After Patriarchy: Feminist Transformations of the World Religions

From the Jacket :

"One thing is clear: A post-patriarchal age, even if only as an ideal to be approximated, is worthy of commitment by men as well as by women." - From the Introduction.

The second-class statue, if not the outright oppression, of women in history has often been legitimated using negative visions rooted in the theologies, ideas, and images of world religions. Do the world's religious traditions possess authentic, sexism-transcending, yet concrete, life-giving elements? Are they redeemable from structures of patriarchal domination that cause many women to judge them unsalvageable?.

After Patriarchy reveals the increasing globalization of women's visions as they look anew at those structures, including the religious one, in which human beings live. Moving beyond cant and stereotype, these critical essays will challenge any inquirer. More importantly, they reveal how far-reaching the transformations of world religions must be in order to retrieve a liberating core that will be emancipatory for all.

Contributors include Delores S. Williams, on black women's surrogacy experience and Christian redemption; Lina Gupta, on the figure of Kali in Hinduism; Riffat Hassan on post-patriarchal Islam; Rita M. Gross, on Buddhism after patriarchy; Judith Plaskow, on a feminization of Israel; Paula M. Cooey, on reconstructions of Christian doctrine; lnes Marie Talamanez, on images of the feminine in Apache tradition; and Emily Culpepper, on her spiritual journey as a postmodern free-thinker.

About the Editors :

Paula M. Cooey is Associate Professor of Religion at Trinity University. She is author of Nature and Divine Destiny in the World of Jonathan Edwards.

William R. Eakin is Consultant for the Marshall T. Steel Center in the Study of Religion and Philosophy. He is co-editor of Liberating Life: Contemporary Approaches to Ecological Theology.

Jay B. McDaniel is Director of the Marshall T. Steel center for the Study of Religion and Philosophy and Associate Professor at Hendrix College. He is author of Of God and Pelicans and Earth, Sky, and Mortals, as well as co-editor of Liberating Life: Contemporary Approaches to Ecological Theology.