Feminism and World Religions

·期刊原文

Feminism and World Religions
　

By Jordan Paper

Philosophy East and West v.51 n.1(January 2001)

pp.118-120

Copyright 2001 by The University Press of Hawaii

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Feminism and World Religions. Edited by Arvind Sharma and Katherine K. Young. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. Pp. x + 333.

Reviewed by Jordan Paper York University, Toronto

The editors of Feminism and World Religions, Arvind Sharma and Katherine K. Young, both at McGill University, have been editing anthologies, as well as an

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annual journal, on the subject of "women and religion" in its various modes and variations, for a number of years. This new iteration is particularly specific to its avowed topic and a valuable addition to the genre. In-depth contributions were solicited for the "Religions of the Book" and for South and East Asian religions. As with any anthology, no matter how well planned, individual treatments will invariably reflect the differences in the interests and methodologies of the various authors. All of the treatments here, however, do focus on history and ideology. All were ostensibly written by insiders, although what this actually means varies from tradition to tradition.

Katherine Young has contributed an excellent, analytical introduction to both the topics of the book and the individual chapters. She has also authored an in-depth "Postscript" (thirty-four pages) concerning a number of contemporary issues relevant to the volume's theme and the issue of "insiders." She addresses such problems as "the politics of identity," "the proper sphere for feminism," "the tension between revolution and reform," and the "polarization between men and women."

I will begin with the chapters on the Religions of the Book, although this does not accord with the order in the anthology. "Feminism in Judaism," by Ellen M. Umansky, is possibly the most succinct introduction available from the last two decades to the extraordinary number of changes, as well as the lack of change, in some varieties of this religion. The contribution by the well-known Rosemary Radford Ruether, "Feminism in World Christianity," briefly traces the roots of Christian feminism from the time of the New Testament and then surveys developments in the United States and feminist theology in Europe, moving on to what many such surveys ignore: the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. "Feminism in Islam" by Riffat Hassan focuses on the nature of androcentrism in Islam. She juxtaposes the Hadith literature against the Qur'ān, and finds that the negative attitudes toward women are not in the Qur'an but are based on a questionable interpretation of a few Hadith statements. She analyzes three basic theological assumptions and finds all wanting: the issue of woman's creation, the issue of woman's "guilt" in the "Fall" episode, and the issue of the purpose of woman's existence. She concludes with a fascinating comparison of the issue of women's sexuality as found in the Qur'an and in the history of Islam.

South Asia is dealt with in two very different approaches. Vasudha Narayanan's "Brimming with Bhakti, Embodiments of Shakti: Devotees, Deities, Performers, Reformers, and Other Women of Power in the Hindu Tradition," is a full (fifty-three pages) and engaging exposition of the subject from a variety of perspectives as delineated in the chapter's title. It is a lucid and comprehensive analysis of a most complex issue; indeed, she begins with a survey of the problem of identifying "Hinduism" in and of itself. Rita M. Gross, in her "Strategies for a Feminist Revalorization of Buddhism," quite properly, given her own cultural milieu, speaks not of Buddhism in Asia, but of how Buddhism can be in the West. She argues here, as she has in a relatively recent book, Buddhism after Patriarchy, that the androcentrism, even aspects of misogyny, that is found in the development of Buddhism, does not follow from essential Buddhist ideology, and it need not be continued in the present.

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The remaining two chapters, on China, are more problematic than the preceding ones. The two authors of "Feminism and/in Taoism," Karen Laughlin and Eva Wong, are both connected with the International Taoist Tai Chi Society, which can be perceived as far removed from the continuing aspects of Daoist religion on both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. Their focus is on the classical texts of Daoist thought, tangentially connected to religious Daoism, although there is some mention of texts relevant to practitioners. These latter texts are dealt with as texts, rather than as the skeleton of an esoteric oral tradition, which is how they are used in China. Hence, the chapter is pertinent to the authors' own organization but is less illuminating about Daoism in China.

Terry Wu's chapter, "Confucianism and Feminism," is unique in the anthology as it ignores religion; the author herself uses the term "philosophies" in referring to "Confucianism" and "Feminism." This focus, which is exceedingly well treated both historically and analytically, will of course interest the readers of Philosophy East and West, but it simply does not fit in with the theme of the anthology. The author argues, quite rightly, that "Confucianism" is far more complex than Western feminists have perceived it, that it is both patriarchal and feminist in both its core and its development. Neither this chapter nor the one by Laughlin and Wong is concerned with the issues of women and feminism with regard to normative religion, both ideologically and in practice. Daoism augments Chinese religion per se, and Confucian ideology involves social and political philosophy; given that Chinese governments became increasingly male-centered, this has far less to do with women and femaleness than does Chinese religion.

On the whole, this is an excellent anthology, and it is highly recommended. It covers the Religions of the Book extremely well, as it does Hinduism. Buddhism is dealt with somewhat differently, but given that there are many Buddhisms worldwide, the approach is one that is quite relevant to the West. Unfortunately, China is not well served, and this is the case in all other similar anthologies, which apparently accept the Christian and Maoist-Marxist argument that normative Chinese religion is not "religion" but "superstition." Utterly missing, because only European and Asian traditions are considered "world religions," are African religions and the religions indigenous to the Americas and to other parts of the world. Feminists in these cultures will also have much to say about the subject.