Gender and Medieval Mysticism from India to Europe

Alexandra Verini, Abir Bazaz (Herausgeber)

Buch | Softcover

246 Seiten

2024
Routledge (Verlag)
978-1-032-39684-2 (ISBN)

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This book opens up a dialogue between pre-modern women identified as mystics in diverse locations from South Asia to Europe. It considers how women from the disparate religious traditions of Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity expressed devotion in parallel ways. The argument is that women’s mysticism demands to be compared not because of any essential "female" experience of the divine but because the parallel positions of marginalization that pre-modern women experienced led them to deploy intimate encounters with the divine to speak publicly and claim authority. The topics covered range from the Sufi devotional tradition of Sidis (Indians of African ancestry) to the Bhakti poet Mīrābaī and the nuns of Barking Abbey. Collectively the chapters show how mysticism allowed premodern women to speak and act by unsettling traditional gender roles and expectations for religious behavior. At the same time as uncovering connections, the juxtaposition of women from different traditions serves to highlight distinctive features. The book draws on a range of disciplinary expertise and will be of particular interest to scholars of medieval religion and theology as well as history and literary studies.

Alexandra Verini is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University. Abir Bazaz is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University.

1 Introduction

Alexandra Verini

Part I Mysticism as Resistance

2 Weeping as Resistance in Islamic and Christian Contemplative Hagiography

Ayoush Lazikani

3 Mysticism between Women in Early Medieval England

Kathryn Maude

4 Public Scandal and Mystical Marriage: Margery Kempe and Mīrābaī

Katherine Zieman

Part II Reimagining the Female Mystic

5 Tongue Untied: Women and Forbidden Speech in Medieval India

Subhashree Chakravarty

6 Enclosed Life and Mystical Form in the Ancrene Wisse

Aparna Chaudhuri

7 Gender Fluidity in Sìrīvaisònòava Theology: The Status of the Cowherd Women

Manasicha Akepiyapornchai

Part III Shaping Mystical Femininity

8 The Discipline of Mahadevi and Lalla: Religious Ambiguity in the Gendering of Ascetic Female Hindu Saints

Dean Accardi

9 Imagined femininity in Sant Mysticism

Galina Rousseva-Sokolova

10 Invoking Mirabai: Elision and Illumination in the Global Study of Women Mystics

Nancy Martin

Part IV Women Mystics Across Time

11 Swaying in the Presence of the Saints: Women's Mediation of Spiritual Authority in the Sidi Sufi Devotional Tradition of Gujarat

Jazmin Graves

12 Love Knows no Bounds: Contemporary Artist Engagement with Marguerite Porete and Hadewijch

Louise Nelstrop

13 Afterword

Liz Herbert McAvoy

Erscheinungsdatum	05.08.2023
Reihe/Serie	Contemporary Theological Explorations in Mysticism
Zusatzinfo	2 Halftones, black and white; 2 Illustrations, black and white
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	453 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
ISBN-10	1-032-39684-9 / 1032396849
ISBN-13	978-1-032-39684-2 / 9781032396842
Zustand	Neuware