A Feminist Philosophy of Religion: The Rationality and Myths of Religious Belief

Bridging the traditionally separate domains of analytic and Continental philosophies, Pamela Sue Anderson presents for the first time a feminist framework for studying the philosophy of religion. The author shows that to partake of truly feminist philosophy of religion is to participate in a review of the philosophical project in its entirety. She provides a critical analysis of the symbolic role given to women and desire in traditional configurations of philosophical reason. The author turns to feminist epistemologies and feminist refigurings of myth to gain new insights concerning rationality and belief. Anderson′s work will be especially valuable to those readers seeking a philosophical account of the rationality of religious belief which does not deny the content of female desire. It will prove invaluable to upper level students ad teachers of religion, philosophy, and feminist studies, giving original insight into this rapidly expanding field of study.

Preface. Acknowledgements. Part I: Introduction: Background Matters: . 1. Reason, Belief, and What is Excluded. 2. Sex/Gender and Reason. 3. Contemporary Philosophy of Religion. 4. Thinking from the Lives and Beliefs of Others. 5. Anticipating Configurations and Refigurations. Part II: Epistemological Frameworks of Belief: . 1. The Rationality of Religious Belief: Reason in ′Crisis′. 6. The So–Called Crisis of Rationality. 7. Religious Belief, Experience, and Epistemetic Duty. 8. The Empiricist Privileging of Formal Rationality. 9. Epistemological Frameworks of Belief. 10. Questioning the Neutrality of Rationality. 11. Refiguring Rationality. 12. A Critique of Reason. 2. Feminists and the Rationality of Belief – I: Strong Objectivity. 13. Rationality and Epistemological Frameworks. 14. Accounts of Objectivity. 15. Objectivity as Too Weak. 16. Strong Objectivity. 17. The Subject of Feminist Standpoint Epistemology. 18. What is Still Lacking for Feminist Belief. 19. A Critical Coda. 3. Feminists and the Rationality of Belief – II: Female Desire. 20. New Content for Belief. 21. Desire and the Rational Subject. 22. Sexually Specific Discourse and the Numinous. 23. Post–Patriarchal Philosophy and Religion. 24. On the Buried Maternal. 25. A Feminist Modification of Rational Belief. Part III: Refigurations of Belief: . 4. Myth, Mimesis, and Religious Belief. 26. Reason, Embodiment and Belief. 27. Rethinking Myth. 28. Defining Mimesis. 29. Sexual Identity in Religion. 30. Mimetic Refigurations. 31. A Regulative Ideal: Reason and Desire. 5. Figuring the Rationality of Religious Belief: Belief, Action, and Devotion. 32. Figuring Belief: Reinventing Ourselves as Other. 33. Rational Passion and Female Desire: Yearning. 34. Reading Beliefs in Myths of Dissent. 35. Marginality and Dissent: Antigone and Mirabai. 36. Dominant Configurations of Religious Devotion. 37. Rationality of Belief Mimed. 38. Preliminary Conclusion: Yearning Assessed. Part IV: Conclusion: . 6. Final Critical Matters. 39. Reason and the Philosophical Imaginary. 40. Enlightenment Rationality and Patriarchy. 41. Reason′s ′Crisis′ and the Female Symbolic. 42. Belief and the Existence of a Personal Deity. 43. The Problem of a Universal Assumption: Patriarchy. 34. Death and Woman: Destructive and Creative. Summary. Bibliography. Index.

Pamela Sue Anderson is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sunderland.

"With this book, Pamela Sue Anderson establishes a significant landmark in the development of a distinctively feminist approach to philosophy of religion. It makes an impressive contribution to the ongoing debate concerning the future of this discipline." Beverley Clack, Roehampton Institute, London "Anderson has written a provocative and challenging book which has implications for both feminist theologians and feminist philosophers of religion ... the question she asks extend beyond philosophical boundaries to issues which affect feminist scholarship in many different disciplines." Tina Beattie, University of Bristol "Anderson is a pioneer in the exciting new fields of feminist and poststructuralist philosophies of religion. She develops a conception of reason that can be rooted in religious life and practise rather than superimposed from outside. her work deserves to be studied." Philip Goodchild, University College of St. Martin, Lancaster