We can only study religion in society, and in so doing we must acknowledge our role in the production of knowledge and examine our imperialist and colonialist heritage we cannot ‘bracket out’ our privilege, nor can we separate the study of religion from the political motivations that drive it. We cannot transplant ourselves from our socio-historical location and access the original intention of an ancient religion nor can we separate religion and society as fields of study. ![]() Furthermore, feminist attempts to reconstruct or reread history so as to uncover the invisible women left out of male authored texts have a tendency to claim that the original intention of the religion was one of equality rather than sexism, distorted by patriarchal societies that introduced inequalities between women and men into the religion. For instance, the White woman has been represented as on a path to liberation, while the Black or Asian woman has been portrayed as a victim in need of feminist emancipation. Nevertheless, the feminist study of religion has too often resulted in damaging universalising, homogenising and essentialising categories. Consequently, by highlighting the manner in which women have been excluded from aspects of orthodox religion or have been socialised to accept positions of subservience legitimated by a gendered-construction of religious hierarchy and power, feminism teaches us that we cannot examine gender and religion, as if gender is an additional extra in the field of study rather, we must examine gender in religion. A feminist approach to the study of religion exposes the androcentrism hidden in the insider/outsider approach to the field and critiques the androcentrism of religion itself that a purely phenomenological account of the data ignores. Not only did historians and sociologists employ ‘religion’ as a category by taking Christianity to be the norm and seeking to civilise that which it defined as ‘other’ and primitive, the field of religious data explored assumed that the male experience was the norm. Yet, the post-Enlightenment study of religion followed an androcentric and colonialist agenda. ![]() Moreover, reports by the Pew Research Centre consistently maintain that women are more religious than men sociologists have suggested a variety of explanations for this whatever the reason, any study of religion that excluded the experience of women would not be representative of its practitioners and would, therefore, be inadequate. Religion, in political discourse, is back on the agenda the significance of religion for effective international relations and development policy is being recognised. Despite the early contention of the secularisation thesis that traditional religion, at least in the industrialised world, was in terminal decline, post-millennial discourse has more frequently referred to the resurgence of religion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |