Religion is often denounced as one of the tools used by patriarchal societies to maintain the status quo, and especially to persuade women to accept subordinate roles. This does not explain, however, the existence of many religious groups in which women are both leaders and the majority of participants. How are these women's religions different from those dominated by men? What can we learn from them about the special ways in which women experience their unique reality? In this fascinating and pathbreaking work--the first comparative study of women's religions--Susan Starr Sered seeks answers to these compelling questions. Looking for common threads linking groups as diverse as the ancestral cults of the Black Caribs of Belize, Korean shamanism, Christian Science, and the Feminist Spirituality movement, Sered finds that motherhood and motherly concerns play a vital role in these female-dominated groups. Nurturing and concern for others are at the center, as are healing arts and ways of dealing with illness and the death of children. Religion not only enables women to find sacred meaning in their daily lives, from the preparation of food to caring for their families, but an offer intense and personal relationships with deities and spirits--often through ecstatic possession trance--as well as opportunities to celebrate and mourn with other women. By examining the shared experiences of women across great cultural divides, Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister offers a new understanding of the role gender plays in determining how individuals grapple with the ultimate questions of existence. In the process, it not only highlights the profound differences between men and women, but the equally important ways in which we are all alike.

In this fascinating and path-breaking work--comparing 12 women's religions--Sered investigates how women's religions differ from those dominated by men. She then reveals how these religions relate to the special ways women around the world experience reality. 19 halftones.

This text examines the critical impact of the social rather than the biological aspects of motherhood on women's religions. Women's social roles as nurturers, healers, primary childcare providers, and emotional supporters are celebrated in women's religions more so than in traditional religions.

The handbook offers interreligious and multicultural perspectives on women’s studies in religion in conversation with specific contextualized gender-biased justice challenges. Contributing authors address 25 current and trending themes from their diverse socio-cultural-religious backgrounds. Themes move across the spectrum of women’s studies in religion, blurring the boundaries beyond “religious studies” to include perspectives from ethics, philosophy, sociology, economics, and law as. Religious diversity addresses challenges for women’s studies through the lens of Wicca, Buddhist, Asian Trans Pacific, Hinduism, Judaism, Muslima, and Christian. The handbook is practical, contemporary, and relevant as it moves theory to practical application in the section on challenging and changing system gender injustice with chapters on sexual violence and the #MeToo movement, femicide and feminicide, a Mohawk response to colonial dominion and violations to Indigenous lands and women, and a religio-politico witness for love and justice, include how to engage the theories of women’s studies in religion in the public square through civic engagement to create empowerment for actual, practical change. It shows the future movement of the becoming of women’s studies with chapters digital activism, reimagining women’s mosque spaces online, minoritized sexual identities, and spiritual homelessness, and charges readers to see “hope now” by challenging and changing gender injustice.

Leading specialists in theology, anthropology, religious studies and history elucidate the modern debate about sacrifice from interest shown in the sixteenth century through to the present day. Individual chapters discuss anthropological theories, theological controversies, philosophical interpretations, and literary uses of sacrifice.

This study sets out to explain and understand the worldview of students at Female madrasas (FeM) in Pakistan. Beginning as an indigenous informal institute for female education at home, FeM has evolved to country-wide formal theological seminaries that award women graduate degrees in Islamic studies. Since the 1970s, state intervention and social engagement have influenced not only the structure of FeMs but their locations. Attendance is from all socio-economic strata of society. A recent development, especially in urban centers, is the teaching of the state curriculum to enable young students to access mainstream education. Public opinion is divided about the role of FeMs in society. Some believe that FeMs confine women into the domestic realm; others view FeMs as a move forward into modernity, as they educate the least educated sectors of society. The author uses the lens of language and gender to explore why such divergent views exist about FeMs. Specifically, language and vocabulary has served as a powerful factor for restricting women to their traditional roles. Madrasas have a profound effect on Pakistani society at large, as they respond to the immediate socio-political and economic needs of the community. In the last two decades many books were produced about male madrasas in Pakistan. However, one focusing on women's madrasas exclusively was needed, because currently the number of female students enrolled in madrasas is higher than the male students. This unique book is rooted in the authors experience of studying at an FeM. She entered a madrasa with a yearning to be closer to God, to know the book revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, and to learn what he said and did. A constant throughout her studies was the recognition that acquiring knowledge is one of the highest acts of righteousness according to the Prophet Muhammad.

An introduction to the study of women in diverse religious cultures While women have made gains in equality over the past two centuries, equality for women in many religious traditions remains contested throughout the world. In the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints women are not ordained as priests. In areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan under Taliban occupation girls and women students and their teachers risk their lives to go to school. And in Sri Lanka, fully ordained Buddhist nuns are denied the government identity cards that recognize them as citizens. Is it possible to create families, societies, and religions in which women and men are equal? And if so, what are the factors that promote equality? Theory of Women in Religions offers an economic model to shed light on the forces that have impacted the respective statuses of women and men from the earliest developmental stages of society through the present day. Catherine Wessinger integrates data and theories from anthropology, archaeology, sociology, history, gender studies, and psychology into a concise history of religions introduction to the complex relationships between gender and religion. She argues that socio-economic factors that support specific gender roles, in conjunction with religious norms and ideals, have created a gendered division of labor that both directly and indirectly reinforces gender inequality. Yet she also highlights how as the socio-economic situation is changing religion is being utilized to support the transition toward women’s equality, noting the ways in which many religious representations of gender change over time.