Solidarity and Power : Feminist Approaches to Religious Ethics

This integrated and cohesive volume illuminates the dynamic voices of a diverse group of contemporary feminist scholars from a wide range of religious traditions to demonstrate the value and necessity of feminist contributions to the field of ethics. Contributors explore questions and debates that have long perplexed religious ethicists, such as the relationship between descriptive (“how do we act?”) and normative (“how should we act?”) inquiry, and how those can be productively addressed by drawing on resources from feminist work. In addition to contributing directly to these scholarly conversations, the book highlights a number of case studies from different religious communities on a wide range of moral issues to actively demonstrate the ways in which feminist approaches enhance religious ethics’ contribution to religious studies, support the decolonization of religious ethics, and provide resources for innovative responses to these contemporary questions and debates.

The themes of solidarity and power and the connecting threads throughout the volume. Historically, solidarity has been an essential aspect of justice-oriented political projects like feminism, among other historical movements. But feminists’ critical attention to power and difference—including attention to who is allowed to speak for/with particular communities—simultaneously raises significant questions regarding the possibility of genuine solidarity. While religious ethicists have traditionally considered normative work, including work focused on building solidarity to address historical injustices, to be a central aspect of the field of religious ethics, other scholars of religion have questioned whether scholarly attempts to forge solidarity and promote justice are themselves inevitably exercises of colonial power and control. The book explores the tensions and debates that arise from these considerations, ultimately suggesting that a feminist ethical approach enables scholarship that accounts for all of these concerns.

Exploring such critical issues as abortion, poverty, the carceral state, war, sexual violence and abuse, race, and social justice movements, among others, this volume provides accessible entry points for advanced undergraduates to contemplate the unique contributions of feminist and womanist scholarship. In addition, scholars and graduate students and researchers will benefit not only from the book’s diverse set of examples, but from the contributors’ commitment to intervening in ongoing methodological and theoretical debates that continue to challenge thinkers in both religious ethics and the larger field of religious studies.