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"Contributors explore the "complementarity" of women and men--that women and men are equal and different--as underpinned by Catholic theology and expressed in philosophy, theology, psychology, and art"--
The culmination of a lifetime's scholarly work, this pioneering study by Sister Prudence Allen traces the concept of woman in relation to man in Western thought from ancient times to the present. Volume I uncovers four general categories of questions asked by philosophers for two thousand years. These are the categories of opposites, of generation, of wisdom, and of virtue. Sister Prudence Allen traces several recurring strands of sexual and gender identity within this period. Ultimately, she shows the paradoxical influence of Aristotle on the question of woman and on a philosophical understanding of sexual coomplemenarity. Supplemented throughout with helpful charts, diagrams, and illustrations, this volume will be an important resource for scholars and students in the fields of women's studies, philosophy, history, theology, literary studies, and political science. In Volume 2, Sister Prudence Allen explores claims about sex and gender identity in the works of over fifty philosophers (both men and women) in the late medieval and early Renaissance periods. Touching on the thought of every philosopher who considered sex or gender identity between A.D. 1250 and 1500, The Concept of Woman provides the analytical categories necessary for situating contemporary discussion of women in relation to men. Adding to the accessibility of this fine discussion are informative illustrations, helpful summary charts, and extracts of original source material (some not previously available in English). In her third and final volume Allen covers the years 1500--2015, continuing her chronological approach to individual authors and also offering systematic arguments to defend certain philosophical positions over against others.
The challenge of promoting the "new feminism" has barely been addressed since it was first launched by Pope John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae. The thirteen contributors in this book, all outstanding international scholars, take up this task, together laying the necessary theoretical foundation for the new feminism. These chapters articulate an integral philosophical and theological understanding of persons that moves beyond patriarchy on the one hand and traditional feminism on the other. Central to the new perspective offered here is the biblical revelation of the human person - man and woman - in Christ, a vision that directs women beyond the "male" standard against which they have too often been measured. Far from constraining women to an "eternal essence," the dynamic view presented here encourages each woman to realize herself in perfect Christian freedom.
The culmination of a lifetime's scholarly work, this pioneering study by Sister Prudence Allen traces the concept of woman in relation to man in Western thought from ancient times to the present. Volume I uncovers four general categories of questions asked by philosophers for two thousand years. These are the categories of opposites, of generation, of wisdom, and of virtue. Sister Prudence Allen traces several recurring strands of sexual and gender identity within this period. Ultimately, she shows the paradoxical influence of Aristotle on the question of woman and on a philosophical understanding of sexual coomplemenarity. Supplemented throughout with helpful charts, diagrams, and illustrations, this volume will be an important resource for scholars and students in the fields of women's studies, philosophy, history, theology, literary studies, and political science. In Volume 2, Sister Prudence Allen explores claims about sex and gender identity in the works of over fifty philosophers (both men and women) in the late medieval and early Renaissance periods. Touching on the thought of every philosopher who considered sex or gender identity between A.D. 1250 and 1500, The Concept of Woman provides the analytical categories necessary for situating contemporary discussion of women in relation to men. Adding to the accessibility of this fine discussion are informative illustrations, helpful summary charts, and extracts of original source material (some not previously available in English). In her third and final volume Allen covers the years 1500--2015, continuing her chronological approach to individual authors and also offering systematic arguments to defend certain philosophical positions over against others.
Sex makes all the difference and is the difference, which needs to be celebrated, not repressed. By "sex" we are not talking about copulation; we are talking about the biological sex differences. Vive la différence. But such differences are not celebrated by radical feminism. This book gives the evidence against radical feminism's myths while embracing the complementary partnership of men and women. Radical feminists are well educated, middle-class women with male values, who have been and are still trying with much verbal fluency to change other women over to their own male values. Women liberators think of themselves as "enlightened" and the vanguard of the NEW woman. They use well sounding phrases like "women's liberation," "equality between the sexes," "freedom to choose one's own destiny," and so on to achieve their goals. They wish to change our educational system, and already have, so as to teach little girls that they too can become just like men. But what radical feminists are doing is confusing women and men, making the women they entrap into even unhappier creatures, and leaving a trail of confusion behind for everyone else. What is needed is balance - not mythology. What is needed is love - not hate. What is needed is a big dose of reality? not radical dogma!
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.
Many debates in feminism centre round the issue of subordination of woman. Anthropologists and sociologists have tried to trace the origin of subordinate position of woman by giving various explanatory theories. The author examines the reductionist and constructionist theories and using a hermeneutic device of the Beejakshetra model explores the images of feminity to be found in the Mahabharata and in the rules of conduct in the Manusmriti. She shows how these models of feminity have shaped the life experiences and self-interpretation of woman down to present day. The last part attempts formulation of a feminist ethic of friendship and raises the discussion beyond protest and recrimination.
This collection of lectures by the secretary and friend of Karl Barth establishes her as a theologian in her own right. She addresses important early feminist issues such as the divinely ordained nature of relationships between the sexes and the rights of women to lay and ordained ministry in the church.
Whether initiating girls or healing cattle, bringing rain or protesting taxation, many in Africa share a vision of a world where the cultural, symbolic and cosmic categories of 'male' and 'female' serve, through ritual, to both reimagine and transform the world. Those Who Play With Fire introduces recent gender theory to the analysis of African ethnography, exploring the ways in which ideational gender categories permeate African systems of thought and ritual practices. Thus, the book provides a powerful framework with which to evaluate previous ethnographic material on Africa. In addition, Those Who Play With Fire presents a broad range of new case studies - of hunter-gatherers, agriculturalists and pastoralists - revealing the varied and complex ways in which African ideas and ideals of what it means to be 'male' and 'female' broadly inform and give meaning to a wide range of transformative rituals.
In a culture where gender neutrality is the ideal, why is it significant that we were created differently as male and female? As the ethical consequences of the gender debate in the last generation manifest themselves, this book explores biblical teaching in order to work toward a Christian perspective. This discussion traces the theme of creation as male and female through the canon from the Pentateuch to the epistles and demonstrates how Pauline interpretation flows from Genesis 1–3. The grounding of the distinction between male and female in Genesis 1 as the climax of creation suggests the ethics associated with creation as male and female abide universally and for all time. This book intends to present a comprehensive, yet reasonably concise, presentation of biblical teaching on creation as male and female without bogging down in the detailed disputes between complementarian and egalitarian writers. This discussion considers each passage within its literary context, and patristic writers from the first few centuries of the church function as a control on interpretation.
