Women in World Religions

Edited by Arvind Sharma
Introduction by Katherine K. Young

Subjects: Religion
Series: SUNY series, McGill Studies in the History of Religions, A Series Devoted to International Scholarship
Paperback : 9780887063756, 320 pages, April 1987
Hardcover : 9780887063749, 320 pages, April 1987

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Table of contents

Preface

Introduction
Katherine K. Young

Tribal Religions: Aboriginal Australia
Rita M. Gross

Hinduism
Katherine K. Young

Buddhism
Nancy Schuster Barnes

Confucianism
Theresa Kelleher

Taosim
Barbara Reed

Judaism
Denise L. Carmody

Christianity
Rosemary R. Ruether

Islam
Jane I. Smith

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Description

This is a book by women about women in the religions of the world. It presents all the basic facts and ideological issues concerning the position of women in the major religious traditions of humanity: Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, and tribal religions.

A special feature of the book is its phenomenological approach, wherein scholars examine sacred textual materials. Each contributor not only studies her religion from within, but also studies it from her own feminine perspective. Each is an adept historian of religions, who grounds her analysis in publicly verifiable facts. The book strikes a delicate balance between hard fact and delicate perception, the best tradition of phenomenology and the history of religions. It also demonstrates how much religions may vary over time.

Contributors are Katherine K. Young, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at McGill University; Nancy Schuster Barnes, whose Ph. D. is in Sanskrit and Indian Studies; M. Theresa Kelleher, Assistant Professor of Religion and Asian Studies at Manhattanville College; Barbara Reed, Assistant Professor of Religion at St. Olaf College; Denise L. Carmody, Professor and Chair, Department of Religion, The University of Tulsa. Also Jane I. Smith, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Harvard Divinity School; Rosemary Radford Ruether, Georgia Harkness Professor of Applied Theology at the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary; Rita M. Gross, Associate Professor of Comparative Religions at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Clair.

Arvind Sharma is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.