Sex, Gender and the Sacred: Reconfiguring Religion in Gender History

Sex, Gender and the Sacred presents a multi–faith, multi–disciplinary collection of essays that explore the interlocking narratives of religion and gender encompassing 4,000 years of history. Readings reflect the societal intersection of sexuality and religion from ancient Mesopotamia to Renaissance Milan, from Song China to post–revolutionary Mexico, from medieval Ireland to modern Spain and Cuba, and from early modern England to contemporary India. In sections dealing with the transnational dimensions of religious belief, the importance of embodiment and sexuality to spiritual subjectivity, and the politicisation of faith, the essays explore diverse periods, geographies, and communities. Contributions from experts in gender history, religion and related fields assess how religious ideas and representations have shaped both the personal , spiritual and social formations of men and women through various case studies, including Chinese and European art and iconography, same–sex desire, Indo–Islamic encounters with the British raj, cross–cultural transmissions of African and Cuban rituals, and more. Scholarly and thought–provoking, Sex, Gender and the Sacred offers important new insights into the myriad and complex issues—and inextricable links—between sexuality and religion throughout gender history.

Notes on contributors Introduction: Beyond the ‘Religious Turn’? Past, Present and Future Perspectives in Gender History (Joanna de Groot and Sue Morgan) Part I: Crossing Cultures and Transnational Exchanges 1. Witches, Female Priests and Sacred Manoeuvres (De)Stabilising Gender and Sexuality in a Cuban Region of African Origin (Carolyn E. Watson) 2. Liberal Religion and the ‘Woman Question’ between East and West: Perspectives from a Nineteenth–Century Bengali Women’s Journal (Claire Midgley) 3. Indeterminacy in Meaning: Religious Syncretism and Dynastic Historiography in the Shannüren zhuan (Yuet Keung Lo) 4. ‘All of Their Customs are Daughters of Their Religion’: Baptists in Post–Revolutionary Mexico, 1920s–present. (Kathleen M. McIntyre) 5. Creating the ‘Problem Hindu’: Sati , Thuggee and Female Infanticide in India, 1800–60. (Daniel J. R. Grey). Part II: Religion, Embodiment and Subjectivity 6. Engendering Purity and Impurity in Assyriological Studies: A Historiographical Overview (Érica Couto–Ferreira and Agnès Garica–Ventura) 7. Lamentation Motifs in Medieval Hagiography (Anne E. Bailey) 8. Architecture of Desire: Mediating the Female Gaze in the Medieval English Anchorhold (Michelle M. Sauer) 9. The Alluring Beauty of Leonardesque Ideal: Masculinity and Spirituality in Renaissance Milan (Maya Corry) 10. ‘Deaf to the World’: Gender, Deafness and Protestantism in Nineteenth–Century Britain and Ireland (Esme Cleall) Part III: Religion, Gender and Sexuality 11. The Sexual Shame of the Chaste: ‘Abortion Miracles’ in Early Medieval Saints’ Lives (Zubin Mistry) 12.   ‘Give Me Chastity’: Masculinity and Attitudes to Chastity and Celibacy in the Middle Ages (Pat Cullum) 13.   Common Soldiers, Same–Sex Love and Religion in the Early Eighteenth–Century British Army (Susan Gane) 14. ‘Dark Ecstasies’: Sex, Mysticism and Psychology in Early Twentieth–Century England (Joy Dixon) 15. Made Flesh? Gender and Doctrine in Religious Violence in Twentieth–Century Spain (Mary Vincent) Part IV: Gender, Religion and Political Activity 16. Conversion Trouble: The Alawis of Hadhramawt, Empire, Gender and the Problem of Sovereignty in Nineteenth–Century South India (Wilson Chacko Jacob) 17. ‘ Fatherland, Religion, Family ’: Exploring the History of a Slogan in Greece, 1880–1930 (Effi Gazi) 18. The More Things Change: Debating Gender and Religion in India’s Hindu Laws, 1920–2006 (Rina Verma Williams) Index

Joanna de Groot is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of York and a member of the Centres for Eighteenth Century Studies, Modern Studies and Women’s Studies. Sue Morgan is Professor of Women’s and Gender History at the University of Chichester, UK. She works on the history of religion and gender and her most recent publications include the co–edited volumes Women, Gender and Religious Cultures: Britain, 1800–1940 (2010) with Jacqueline de Vries and Men, Masculinities and Religious Change in Twentieth Century Britain (2013) with Lucy Delap.