Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 288 pages
- Published by: Basic Books; New edition edition January 7, 2003
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0813365910
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0813365916
-
Book Dimensions:
9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
- Weighs: 1.2 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
This collection of essays is worthwhile in concept. Eight experts with solid scholarly credentials examine the roles played by women in world religions, adding a first-person perspective from their own religious experiences to their essays about women's historically underappreciated and underdocumented participation in religions. This fine idea is, however, unevenly executed, producing essays of mixed quality that suffer from either narrow focus on material from a tradition or underexplained references to a tradition's complex pantheon, teachings or history. Rita Gross's essay on women in Buddhism most successfully mixes discussion of canon, religious teachings, historical practice and contemporary issues. By contrast, Riffat Hassan's essay on women and Islam, with limited scholarly citation and argument about the meaning of pivotal but nonetheless highly selected Qur'anic passages, does not do justice to the vast history of participation by women in this major world religion. Wendy Griffin's piece on goddess spirituality is the most seriously flawed. Its unquantified assertions ("More covens formed"; "More and more women came") about the growth of a minority movement mostly in the past thirty years do not add up to proof of impact on, and reflection of, women's lived experience-96 footnotes notwithstanding. An essay on new religious movements-including modern goddess spirituality-or world indigenous religions would have offered a more capacious and scholarly framework for documenting women's religious practices, beliefs and leadership across the boundaries of time and culture.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* This set of frank and searching essays on wicca, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is impressive for the depth of its historical material and the breadth of its humanistic vision. Women constitute the majority of participants in religions, very often making up the major portion of congregations, though they are usually barred from ministry or sanctity. So what sources of strength and inspiration do women find in the world religions? The answers here are sometimes surprising, as when Vasudha Narayanan explores Hindu beliefs about the home and sexuality and finds that women's lives constitute a core spiritual metaphor. In an impressive feat of scholarship, Riffat Hassan finds Islamic practice at odds with the Qu'ran's teachings on gender equality and fearlessly points out that Islamization is almost invariably based on noncanonical repression of women. This fine collection of learned yet accessible writings should be in virtually every library.
Patricia MonaghanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Search for books at
