Religion, the Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference
Linell E Cady editor Tracy Fessenden editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Published:19th Nov '13
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This book both genders and shatters the divide between the secular and the religious in a global context. By historicizing the privatization of both women and religion in modernity, these essays unhinge any simple alignment between feminism and secularism. Cady and Fessenden have produced that rare collection that coheres, a must read for scholars of gender and all those engaged with the question of the secular. This is a book I cannot wait to teach! -- Laura S. Levitt, Professor of Religion, Jewish Studies and Gender, Temple University
Global struggles over women's roles, rights, and dress increasingly cast the secular and the religious in tense if not violent opposition. When advocates for equality speak in terms of rights and modern progress, or reactionaries ground their authority in religious and scriptural appeals, both tend to presume women's emancipation is ineluctably tied to secularization. Religion, the Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference upsets this certainty by drawing on diverse voices and traditions in studies that historicize, question, and test the implicit links between secularism and expanded freedoms for women. Rather than position secularism as the answer to conflicts over gender and sexuality, this volume shows both religion and the secular collaborate in creating the conditions that generate them.
This exciting volume defamiliarizes our understanding of secularization as process and practice. The contributors raise profound questions regarding the persistence of 'the religious' as a form of ethicality, as a resistant presence and practice, and as an animating constraint in women's lives. The theoretical range and global scope of the volume is a remarkable achievement. -- Anupama Rao, Barnard College Rather than taking what is often viewed as the high road of secularism, the contributors challenge the ability of both religion and secularism to provide master narratives for the equality of women. This book is a vital contribution to the new feminism that is currently emerging at local, national, and global levels. It opens space for new collaborations and theoretical innovations and encourages us to 'imagine differently.' -- Lori G. Beaman, University of Ottawa Many feminists have hoped-and many fundamentalists have feared-that the decline of religion would lead inevitably to women's liberation. This bold, thought-provoking book shows how, around the world, the gender politics of secularism are confounding the easy assumptions of progressives and conservatives alike. -- Joseph Kip Kosek, George Washington University This book both genders and shatters the divide between the secular and the religious in a global context. By historicizing the privatization of both women and religion in modernity, these essays unhinge any simple alignment between feminism and secularism. Cady and Fessenden have produced a collection that coheres, a must read for scholars of gender and all those engaged with the question of the secular. -- Laura S. Levitt, Temple University
ISBN: 9780231162494
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
344 pages