Feminism and Religion

This paper theorises the teaching and learning of feminist approaches to the Bible and the Qurʾan in a Master’s course with a historically Christian focus. It draws on a critical review of an assessment task, and our pedagogical experiences as teachers, to consider how students made meaning within this decolonial pedagogical space, which explored feminist approaches to the two sacred texts. Our analysis shows, our work as teachers was to hold onto the tension in the space between two feminist approaches to sacred texts, and to not succumb to the pressure to release, trivialise or exacerbate that tension.

Female priests protested when Reverend Philip North was promoted to Diocesan Bishop. As a result of their protests Reverend North withdrew from the nomination. Here I explain why those in the Anglican Church who do not agree that women should be ordained are right.

The present paper is  an abridged version of a detailed research paper published by  Prof.Pankaj.K.Singh,the eminent feminist  from India in the book"Women's Studies in India:Contours of Change".

An important area of search in Women's Studies has been to explore and re_read woman's representation and her location in literary and cultural discourses.Myths and legends on one hand contribute to continuity of culture and on the other hand become instruments of control by encouraging conformity to accepted social Norms and discouraging deviance.In the Indian context,these narratives represent popular consciousness as folklore and manifest particular intellectual interventions at different points of time.The juxtaposition of legendary narrative with their recent reconstructions yields fascinating revelations in the form of rewriting traditions from woman's point of view  by female and even by male authors . Hindi texts recreating segments of Ramayana, Mahabharata and vedic hymns in two poems of Rashmi Bajaj_'Tumhari Likhi' and 'Mrityorma jeevanam Gamay' and Bhishan Sahni's "Mandavi"are  instances of relocating woman across genres,cultures and time.Re_rendering of  Punjabi legend Puran bhagat by Shiv Kumar in "Luna" also furnishes an example like Bhisham Sahni where the two male writers recreate myths and legends from a woman's point of view. However ,the field warrants much further intensive research .

This article seeks, in its first part, “to make sense” of what has been termed “feminist research in Judaic sciences" and proposes differentiating between four types of feminist research: critical feminist research, gendered feminist research, mediating feminist research, and research with a “feminist sensitivity.” In light of these distinctions, the article seeks to delineate the similarities and differences between feminist research in Rabbinics and feminist research in the literature pertaining to modern halakhah.
These distinctions are not just conceptual and are intended to be used as an analytical tool, an awareness of which could lead to new avenues of research. Therefore, the second part of the article demonstrates, through a case study of Orthodox legal reactions to male homosexuality, how gendered feminist research in the field of modern halakhah produces new knowledge regarding the manner in which masculine identities are constituted and what they entail. This knowledge will expand critical feminist research as well as research with feminist sensibility, adding dimensions of depth, over and above its intrinsic value in and of itself.

Apparently, it may seem that Hinduism is sincere towards upholding the dignity of women, as its various treatises and mythologies give us some suggestive accounts in this regard. However, behind such a projection, we can find out subtle tricks of socio-religious agencies which work for brahminical patriarchy. The non-mainstream or alternative religious practices like Tantra originated with an aim to challenge and subvert the patriarchal brahminical religious hegemony, and often provide gender equilibrium in the socio-religious space. Nevertheless, such forms were also not free from veiled patriarchal tropes and agendas. In today's society , the baul and faqir sects of Bengal, who formed a folk-oriented sahajiya-cult incorporating tantric practices and Sufi mysticism, are internationally regarded as the believers of a de-institutionalized free society with equal religious and social rights for men and women. However, the question is to what extent do women, who serve as the 'sadhan-sangini' (female partner in sexo-yogic religious practices) of the bauls, actually get equal rights, dignified position and true fulfilment in religious and social life. This article tries to re-explore Indian mythological, classical as well as folk socio-religious texts, treatises and traditions to find out the hidden framework of patriarchy. Keywords Religion and female sexuality · Manusmriti · Durga · Tantra · Baul · Faqir The history of civilization shows that, in the course of time, religion becomes a social (and often, national) agency of utmost power, encompassing various social institutions to utilize them for executing its own propaganda, or the propaganda of the dominating male constituency of that very society. Hinduism, not unlike

נכתב לגברים בידי גברים: מהפכנות וחדשנות פמיניסטית במקורות הקנוניים, מאת נפתלי רוטנברג
גרסאות:
גרסה עברית ראשונה: רבגוני, 2000 , עורכת רחל אליאור.
גרסה אנגלית ראשונה:
  English version: Naftali Rothenberg, “Written for Men by Men: Feminist Revolution and Innovation in the Canonical Sources” in: Rachel Elior, editor, Men and Women – Gender, Judaism and Democracy, Jerusalem & New York 2004: The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Urim Publication. See here in ACADEMIA
גרסה עברית שנייה בתוך: נפתלי רוטנברג, אילת אהבים, עיונים בחוכמת האהבה, ידיעות ספרים 2004
Published also in: Naftali Rothenberg, Wisdom of Love, Man Woman and God in Jewish Canonical Literature, Boston 2009: Academic Studies press.
מאמר זה עוסק בחדשנות ובמהפכנות הפמיניסטית במקורות הקנוניים במספר הקשרים:
א. כוונה לשינוי הנורמה החברתית בהקשר של מעמד האשה במשפחה: מסר מונוגמי לחברה בעלת תרבות פוליגמית.
ב. הגדרת דגם אידיאלי ליחסים בין בני הזוג: תפיסה הרמונית המושתתת על הדדיות ועל קשר רגשי, שכלי וגופני. הגישה הדיכוטומית הביאה לדמוניזציה של הנשים כפועלות בשירותו של היצר הרע בכך שבעצם נוכחותן הן מעוררות את תאוות הגברים. הגישה ההרמונית מחייבת את הקשר הגופני ואת ההנאה מיחסי המין במסגרת הנישואים, ועוד יתר על כן: מכירה בזכותה של האשה להנאה מיחסי-מין ומטילה על הגבר חובה, במצווה מיוחדת מן התורה, לקיים עמה יחסי מין לשם הנאה ולהבטיח את הנאתה של אשתו. גישה זו מהווה אם כן פתח לשינוי במעמד האשה וביחס של גברים כלפי נשים בכלל.
ג. הצגת הגבר כיצור-חצוי, בלתי-מושלם, שהשלמתו השכלית, המוסרית, הרוחנית, ובוודאי הגופנית, תלויה בבת זוגו ובקיום הרמוניה ביחסיהם ההדדיים. בחברה הגברית משול הדבר כאילו הגברים צמצמו מעט את הטריטוריה עליה הם שולטים ופינו מקום לנשים על ידם, באותו תחום טריטוריאלי-גברי.
ד. הכללת התופעה המגדרית, זכר ונקבה, באופן שווה במושג "צלם אלוהים" ומאוחר יותר באלוהות עצמה, ובנשמה הדו-מינית הנולדת ממנה, מהווה מתן לגיטימציה עליונה להדדיות ולהרמוניה בין המינים, ומשמשת בסיס אידיאולוגי ותיאולוגי איתן לשינוי במעמד האשה.

The achievement of gender equality, which includes the rights of women and sexual minorities, has been identified as a key development-related goal. The relationship between religion and the achievement of gender equality, which has been fraught in most parts of the worlds, is an area that has been underexplored in the research. This chapter will explore the relationship between religion and the rights of women and sexual minorities in South Asia, focusing particularly on India and Pakistan, where the involvement of Hindu and Muslim conservative groups in politics has consistently acted as a hindrance to the achievement of gender equality. It traces the relationship women’s movements in both countries have had with religion, highlighting the main sources of contention between women’s rights activists and religious groups. It also explores the intersection between the rights of sexual minorities, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities, and religion. Research in India and Pakistan reveals important parallels between both countries where movements for gender equality face serious challenges as a result of the increasing involvement of religious conservative groups in politics. The research also finds that in both contexts, activists working for gender equality have largely found that taking a secular, human-rights based approach is the most effective and inclusive means of achieving their goal.

Christianity teaches its followers about God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The deity is described as a father to his children and the world. In churches across America, the people are taught that there are no female aspects of the Divine. Thus, there is an overall lack of independent feminine presence in the teachings of the biblical texts. That is not to say that there are no female characters in the Bible; there are many named women in the books. Still, these women are rarely discussed as central characters, and instead, they are referenced in context with their male family members or husbands. This male-centered reading of the Bible makes it the perfect instrument of patriarchy. It becomes a sacred text and guide which has ignored or downplayed the very existence of women. However, Biblical scholars know that there are independent women in the Bible and that some of these women are what we identify as demigods.

Overall, this book is indispensable for anyone wanting to have a richer understanding of how the Qur’an is read and interpreted within a feminist context. It is a wonderful synthesis of the work that has been done in the field thus far and provides tools necessary to seek out new avenues in understanding the Qur’an while still retaining a feminist spirit. Yet, in the end, this book does not disturb Muslim world order. It remains an overwhelming possibility for Hidayatullah that interpretations which hierarchally differentiate between men and women may not be wrong. There is a comforting sense of resignation, or at least an affirmation of the ambivalence that Muslim mothers have transmitted to their daughters for centuries. We, feminist Muslims, are left with the same ambiguity with which we started the book.  However, we now have a much deeper understanding of the nature of that ambiguity, and that perhaps is worth embracing in itself.

... it represents
an important issue I come up against regularly as someone
who takes both gender and religion as areas of critical academic
study and activism. In this case, even as the organisers worked
within a feminist politics, they had not been able to manage the
masculine representation of the divine at a march designed for
women-identifying and gender non-conforming individuals. This
is one way in which gender work responds to religion: namely, to
add women and stir so that in this case a female cleric offered us an
unreconstructed male God. Feminist work more often, though, finds
it easier to ignore or simply dismiss religion, preferring instead a
secular orientation. Despite the increasing feminist readings of
religion, the broader feminist and women’s movement frequently
overlooks religion or excludes it. The result is often an uncritical
or unwitting inclusion and acceptance of a male-gendered divinity.
While we had deliberately and intentionally asked men to stay away
from the march, we had not found a way to make similar deliberate
and intentional demands to exclude a male God; as a result, we
had not thought to include an idea of divinity in a way that spoke
directly to the concerns of women marching against domestic
violence.

Naftali Rothenberg, “Written for Men by Men: Feminist Revolution and Innovation
in the Canonical Sources” in: Rachel Elior, editor, Men and Women – Gender, Judaism and Democracy, Jerusalem & New York 2004: The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Urim Publication.
Feminist innovation and revolution in the canonical sources appear in a number of contexts:
Intention to change the social norm with regard to the status of women in the family: A message of monogamy to a polygamous culture.  This message appears as a central motif throughout the Bible, and is given practical emphasis in the words of the Talmud and the personal history of many of the talmudic sages.
• Defining an ideal paradigm for love relationships between men and women: A harmonious approach based on reciprocity and emotional, intellectual and physical attachment.  The dichotomous approach has demonised woman as instruments of evil, who by their very presence arouse desire in men. The harmonious approach requires a physical relationship and pleasure from sex within the framework of marriage, and moreover, recognises a woman's right to enjoy sex, and imposes the duty upon the man, in a special precept, to have sex with her for the sake of pleasure.  This approach thus constitutes a gateway to change in the status of women and in men's attitudes toward women in general.                         
• Presenting man as a divided, incomplete creature, whose intellectual, moral, spiritual and physical wholeness and perfection depends upon his female partner and the harmony in their reciprocal relationship.  In terms of male society, it is as if the men had ceded control over part of their territory, making room for women.
• Including the gender phenomenon, male and female, in an equal fashion in the concept of "God's image", and later, in divinity itself, affords supreme legitimacy to harmony and reciprocity between the sexes, and serves as a solid ideological and theological basis for change in the status of women.
Without delving into the specific motives behind such innovation in the writings of male authors throughout the generations, I believe that at the heart of their work lies a moral conviction that refused to accept the social and cultural norm, compelling them to lay the foundation for change.

Since the foundation of Mormonism, popular perception of gender and sexuality has radically changed, but church doctrine on gender hasn't. This paper examines those changes and the church's proactive actions to maintain a gendered culture. It asks (but doesn't answer) whether the church can continue to provide emotional support and hope for current members, and continue to attract new members, in a post-gender society.

This paper is written from a sociological, feminist perspective. It analyzes the gendered cosmology of Mormon doctrine and the historical importance placed on the family. It examines how the church's commitment to traditional gender roles has influenced (and been influenced by) secular American society-- including political influence in the Equal Rights Amendment and Proposition 8. This paper finally addresses the impacts these gender roles have on the mental health of Latter Day Saint women, particularly those who identify as LGBT.

La teología feminista se puede considerar como una de las metodologías de la teología española actual, pues ha realizado un recorrido histórico y eclesial muy significativo. Se ha ido configurando, desde el concilio Vaticano II, como un modelo comunitario e inductivo de hacer teología, desde una mirada solidaria con las mujeres. Su propuestas y transformaciones en el ámbito teológico y eclesial permite una mirada más amplia de los supuestos teológicos porque tiene en cuenta a las mujeres y otros colectivos invisibles. Su trabajo favorece abrir vías de exploración nuevas y creativas contando con la experiencia religiosa de las personas. En este artículo, analizaremos aquellos acontecimientos que han permitido el surgimiento de la teología feminista en España. Definiremos cuáles son las bases de la teología feminista y cuáles son las prácticas feministas que favorecen el quehacer teológico para hacerlo más vivo y creativo. Por último, nombraremos aquellas tareas que la teología feminista española tiene pendiente y está comenzando a realizar, contribuyendo a una praxis teológica más equilibrada, audaz y dialogante de la Iglesia.

Feminist theology can be considered as one of the methodologies of current Spanish theology, since it has had a very significant historical and ecclesial journey. It has been configured, since the Vatican II Council, as a community and inductive model of doing theology, from a view of solidarity with women. His proposals and transformations in the theological and ecclesial field allow a broader view of the theological assumptions because they take into account women and other invisible groups. Its favorable work to open new and creative ways of exploration counting on the religious experience of people. In this article, we will analyze some events that have allowed the emergence of feminist theology in Spain. We will define that the bases of feminist theology and the feminist practices that favor the theological work to make it more alive and creative. Finally, there are pending tasks that Spanish feminist theology has pending and is beginning to realize, contributing to a more balanced, audacious and dialogical theological praxis of the Church.

Gender is at the heart of religion and politics, yet marginalized within religion and politics as separate academic fields as well as within studies that bring these two fields together. Indeed, gender is rarely mentioned in major books on religion and politics (see, for instance, the Routledge series ‘Studies in Religion and Politics’ and the Palgrave Macmillan series ‘Culture and Religion in International Relations’). The field of religion and politics thus mirrors other fields of study when it comes to the relative marginalization of gender. When gender is examined, it is via studies that focus explicitly and often exclusively on the role of gender in religion and politics, such as the edited volume by Bayes and Tohidi, which analyzes ‘the politics of women’s rights in Catholic and Muslim contexts’,  along with more recent edited volumes by Cady and Fessenden  and Reilly and Scriver  which both address the religion-secularism-gender equality nexus in different contexts. Other works, including those by Scott,  and Rosenberger and Sauer,  discuss a single topic such as the politicization of the Muslim headscarf.

New and shifting configurations of gender, religion and politics require us to examine how nation states as well as international and global governance structures (e.g., the European Union; the Organization of Islamic Cooperation; the United Nations) deal with gender equality issues that are highly contested (e.g., abortion, contraception, divorce, prostitution, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, honor killings); how national, international and global government institutions relate to religious stakeholders and actors (e.g., the Catholic Church); how faith-based and secular voluntary organizations mobilize in relation to gender equality issues; how religious communities deal with gender equality and women’s rights issues, and how religious women and men perform and negotiate gender relations in their everyday lives. Highlighting the stable and shifting relationships between religion, politics and gender, this chapter focuses on the relationship between religion, politics and gender at global, national and local levels.

From a feminist point of view, politics is not simply about states, governance and the electorate, but also about communities, civil society groups, families and intimate aspects of individuals’ ‘lived citizenship’.  A feminist notion of politics points to the artificial and often imposed distinction between ‘the public’ and ‘the private’ spheres as untenable, as politics are intertwined with our everyday lives as economic, social, gendered, racial and ethnic, sexual and intimate, religious or secular citizens. Moreover, while status, rights and duties are central aspects of lived citizenship, so are our identities, our sense of belonging, our caring for each other, and our participation in a multitude of social contexts.  Politics intersect with gender and religion at all of these levels and also with other forms of difference and inequality such as class, ‘race’ and ethnicity, and sexuality. Women’s political activism that addresses inequalities, discrimination and marginalization is at times primarily based on the mobilization of gender, while at other times it is based on a mixed mobilization of gender together with ‘race’ and ethnicity, sexuality, or religion. Furthermore, gender-based political activism may be anti-religious, indifferent to religion, or pro-religion, while religiously based political activism may support conservative or progressive forms of gender relations. The following three sections of this chapter address the issues of religion, secularization and gender politics; multiculturalism, feminism and religion; and women and religious activism.

The main purpose of this article is to show that fivehundred years after Luther, the concept of gender bears the same power for reformation as Luther's theses did bevor. Through a discussion of the connection between the horrific cases of abuse in the catholic church and its anti-genderism it is pointed out, that, instead of using gender as a tool for preventing sexualized violence, catholic church attacks gender-studies as gender-ideology. In explaining the concept of gender in detail and by showing how power and sexuality is interwoven and hidden behind a veil of love mystic, it is made clear how the confrontation with gender would bring the necessary reform into the structures of the catholic church.

This article won the "Honorable Mention Award" of the Association for Women in Psychology for 2020.

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The article presents the feminist discourse on Lilith and asks why she has returned to the centre of activity and creation? It begins with Lilith’s Integrative Myth – a description of the classic Lilith myths – whilst trying to define her image’s central characteristics. Following, I offer one integrative myth: a complex essence that contains contrasts, and stems from a variety of sources, each contributing to the formation of Lilith’s story’s numerous aspects. Lilith’s Revival is discussed, surveying the different ways in which Lilith appears in today’s feminist spiritual discourse, while presenting some of the ways in which her story is re-interpreted and used towards contemporary feminist needs. A feminist Jungian outlook on Lilith’s Myths is included, deciphering Lilith as a symbol of the life-death-life cycle, which leads to a summary of the Jungian analysis’ implications.

My contribution to this roundtable addresses the space between Islam and feminism and ventures to imagine what might be “beyond” the text to illustrate how, at this interstice, the Qur’an may remain central to Muslim meaning making yet open to evolving understandings of justice. Caught under the weight of Margot Badran’s now well-rehearsed approach to Muslim women’s equality work under the label “Islamic feminism,” Asma Barlas finds her work so “inextricably linked” that in responding to her critics she finds herself also responding on behalf of Islamic feminism. For the feminists among her critics, Barlas argues, Islamic feminism is “a straw woman on which they cut their academic teeth but without taking it seriously” ($$).
Theorizing against the easy convergence of Islam and feminism as Islamic feminism I have argued instead for a tentative engagement that neither inflates nor conflates the distance between the two intellectual paradigms but maintains a productive tension that lends itself to translucence rather than transparence between feminism and its Muslim others.  In maintaining this critical space, I argue, we may avoid Islamic feminism as either a catchall solution or problem in Muslims women’s equality work.

The ordination of women as rabbis is a relatively new phenomenon in Jewish communities worldwide, but especially in the State of Israel. Israel’s non-Orthodox movements began to ordain women as rabbis only twenty years after the first woman rabbi was ordained in the United States. Today, women rabbis continue to confront deeply rooted cultural concepts and stereotypes while seeking to reshape the place of women in Judaism.In this article, I shall analyze and interpret Israeli women rabbis’ shared experiences as extracted from their life stories, using folklore research tools. Analyzing these stories using the narrative-package model revealed their commonalities with Vladimir Propp’s fairy-tale narrative structure.
The content of these narratives by pioneer Israeli women rabbis emphasizes the deconstruction of gender roles in Judaism and in Israeli society, even as new structures are being established, enabling women to take religious leadership functions upon themselves. The narrators are aware of the numerous challenges they face, but most of them are deeply motivated to continue exerting their influence in different areas of Israeli society.

In this paper, I attempt to demonstrate the pervasiveness of ‘eternal feminine’ principles in contemporary Catholic culture by using Mary Daly’s critique of ‘eternal feminine’  ideology in The Church and the Second Sex, to analyze and counter online responses to a video in support of women’s ordination. My objective in this study is to expose the underlying ideology used to justify sexist practices in the Roman Catholic Church, demonstrate its successful dissemination to individual Catholics and  present feminist counter-arguments derived from Daly’s work.  The video titled, “Ordain a Lady”, was produced by the Women’s Ordination Conference and posted to the Internet December 31, 2012.

Apparently, it may seem that Hinduism is sincere towards upholding the dignity of women, as its various treatises and mythologies give us some suggestive accounts in this regard. However, behind such a projection, we can find out subtle tricks of socio-religious agencies which work for brahminical patriarchy. The non-mainstream or alternative religious practices like Tantra originated with an aim to challenge and subvert the patriarchal brahminical religious hegemony, and often provide gender equilibrium in the socio-religious space. Nevertheless, such forms were also not free from veiled patriarchal tropes and agendas. In today's society , the baul and faqir sects of Bengal, who formed a folk-oriented sahajiya-cult incorporating tantric practices and Sufi mysticism, are internationally regarded as the believers of a de-institutionalized free society with equal religious and social rights for men and women. However, the question is to what extent do women, who serve as the 'sadhan-sangini' (female partner in sexo-yogic religious practices) of the bauls, actually get equal rights, dignified position and true fulfilment in religious and social life. This article tries to re-explore Indian mythological, classical as well as folk socio-religious texts, treatises and traditions to find out the hidden framework of patriarchy. Keywords Religion and female sexuality · Manusmriti · Durga · Tantra · Baul · Faqir The history of civilization shows that, in the course of time, religion becomes a social (and often, national) agency of utmost power, encompassing various social institutions to utilize them for executing its own propaganda, or the propaganda of the dominating male constituency of that very society. Hinduism, not unlike

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This study analyzes the cosmology and theology that are being shaped by contemporary alternative spiritualities, regarding the link between witchcraft and women. It raises issues such as secularization and re-enchantment, religious/spiritual identities and feminism.
The study case is the contemporary writings of Israeli alternative spiritualities' leaders, as they re-narrate a tale from Rabbinic Literature, about the Ashkelon Witch-Hunt that was led by Rabbi Shim'on ben Shatach. This tale has been reshaped in three different ways by spokespersons who represent various religious/spiritual Jewish-Israeli paths: Reform Judaism (Prof. Ruchma Weiss), Jewish Renewal (Rabbi Ohad Ezrahi), and Neo-Shamanism (Dov Trubnik).
All contemporary alternative spiritual texts analyzed herein demonstrate their authors’ identification with the rejected anti-heroines, the Ashkelonian witches. Some appropriate Judaism, whilst others criticize it; some write from within it, whilst others from without. The three alternative spiritual texts reflect different cosmological views contending with issues of secularization versus re-enchantment, as well as various theologies or thealogies. They also voice explicit religious feminist tones, that range from liberal to cultural-maternal and eco-feminist feminisms.

THE ENIGMA OF THE WIFE/SISTER EPISODES IN GENESIS IS RESOLVED...

Answering the question:

“Should we not therefore conclude that God should have also kept Pharaoh from touching her? The logic is compelling, the same Abraham and Sarah, the same conditions, the same God.”

With references from: Richard Lynn's The Chosen People, A Study of Jewish Intelligence and Achievement, Washington Summit Publishers, A National Policy Institute Book 2011

The debate on feminism and 'religion' has rarely been suggested as a critique of mod-ernity that has silenced other possible cultural, epistemological and spiritual options. Efforts have been made to ascertain whether 'religion' is 'good' or 'bad' for-or indeed an ally or threat to-women's liberation. More specifically, in a European context, contemporary discussions of 'religion' and the rights of women have been very much centred on Islam. Yet, none of these narratives have resolved the intrinsic colonial character of modernity. This article explores the debate on both Islamic and Western feminism from a decolonial perspective. It argues that today, feminist theory faces the tremendous challenge of how to encounter the colonial and not only redefine, but also review the concepts and categories upon which Western feminism bases its arguments. Drawing on the work of the Spanish-Syrian Islamic decolonial thinker, Sirin Adlbi Sibai, this article develops a critical, self-reflexive approach that questions secular assumptions regarding feminist analyses of 'religion'. In doing so, I present the decolo-nising of feminism as an invitation to (re)imagine our feminist encounters.

Author: Joyce Main Hanks
Publisher: CBE International

Late in 1981 I dug up one of Ellul’s early articles from the Protestant weekly Réforme: ‘La Femmes et les esprits’ (Women and the spirits)1 and found what we expect when we know Ellul: a maddening mixture of apparently reactionary views and revolutionary ideas. He maintained that, although a woman’s spiritual destiny resembles a man’s, her spiritual nature and her spiritual adventure differ from his. Although, as we shall see, many feminists would find the role that Ellul suggests for women in his current view utterly sexist, he maintains their superiority. Indeed, as he said to me in 1981, he believes that women and women’s values hold out the only hope for our world.

This article considers the influence of childhood corporal punishment, abandonment, and neglect on the development and reception of foundational New Testament teachings. The article ends with an exploratory discussion of possible childhood influences in Judaism, Islam, the system of karmic reincarnation in Hinduism and Buddhism, and The Homeric Hymn to Demeter.

.ניתוח פסיכואנליטי (פרוידיאני) לאגדת דוד והתהום על גרסאותיה החז"ליות
פורסם בכתב העת "נפש" (כיום "מעגלי נפש") ב-2001.
ציטוט ביבליוגרפי:

רוח-מדבר, מריאנה (2001). "אגדת דוד והתהום", בתוך נפש- רבעון לפסיכולוגיה, לטיפול, לטיפוח רגשי ולחינוך יצירתי 7 (מאי 2001, אייר תשס"א): 18-11.

The sociological 'lived religion' approach focuses on the experiences of religious individuals in everyday life, whilst also considering the institutional aspects of religion that they may engage with. It emphasizes that individuals do not simply 'copy' institutional religious prescriptions; instead, it posits that people have an active and reflexive role in shaping, negotiating and changing their own beliefs and practices. This article examines the implications of the 'lived religion' approach for secular feminist analyses of religion in Western contexts. It starts out by proposing three different secular feminist positions on religion: a hard, a mixed hard and soft, and a soft position. The article then examines the views on women and religion forwarded by some high-profile feminist organisations in Europe, and how these relate to the three proposed secular feminist positions on religion. Finally, the article assesses which secular feminist position is most compatible with a 'lived religion' approach.

As a spiritual feminist, my main focus here will be to examine the patriarchal violence against women and children in religious scriptures, around the world, which have condoned, even incited, domestic violence against women and children in the home.  Globally, at least one in three women and girls has been beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime.  More than 130 million girls and women have been subjected to female genital cutting.  Over one million women and children are trafficked each year worldwide for forced labor, domestic servitude, or sexual exploitation.  At least 60 million girls who would otherwise be expected to be alive are “missing” from various populations, mostly in Asia, as a result of sex-selective abortions, infanticide, or neglect.
Here in the United States, where I live, domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women, causing more injuries than muggings, stranger rapes, and car accidents combined.  Each day, on average, three women are murdered by a husband or boyfriend.  More than 4 million women are battered by their partners each year, one woman every 9 seconds.  Of battered women, 25% are pregnant.  One and a half million women are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner each year.  The overwhelming majority of domestic violence (92%) is by men against women. 
Of men who abuse their partners, between 40 and 60 percent also abuse children.  A child’s exposure to the father abusing the mother is the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next.  The majority of women who are battered by domestic partners, in turn batter their own children.  The children of abused mothers are six times more likely to attempt suicide and 50% more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.  As Esta Soler, executive director of the Family Violence Prevention Fund sums up: “domestic violence fills emergency rooms and morgues, contributes to juvenile delinquency, and destroys families.” 
How can contemporary society tolerate or condone so much abuse?  Patriarchal religious traditions and patriarchal political systems work together to enforce male-dominant values and patterns for men, women, and children.  This is buttressed with the oft-repeated lie that man-made, male-centered customs are God’s will and law; plus, punishments for disobedience are often severe, sometimes deadly.  It is crucial for women and men and children to be able to think clearly about which aspects of religious teachings are the distortions of patriarchal special interests, and which may be genuinely divine.