Religion, Feminism, and the Family (Family, Religion, and Culture) [Paperback]

Anne Carr (Author)

Book Description

Series: Family, Religion, and Culture | Publication Date: November 1, 1996

Despite the tension between some proponents of feminism and organized religion, particularly in regard to family life, little has been written to view religion, feminism, and the family simultaneously. Drawing on history, theology, and the social sciences, the contributors to this volume analyze the impact of feminism on the experience of family life in its religious dimension. Religion, Feminism, and the Family is designed to stimulate discussion on both the contemporary women's movement and the future of the American family.

The Family, Culture, and Religion series offers informed and responsible analyses of the state of the American family from a religious perspective and provides practical assistance for the family's revitalization.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Anne Carr was a pioneering feminist theologian and advocate, and the first woman with a permanent faculty appointment to the University of Chicago's renowned Divinity School in Chicago, Illinois. She was a Roman Catholic nun and member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) for almost a half-century and was a scholar of modern theology who specialized in Catholic thought and feminist theology for more than thirty years. She was the author of books such as The Theological Method of Karl Rahner; A Search for Wisdom and Spirit: Thomas Merton's Theology of Self; and Transforming Grace: Christian Tradition and Women's Experience.

Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen is Professor of Psychology and Philosophy at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. She has been a senior editor of Christianity Today and is currently a contributing editor for Books & Culture. She has written, cowritten, and contributed to several books, including The Psychology of Intergroup Relations, The Person in Psychology, After Eden, and Women and the Future of the Family.

Product Details

• Paperback: 412 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press; 1st edition (November 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664255124
• ISBN-13: 978-0664255121
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,340,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reconciling and renewing traditions, institutions, & change, May 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Religion, Feminism, and the Family (Family, Religion, and Culture) (Paperback)

Proponents of religion, feminism, and the family often appear to have irreconcilable differences and incommensurable objectives. In this book, a product of the Religion, Culture, and Family Project at the University of Chicago Divinity School, Anne Carr and Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen have assembled a provocative collection of essays on the relationship and mutually reinforcing qualities of religious tradition, feminist thought, and familial relations. The contributors bring a range of historical, theological, social scientific, and pastoral perspectives together to bear in an overall argument that religion, feminism, and family need not be incurably antagonistic to one another.

The argument has three basic components. First, feminism must recognize and retrieve the religious precedents for its deepest convictions about equality and freedom. Second, religion must take into account the insights and concerns of contemporary feminism in order to remain relevant in contemporary society. Finally, families need a feminism that is religiously articulate and a religion that is sensitive to the needs of families. These points emerge over and over as the contributors examine Jewish and Christian theologies of gender and family, the history of religious and feminist influences on the family in the West, and a number of current family issues in which that religious and feminist is much in evidence. This wonderfully ecumenical volume is highly recommended for anyone interested in the interrelation of religion, feminism, and family in the past and present.