Gender and Religion

The course addresses the role of gender in world religions on the basis of the historical and socio - cultural approach. It presents the historical overview of the role of gender in the major world religions, paying particular attention to the role of women: in Buddhism ( Buddhist teachings overview of the main, the situation of women in early Indian Buddhism, women in mahayana and vajrayana tantric Buddhism and contemporary problems faced by women in Buddhism), Christianity (Women in the Bible, the ideal of celibacy, the figure of the Virgin Mary, women as priests), Hinduism (Women in the Sruti literature - the Vedas, brahman, Aranyake, Upanishads, women and myths, traditions subordination of women in the bhakti tradition, women councilors in the past and today, women's representations of the Deity, women in contemporary Hinduism, the importance of widows), Islam (the role of women in shaping Islam, two versions of the devotional life of women in Islam, the rights and duties of women under Islamic law (the question of divorce, inheritance, masking, cropping), Judaism (Women in the Torah and rabbinic Judaism: education , marriage, monogamy and polygamy, family life, the creation of laws on marriage, sexuality and Niddah, virginity, divorce ...), the Sikhs (family life, monogamy, marriage fidelity, marriage widows, purdah, infanticide of female offspring ...) in Chinese religions (sexuality and fertility, marginalization of women, women and religious representatives, Yin and Mother's principle of early Taoism) in Japanese religions (Buddhism and a new religion, family and folk religion).