Description
Book SynopsisHow do religion, gender and sexuality interact? How have they impacted, and continue to impact, human culture?
The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion, Sexuality and Gender brings together, for the first time, the key texts in the field. Designed as a textbook for use in a classroom setting, it offers thought-provoking selections of some of the most compelling and timely readings available today.The Reader is divided into three parts (bodies; desires; performances). Each considers, from a thematic perspective, the ways in which people have made sense of their religious and sexual experiences, the ways they imagine and talk about gender, sex and the sacred, and the multiple meanings they ascribe to them. Traditions represented include indigenous spiritualities, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Asian traditions and new religious movements. Some readings are more theoretical or historical in nature, thereby providing wide-ranging contexts for reflection and discussion. The reader incl
Trade ReviewBringing together a wide-ranging collection of readings from feminist, gender, and queer studies, this volume is a useful sourcebook for those wishing an initial introduction to historical and contemporary conversations in these key areas within the study of religion. * Melissa M. Wilcox, Associate Professor of Religion and Gender Studies, Whitman College, USA *
The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion, Sexuality, and Gender provides a provocative, thematically rich, and theoretically sophisticated collection of essays for college and university courses dealing with the attitudes of different religious traditions toward sexuality and gender. The reader is divided into three parts: the first on “Bodies” and the ambivalent ways in which they have been and are viewed; the second on “Desires” and how they are expressed, repressed, and normalized in religious discourse; and the third on “Performances,” which underscores the performative nature of gender and its inherent instability. The essays included in the reader are all “classics” in this relatively new field of scholarship. In order to help readers engage and evaluate the various essays a series of questions has been appended to each part and a glossary of terms and concepts appears at the end.
The Boomsbury Reader fills an important gap in the literature available for introductory courses on the intersection between religion and gender studies. It should have a wide appeal across the disciplines. * Allison P. Coudert, Paul and Marie Castelfranco Chair in the Study of Religion, University of California at Davis, USA *
This volume does not only present a careful selection of seminal (to use a word with a sexual undertone) readings into the rich and dynamic field of religion, sexuality and gender, but it also does an excellent job in introducing these readings. The introductions to the book as a whole, the main sections, and the individual texts are extremely helpful in providing context and orientating the reader to some of the broader questions and relevant issues. Covering a wide range of religious traditions, historical periods and geographical regions, this volume is a great resource for students in undergraduate courses in religion, sexuality and gender. * Adriaan van Klinken, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Leeds, UK *
Table of ContentsPermissions Acknowledgements Introduction to the Volume
Part I: Bodies 1. Introduction 2. Stereotypes, False Images, Terrorism: The White Assault upon Black Sexuality. (
Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective)
Kelly Brown Douglas 3. Sin (
Seeking the Straight and Narrow: Weight Loss and Sexual Reorientation in Evangelical America)
Lynne Gerber 4. Blood, Sweat, and Urine: The Scent of Feminine Fluids in Anton Szandor LaVey’s
The S
atanic Witch.(
International Journal for the Study of New Religious Movements)
Cimminnee Holt 5. Sex (
Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism)
Janet Gyatso 6. The Ultimate Man (
A Bull of a Man: Images of Masculinity, Sex, and the Body in Indian Buddhism)
John Powers 7.
Mitzvot Built into the Body:
Tkhines for
Niddah, Pregnancy and Childbirth. (
People of the Body: Jews and Judaism from an Embodied Perspective)
Chava Weissler 8. Gendering the Ungendered Body: Hermaphrodites in Medieval Islamic Law. (
Women in Middle Eastern History)
Paula Sanders 9. "Mildred, Is It Fun to Be a Cripple?" The Culture of Suffering in Mid-Twentieth Century American Catholicism.” (
Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them)
Robert Orsi 10. Discussion Questions
Part 2: Desires 1. Introduction 2. Introduction: Axiomatic (
Epistemology of the Closet)
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick 3. Scientia Sexualis (
The History of Sexuality: An Introduction: Volume I)
Michel Foucault 4. Law and Desire in the Talmud (
Eros and the Jews)
David Biale 5. Tongues Untied: Memoirs of a Pentecostal Boyhood.” (
Que(e)rying Religion: A Critical Anthology)
Michael Warner 6. Sexual Desire, Divine Desire; Or, Queering the Beguines (
Toward a Theology of Eros: Transfiguring Passion at the Limits of Discipline) Amy Hollywood 7. Kukai and the Tradition of Male Love in Japanese Buddhism (
Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender)
Paul Gordon Schalow 8. The Passions of St. Pelagius (
The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology)
Mark Jordan 9. Masturbation, Salvation, and Desire: Sexuality and Religiosity in Colonial Mexico (
Journal of the History of Sexuality)
Zeb Tortorici 10. Discussion Questions
Part 3: Performances 1. Introduction 2. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
Judith Butler 3. Witches, Female Priests, and Sacred Manoeuvres: (De)stabilizing Gender and Sexuality in a Cuban Religion of African Origin. (
Gender and History)
Carolyn Watson 4. Mama Lola and the Ezilis: Themes of Mothering and Love in Haitian Vodou (
Unspoken Words: Women’s Religious Lives)
Karen McCarthy Brown 5. (Per)formative Selves: The Production of Gender.” (
With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India)
Gayatri Reddy 6. Toward a Queer Theology of Flourishing: Transsexual Embodiment, Subjectivity, and Moral Agency (
Queer Religion: LGBT Movements and Queering Religion)
Jakob Hero 7. Intimacy Surveiled: Religion, Sex, and Secular Cunning (
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society)
Mayanthi Fernando 8. Release from Bondage: Sex, Suffering, and Sanctity (
The Sacred Encounter: Jewish Perspectives on Sexuality)
Daniel Lehrman 9. “Nakedness, Non-Violence, and Brahmacharya: Gandhi’s Experiments in Celibate Sexuality.” (
Journal of the History of Sexuality)
Vinay Lal 10. Discussion Questions Glossary Index
