This volume examines questions concerning the construction of gender and identity in the earliest days of what is now Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Methodologically explicit, the contributions analyze textual and material sources related to these religious traditions in their cultural contexts. The sources examined are predominantly products of patriarchal elite discourses requiring innovative approaches to unveil aspects of gender otherwise hidden. This volume extends the discussion represented in the volume Gender and Second-Temple Judaism (2020) and highlights the fruitfulness of interdisciplinary research beyond anachronistic discipline distinctions.
Shayna Sheinfeld is assistant professor of religion at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Juni Hoppe is junior executive editor of the Encyclopedia of Jewish-Christian Relations (EJCR) and director of the Intercultural Center Genezareth (IZG) in Berlin, Germany. Kathy Ehrensperger is research fellow at the Faculty of Theology, University of Basel, Switzerland.
Constructions of Gender in Religious Traditions of Late Antiquity represents a milestone in the study of religious traditions of Late Antiquity. Departing from the cloistered research on Second Temple Judaism, Early and Medieval Christianity, Rabbinics, and Early Islam, a feminist collaboration of renowned scholars substantiates the complexity and diversity of constructions of gender in this broad period. Through novel and interdisciplinary methodologies and gender-sensitive lens, they analyze in depth the normative status of the three monotheistic traditions. Reconstructing rhyzomatic models, the different studies delve into porous borders, small networks, and gendered processes by acknowledging diverse power dynamics and intersectionalities. Those fuzzy borders challenge as well the limits of historical categories, as Late Antiquity, by providing innovative perspectives on gender in religious traditions as further comprehensive markers of temporality and territoriality. This collective volume is a must-read for scholars in Gender Studies, Religious Traditions, and Late Antiquity. --Magdalena Diaz Araujo, National University of Cuyo This volume gathers leading scholars of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam working on the intersection of gender and the intermingled religious practices in the post-Second Temple period. Taking gender as a fluid cultural construction that intersects with manifold religious practices, the fourteen chapters cover topics from Hellenistic-Jewish, tannaitic to late Rabbinic texts, so-called Gnostic writings as well as those from Alexandrian and Constantinopolitan Christian intellectuals, Quranic, and Sufi traditions, demonstrating the manifold ways that gender meanders along a slope of symbolic as well as material effect. This long-awaited volume is sure pave new avenues for the research on several of today's monotheistic religions. --Angela Standhartinger, University of Marburg With the use of diverse methodologies, the contributing authors in this volume skillfully expose the intricate web of gender constructions across the late ancient Mediterranean world. A triumph of contemporary intersectional lenses, this work illuminates the understanding that gender is, and always has been, a richly constructed mosaic in the religious imagination. --Jennifer Barry, University of Mary Washington
