk about proper discipline and right method. Departments of religious studies should read this book and ask themselves what they can do to forge better interpretive futures from the bad normative assumptions of our academic past. -- Kathryn Lofton, Yale UniversitySome scholars of religion object when religious identities are brought into the academy. They hold that academic work requires a method that maintains a distance from the people one studies. In this incisive book, Christopher Driscoll and Monica Miller push back against this narrative. Rejecting the claim that there is a method free of identity politics, and rejecting the ideology whereby a European, 'white' world became modern by painting others as anti-modern, tribal, and religious, Driscoll and Miller offer a very welcome interrogation of those approaches that call themselves the critical study of religion. -- Kevin Schilbrack, Appalachian State UniversityMiller and Driscoll offer a brilliant and dialogical engagement with leading scholars argue that theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of religion in which they argue that by the very idea of location implies that the scholar of religion cannot ignore identity as an as an important theoretical tool because it embraces and has broad implications for culture, race, gender, class, and ethnicity. In arguing that identity, especially race constitutes a critical analytical tool they rightly call on scholars of religion to develop a critical posture towards race as one of the many social realities in developing a critical understanding of religion because whether intended or not, behind many disinterested approaches lurk the overriding notion of identity which if not checked through critical inquiry, colors the study of religion and deprives methods and theory of providing critical tools to an understanding of the very concrete personal and social dynamics of identity that animate the study (and one might add) the practice of religion. -- Elias Kifon Bongmba, Harry and Hazel Chair in Christian Theology, Rice UniversityThe authors argue that theory-and-method in the study of religion is no more sui generis than its object. Method is shot through with values and interests rooted in the identities of white male scholars from colonizing societies. Method indexes identity. Method is at the cutting edge of distinguishing analyst from data, civilized from primitive, and European “Man” from the rest. Method as Identity is an incisive interrogation of the study of religion that demonstrates how an uninterrogated whiteness haunts every move we make. -- William David Hart, Macalester CollegeMiller and Driscoll have produced a creative and provocative exploration of identity formation as it plays out in the lives of scholars. Their skillful application critical race theory to a discussion of how our methodological stances signal far more than disinterested analytical frameworks for the advancement of an abstract notion of un-situated knowledge represents an important challenge to any thoughtful scholar. This book will leave many readers uncomfortable, which signals it has something of value to offer. -- Craig R. Prentiss, Rockhurst University, author of Staging Faith: Religion and African American Theater from the Harlem Renaissance to World War IIChristopher Driscoll and Monica Miller challenge the authorizing discourses in the field of Religious Studies that deem “proper” method as being free from socially anchored interests or demands. Method as Identity disrupts disciplinary assumptions about identity-based research and will inspire renewed debate about the formation of our methodological presuppositions. With exuberant style, penetrating criticisms, and generative arguments Driscoll and Miller show the key role of identity in producing scholarship. This strikingly original and provocative reassessment of the field is a pioneering and convincing effort. Driscoll and Miller continue to rise up as indispensable voices in the study of religion. Method as Identity is essential for anyone interested in the past, present, or future of Religious Studies. -- Kristian Petersen, Old Dominion UniversityFor years I’ve been asking myself why scholars using critical, cog sci, or Foucauldian approaches to the study of religion are predominantly white. In this provocative manifesto, Miller and Driscoll begin to offer an answer. Throughout the nineteenth century, the study of religion consisted of white European men making objects of “primitive savages,” thereby establishing distance between the authoritative “science” of religion and foolish, misguided brown peoples all over the globe. Miller and Driscoll suggest that the rhetorical distancing of non-confessional from confessional approaches—the latter often including people of color in the discipline—perhaps serves an analogous rhetorical purpose: to buttress the privilege of white, Euro-American “scientific” approaches over that of others. Turning a “critical” eye back on “critical” approaches themselves, Method as Identity asks crucial questions we, as scholars, are obliged to offer an answer. -- Craig Martin, St. Thomas Aquinas CollegeTable of ContentsIntroduction: Manufacturing Distance in the Study of Religion1.Method as Identity: The Battle for Identity in the North American Academic Study of Religion2.Ghost Stories: How Method Reveals Identity in the Study of Religions3.Long Division: How Identity Reveals Method in the History of Religions4.What Is “Black” about “Black” Religious Studies?: Distinction and Diaspora in the Maintenance of a Field5.What Identity Is Your Method?: Tracing Co-Constitution in the Twilight of (White) Normativity6.Categorical Miscegenation: Strange Bitter Fruit and Uncertain Branches in the Field7.N-Words and M-Words: Switching Codes, Shifting Realities, and Trading Metaphors of AuthorityConclusion: Ghostbusters & Paranoiacs

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Book SynopsisThis is a book about women in survival communities and the ways that survival and theology are used to shut down women''s voices. Mariam Youssef examines the ways in which the condition of survival puts religious women in a bind by embedding paradigms into theology that, more often than not, reinforce women''s subordination as a condition of survival. Women in survival communities are not only grappling with the existential threat that comes with their survival identities but also struggling to make their voices heard within their own communities where their needs are frequently put on the back burner. Survival communities often find themselves responding to their trauma in ways that prescribe strict patriarchal norms, promoting notions of gender binary and compulsory heterosexuality.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Chapter 1: Contextualizing Survival Chapter 2: The Promised Land: Gender and Black Liberation Theology Chapter 3: Continuity and the Hidden God: Gender and Jewish Holocaust Theology Chapter 4: The Church of the Martyrs and the Second Sex: Gender and Diasporic Coptic Theology Chapter 5: What Now? Present and Future Trajectories of Survival Bibliography About the Author

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Book SynopsisStudying the various movements among women in the Catholic Church in Asia, the author argues that the preexisting male-dominated church rooted in the colonial era is now being challenged to recentralize itself and exercises an inclusive and participatory ecclesiology in which women should become fuller members of the church and participate in the decision-making processes of the church. For only when the church in Asia discovers and recognizes the richness of women's potential, leadership, charisma, and vision, will it be able to witness to the Gospel values and fulfill its vision of mission in Asia. The author shows that Asian Catholic women have played and continue to play a crucial role in designing and carrying out multiple areas of the church's ministries that men failed to do. Furthermore, the author shows that through the interactions and dialogue with Asian bishops in recent decades, Asian Catholic women have gradually influenced the Asian bishops' consciousness of women's issuTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Women Reclaim Their Roles Chapter 2 Postcolonial Context of the Asian Church and the Rise of Women Chapter 3 Mission in Dialogue with Church Hierarchy Chapter 4 Women’s Vision of the Church Chapter 5 Women in Interreligious Dialogue Chapter 6 Asian Women and Future of the Church Conclusion Bibliography About the Author

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Book SynopsisIn Pure, Linda Kay Klein uses a potent combination of journalism, cultural commentary, and memoir to take us “inside religious purity culture as only one who grew up in it can” (Gloria Steinem) and reveals the devastating effects evangelical Christianity’s views on female sexuality has had on a generation of young women.In the 1990s, a “purity industry” emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girls—resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—and trapped them in a cycle of shame. This is the sex education Linda Kay Klein grew up with. Fearing being marked a JeTrade Review"Linda Kay Klein takes us inside religious purity culture as only one who grew up in it can. She shows us how the system of mind-and-body shaming works within a religious movement so culturally and politically influential that it must be understood by us all." —Gloria Steinem"Linda Kay Klein’s PURE is an important book for this moment in history, as women come to the collective understanding that the institutions we spend our lives serving are not created to serve us. Women are canaries in religious coal mines—and PURE emboldens us to escape toxic misogyny and experience a fresh breath of freedom." —Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of LOVE WARRIOR and founder of Together Rising"Klein’s book will get God up doing a standing ovation in creation for revealing that God’s message is to love all of ourselves—mind, body, and spirit. This is to embrace the gift of life and to live in freedom with integrity and joy. Any form of purity that does not celebrate this, does not celebrate God working in our lives." —Emilie M. Townes, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University Divinity School"More and more young adults are speaking openly about the harm done to them by churches that treated sex as if it were an illicit drug. When 'Just say no' was their only message, and when the language of purity was their main ethical category, deep and lasting personal damage were inevitable. That's why Linda Kay Klein's new book is so important. It pulls back the covers on 'purity culture' and the harm it has done to a whole generation. An important book from an important new voice." —Brian D. McLaren, author of The Great Spiritual Migration"Linda Kay Klein’s book about the devastating effects of Christianity’s obsession with purity culture is a revelation... Part memoir and part journalism, Pure is a horrendous, granular, relentless, emotionally true account." * The Cut *“A potent account of purity culture that deserves our attention.” * Library Journal, starred review *“A young woman raised as a conservative Evangelical Christian reflects on her community's sexual shaming and the psychological scars that it left… Klein's personal story is fascinating, but it is the larger context that makes the book important… Timely and relevant, particularly in the age of Trump and #MeToo.” * Kirkus Reviews *“Klein explores how purity culture within evangelical Christianity causes girls and young women to feel shame about sex and sexuality… will surely cause debate within evangelical circles.” * Publishers Weekly *"Eye-opening....compelling....For those who seek spiritual community without gender bias, Klein offers empathy and new choices." * BookPage *"Pure is above all for those who came out of the purity movement ---a guidebook for survivors...its final message is healing through the movements that have arisen to combat purity culture." * Women's Review of Books *"She combines memoir with survivor interviews and research on shame, sexuality, and religion to effectively argue that the evangelical sexual purity movement has done lasting harm to many of the women who embraced its message as teens in the ‘90s and early 2000s." * Rewire.news *"Riveting and important... The relevance for this both inside and outside of the Christian community is immense, and this is a book that should stir intense thought about the way we all live." * Santa Barbara News-Press *"Klein’s jarring reporting is impossible to forget." * Bust.com *"Pure is a thorough and focused study on the effects of the purity movement’s rhetoric on women and girls, but Klein stresses that her findings aren’t relevant only to religious conservatives. Rather, they represent an extreme microcosm of a broader culture of gendered sexual shaming to which we should all be paying attention." * Vice Broadly *"Linda Kay Klein is the perfect woman for the job, with her personal experience with the subject matter, willingness to critically examine long-held beliefs, and deep empathy for her interview subjects. Every woman–in fact, every person, religious or not–would do well to read this heartbreaking but hopeful book." * Splash Magazine *“To those outside the church, Klein offers a well-researched insider’s point of view. To those affected by the purity movement, Klein offers a healing balm through personal testimony. To both she offers an invitation to further discourse as we seek to make our culture a safer place for all people.” * Chapter 16 *

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Book SynopsisSynopsis coming soon.......Trade Review"Our friend A. R. Bernard [has] unveiled what women really want from men! An eye-opening, practical must-read." -- Bishop and Mrs. Dale C. Bronner, Atlanta“The truths of this book… have the power to heal, transform, and revolutionize any relationship.” -- John and Lisa Carter, Syracuse NY"A.R. Bernard has been a major influence in our lives...[helping us reach] a higher level in our relationship and spiritual growth." -- Denzel and Pauletta Washington

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Meet this year's breakout voice in self-help books... Believe Bigger is something special." * Essence *“Reminds readers that God calls us not just to live, but to thrive. Your most inspiring girlfriend in book form.” * Booklist *"Believe Bigger is a refreshing source of mind renewal mixed with a blueprint for fulfilling your life purpose. You'll learn how to release the past, believe again in your dreams, and be motivated to start living them out loud." -- Michelle Williams, Grammy Award Winning Member of Destiny's Child"Marshawn is a powerhouse! Believe Bigger cuts a trail for others to follow so they can live a life soaked in divine significance." -- Lisa Bevere, New York Times Bestselling Author"Marshawn tells a very compelling personal story of betrayal, heartbreak, and - in the end - healing. Every person, especially women, dealing with issues of trust, betrayal, and emotional adversity must read this book." -- Faith Jenkins, TV Personality + Host of Judge Faith"Believe Bigger inspires you to increase your faith while providing a bonafide roadmap for discovering your calling and living the life you were truly destined for." -- Valorie Burton, bestselling author of Successful Women Think Differently"Believe Bigger will empower you to stretch beyond self-sabotaging limitations and to become your God intended best. A great guide to making seemingly impossible dreams a reality." -- Michelle McKinney Hammond, bestselling author"Marshawn is a leaders' leader who has mastered how to empower women to BE more, DO more, and MAKE more." -- Sheri Riley, Celebrity Life Strategist, Award-winning Author"Captivating and honest - Marshawn has literally written the blueprint for turning your personal pain into power. Walking into one's purpose is no easy feat without first aligning with spirit and believing in a higher purpose for your life. With this reflective guide, you will begin to believe in your personal power, embrace the responsibility of your higher calling, and unlock your greatest potential." -- Egypt Sherrod, HGTV Host, Entrepreneur & Motivational Speaker "Marshawn’s vulnerability along with her five stages of divine reinvention show how to reap resilient roses on the thorny path of life." -- Pat Smith, Minister, Author, Co-Founder, Pat and Emmitt Smith Charities"Marshawn's life story embodies the messages she is stewarding to believe God. In spite of heart-breaking, soul-crushing defeats she rises with God's power to fulfill her destiny." -- Kat Armstrong, Founder, Polished

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Book SynopsisBabaylan Sing Back depicts the embodied voices of Native Philippine ritual specialists popularly known as babaylan. These ritual specialists are widely believed to have perished during colonial times, or to survive on the margins in the present-day. They are either persecuted as witches and purveyors of superstition, or valorized as symbols of gender equality and anticolonial resistance. Drawing on fieldwork in the Philippines and in the Philippine diaspora, Grace Nono''s deep engagement with the song and speech of a number of living ritual specialists demonstrates Native historical agency in the 500th year anniversary of the contact between the people of the Philippine Islands and the European colonizers.Trade ReviewGrace Nono offers rich theoretical and empirical material to all those interested in Philippine babaylan, ritual healing, and Southeast Asian shamanism in general. * PACIFIC AFFAIRS *Babaylan Sing Back synthesizes Nono's work over the past several decades and the result is a fascinating in-depth analysis of ritual oral traditions of "invisible" shamans. Her familiarity with many of the ritual specialists who appear in the book and meticulous research she has conducted over the decades provides a rich level of detail that adds to the reader's experience and understanding. * Bangkok Post *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Who Sings? A Baylan's Embodied Voice and its Relations 2. Shifting Voices and Malleable Bodies 3. Song Travels: Mumbaki Mobility and the Relationality of Place

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