Books Spirit of equality often permeates sacred texts
WHAT MEN OWE TO
WOMEN: MENS VOICES FROM WORLD RELIGIONS John C. Raines and
Daniel C. Maguire, editors State University of New York Press, 303 pages,
$59.50 |
REVIEWED By SALLY
CUNNEEN
Since the early 1970s we have heard the voices of women detailing
the gender inequities long prevalent in the worlds religions. In this
book, they are at last joined by a formidable collection of male scholars who
know their traditions intimately. Reflecting on these traditions -- ranging
from Hinduism, Buddhism, Orthodox Judaism, Taoism, Islam, African and Native
American religions to Protestantism and Catholicism -- each man finds useful
resources for gender equality. A few go further and provide insightful
critiques of the contemporary economic and social reality that makes the need
to work for social justice for women essential for the survival of religion
itself.
The editors have done something rare in compiling such an
anthology: They brought the authors together several times to share their work
and to hear from four distinguished feminist scholars before finishing their
pieces. The result is an unusually coherent collection offering insights into
religions about which most Westerners know little. Admittedly the authors are
from the progressive wings of their own religions: Muslim Asghar Ali Engineer,
for example, lives under constant threat of death because of his arguments that
the rights of Muslim women are based upon the Quran itself. Such personal
information about the contributors, included in the introduction, helps the
reader interpret their very individual answers to the broad question: What do
men owe women?
The answers vary greatly in style and content, though all
acknowledge that the main problem is to inform the social reality of
long-entrenched domination of women with the spirit of equality that often
permeates sacred texts. In A Hindu Perspective, Anantanand
Rambachan provides an informative introduction to the split between Hindu
religious sources and entrenched social conditions within Hindu culture that
have long treated women unjustly. Women are not valued for themselves but are
accorded significance and status only in relation to men. The result is that
they are routinely abused through the dowry system, in marriage, widowhood and
in the overwhelming preference for sons. Yet the classical religious texts
spell out a spiritual ideal that speaks of the sameness of the divine in women
as well as men. Justice requires that this imbalance be redressed and
that mutual obligations be emphasized, Rambachan writes.
Mutumbo Nkulu-Sengha opens the window on the often
ambivalent attitudes within African traditional religions that hurt women,
manipulating the will of the ancestors to preserve male power and privileges. A
recent Nigerian survey, for example, that asked, If you could be born
again, would you choose to be a man or a woman? revealed that 48 percent
of the girls wanted to be born as boys, while only 6 percent of the boys wanted
to be born as girls.
Mutumbo points out that this situation exists not only within
traditional religion, but even more within the world economic order that
surrounds and affects it today. He finds in Bumuntu a key concept of
personhood that cuts across all African differences, a possible source of
elevating women to full human dignity. Bumuntu stresses the divine
origin of personhood and the intrinsic equality of men and women. Mutumbo
concludes that the struggle against sexism is not a charity but a duty, indeed
a matter of justice and common sense. As wisdom of the traditional Yoruban
religion of West Africa puts it: Iwa lesin (Good character is the
essence of religion). Such is the African formulation of the Golden
Rule, and the main spirit of African tradition. Sexism is a good test for
the humanity of any man and the credibility of his faith and obedience to the
will of the ancestors.
Buddhist Tavivat Puntarigvivat is equally damning in his
description of how global capitalism is increasing the heartbreaking trade in
girls and women in Asia, dooming them to slave labor and prostitution. His
recommendation of restoring an ancient order of nuns in order to rehabilitate
womens dignity in the face of such oppression seems only a small step,
but the author has certainly informed us of problems we too often forget.
The volume is rich and diverse. Rabbi Zeev W. Falk finds
prospects for a change in gender equality in the Torah. Gerard Sloyans
overview of the history of Catholic treatment of women is realistic, balanced
and optimistic about the inevitability of change. He concludes that
womens demand for a rightful place in the church is needed and
appropriate. But even more pressing is the demand of this church, over a
billion strong, for the rightful place of women in the world.
The most radical perspective is that of Native North American
Christopher Ronwanien:te Jocks, a religious scholar of Mohawk descent. The
Original Instructions given to his people make thanksgiving for all
things in this world their first obligation. It is the women, through the clan
system, who in many ways maintain and care for the very heart of the
communitys culture -- in the radical sense of the fertile ground, made up
of the living and the dead, from which shared community grows.
Jocks believes that technological and economic influences have
done far more to subvert traditional Mohawk life than Christian missionaries or
soldiers. It is here that we face a common enemy: We are all being colonized by
the marketplace. Unless we can stop exploiting the earth, he asks, how can we
begin to relate more equitably to women? He is not overly optimistic, offering
only a few historical precedents and ideas, but his analysis is accurate and
moving, a clear challenge to his readers.
What Men Owe to Women should be both a resource and a
springboard for further discussion. Women as well as men need to know what it
says, then add their own experience and views to a subject critical to
contemporary life as well as religion.
Sally Cunneens doctorate is in philosophy. She is the
author of In Search of Mary and is teaching a course on Mary at
Fairfield University. Her e-mail address is SCunn24219@aol.com
National Catholic Reporter, April 27,
2001
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