Gender Strategies and Disciplinary Practices in Religious Communities. Introduction

Abstract

What is the mechanism of construction and implementation of masculinity and femininity, family and sexuality in various religious communities? Strategies and disciplinary practices, especially related to gender, play a paramount role in all religious cultures. Individual piety and sin are regarded through the prism of proper sexual behavior and precise definition of the role of every gender in a theological discourse. The images of a “real man” and “real woman,” the ideal modes of interrelations and family models are constructed on the basis of various norms, implicit precepts and prohibitions. Gender strategies are impacted with social and political conditions, ecclesiology, hermeneutics, and are changing under circumstances and social changes. This paper introduces the special issue dedicated to the practices of constructing, legitimization, reflection, and maintaining gender norms and values in religious communities. The authors of this issue do not merely analyze femininity and masculinity, sexuality and family relations in various religious communities, but also their interpretation and regulation in the framework of “lived religion.” They examine different cases of construction of and reflection on gender in Islam, Roman Catholicism, Evangelicalism, Orthodox Christianity, and Judaism.