Book Recommendation:

Gendering the Spirit
Women and Religion and the Post-Colonial Response
Edited by Durre S. Ahmed

Zed Books
Due/Published July 2002, 208 pages, paper
ISBN 1842770276

Religion remains a powerful reality for countless human beings across a huge range of cultures and widely divergent systems of belief. This book discusses in detail the particular devotional subcultures that women have always created. Its authors draw their evidence and their inspiration form the Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, and Christian traditions of South and South East Asia, in particular.

Contents:

Part I: Women and Religion: Alternative Perspectives
Introduction: The Last Frontier--Durre Ahmed
The Goddess-Woman Equation in Sakta Tantras--Madhu Khanna
Women in the Catholic Church--Sr. Mary John Mananzan
Women, Psychology, and Religion--Durre Ahmed
Part II: The Hidden Woman and the Feminine
The Forgotten Woman in Anuradhapura: "Her story Replaced by 'History'"--Hema Goonatilake
Mother Victoria Vera Piedad of Brookside, Pila, Laguna, Philippines: A Study of a Mutya Figure--Grace P. Odal
Suprema Isabel Suarez --Sr. Mary John Mananzan
Parallel Worlds of Madhubi MA, 'Nectar mother': A 20th Century Tantric Saint--Madhu Khanna
'Real' Men, Naked Women, and the Politics of Paradise: The Archetype of Lal Ded--Durre Ahmed
Part III: Perspectives on Violence
Righteous Violence and Nonviolence: An Inseparable Dyad of Hindu Tradition--Madhu Khanna
Theological Reflections on Violence Against Women: A Catholic Perspective--Sr. Mary John Mananzan
Violence and the Feminine in Islam: A Case Study of the Zikris--Durre Ahmed
from the back cover:

This book sis about the devotional subcultures which women have
always created. Its authors draw their evidence and inspiraiton from
the Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic and Christian traditions of Asia, in
particular.

Here we find women as healers, goddesses, saints, gurus, nuns and
heretics. One thing these remarkable women all share is their
defiance of orthodoxy and fundamentalist interpretations oppressive
of women. Instead they have created religious alternatives which
appeal profoundly to huge numbers of women. Not that these
altenatives, as the authors who have written this book show, are
accepted by the mainly male religious establishment. Indeed women's
rejection of patriarchal interpretations of religion and their
creative revisioning of religion in their daily spiritual practice
can be very dangerous activity.

In addition to fascinating glimpses of little known aspects of the
feminine within the great religions, this book is also a reflection
of the newly emerging spirituality of women in Asia as they
experience and respond to the political and social injustices they
confront.

Book Recommendation from Mary Grace Bertulfo:


BABAYLANISM IN NEGROS: 1896-1907 by Evelyn Tan Culamar (New Day
Publishers, 1986), which is academic in nature, covering the role of
babaylanism in Negros history.


And THE SOUL BOOK by Francisco R. Demetrio, Gilda Cordero-Fernando,
and Fernando N. Zialcita (GCF Books, 1991.), which is more artistic
and anthropological. There are some wonderful drawings by Roberto B.
Feleo that show Filipino mythology and spirituality; I think you'd
really dig that one.

Book Recommendations from Oona Paredes.

These ones focus on women. They are by
foreigners, which is not to say there isn't any good stuff by Filipinos. But
these guys are able to see things from a wider perspective, because it's not
so intimately personal to them.

1. "Power and Intimacy in the Christian Philippines". Cambridge University
Press, Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology 109 (1999), by Fenella
Cannell. (she's a Brit at SOAS in London).

2. "From Priestess to Priest: Catholic/Animist Conflict in the Philippines,
1521-1685." Ashgate Publications (2003). by Carolyn Brewer (she's Aussie). The
book is about Luzon.

3. "Holy Confrontation: Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in the Philippines,
1521-1685." (don't know the publisher, date is 2001). also by Carolyn Brewer.

** Have not read these Brewer books, but they came highly recommended from a
prof I really respect, Barbara Andaya (Aussie married to a Pinoy). Will read
them one day when I can get a hold of them.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Oona Thommes Paredes
Ph.D. Candidate, Social & Cultural Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-2402, USA

-------------

(Thanks, Oona---now your email has found its way here...)

Thanks to Mary Grace Bertulfo, via Perla Daly:

BABAYLANISM IN NEGROS: 1896-1907 by Evelyn Tan Culamar (New Day Publishers, 1986), which is academic in nature, covering the role of babaylanism in Negros history.


And THE SOUL BOOK by Francisco R. Demetrio, Gilda Cordero-Fernando, and Fernando N. Zialcita (GCF Books, 1991.), which is more artistic and anthropological. There are some wonderful drawings by Roberto B. Feleo that show Filipino mythology and spirituality; I think you'd really dig that one.

Suggest web page to check out: Indigenous Religious Beliefs and Cosmology of the Filipino. Click this link.

Interfaith, International Conference on Sexuality - March 18-21, 2004

Thanks to Letecia Layson for this information:


The Pacific Asian and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry (PANAAWTM) is holding an INTERFAITH, INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SEXUALITY March 18-21, 2004 at Mills College, Oakland, CA, the first such conference from an Asian cultural perspective. Scholars and religious practitioners from Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity will speak.


Open to women scholars, religious practitioners, graduate students, seminarians and undergraduate students of any ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and nationality. There is money available for assistance with travel (up to $200 per person) and room and board at Mills. There is also assistance for room and board expenses for those in the Bay Area.


The conference opening panel:


"Religion, Sexuality, and Asian and Asian American Cultures: Embodying the Spirit in our Communities"
Panelists: Mehnaz Afridi, Carol Himaka, Kwok Pui Lan, Patricia Lin, Ruth Vanita.
Respondant: Mary Ann Tolbert


Free and open to the public and will take place at the Pacific School of Religion,
Bade Museum, 1798 Scenic Ave, Berkeley, Thursday, March 18 at 7 pm, Reception at 6:30.




The schedule with a list of speakers can be viewed at the website; click here. Special workshops on the conference theme, plus mentoring for those in religion Ph.D. programs.


Registration information can be found on-line. The on-line registration process can only be used with a credit card. Those needing financial assistance for travel and room should use hardcopies of the registration forms. Please urge those you think would be interested to attend.


Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph.D.


Visiting Scholar


Starr King School, Graduate Theological Union


260 Euclid Ave.


Oakland, CA 94610