Bringing together a wide-ranging collection of readings from feminist, gender, and queer studies, this volume is a useful sourcebook for those wishing an initial introduction to historical and contemporary conversations in these key areas within the study of religion.
Melissa M. Wilcox, Associate Professor of Religion and Gender Studies, Whitman College, USA
The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion, Sexuality, ... Read moreand Gender provides a provocative, thematically rich, and theoretically sophisticated collection of essays for college and university courses dealing with the attitudes of different religious traditions toward sexuality and gender. The reader is divided into three parts: the first on Bodies and the ambivalent ways in which they have been and are viewed; the second on Desires and how they are expressed, repressed, and normalized in religious discourse; and the third on Performances, which underscores the performative nature of gender and its inherent instability. The essays included in the reader are all classics in this relatively new field of scholarship. In order to help readers engage and evaluate the various essays a series of questions has been appended to each part and a glossary of terms and concepts appears at the end. The Boomsbury Reader fills an important gap in the literature available for introductory courses on the intersection between religion and gender studies. It should have a wide appeal across the disciplines.
Allison P. Coudert, Paul and Marie Castelfranco Chair in the Study of Religion, University of California at Davis, USA
This volume does not only present a careful selection of seminal (to use a word with a sexual undertone) readings into the rich and dynamic field of religion, sexuality and gender, but it also does an excellent job in introducing these readings. The introductions to the book as a whole, the main sections, and the individual texts are extremely helpful in providing context and orientating the reader to some of the broader questions and relevant issues. Covering a wide range of religious traditions, historical periods and geographical regions, this volume is a great resource for students in undergraduate courses in religion, sexuality and gender.
Adriaan van Klinken, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Leeds, UK
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