{"title":"Virgin Territory: Configuring Female Virginity in Early Christianity By J. K. Lillis (2023)","authors":"Jeannie Sellick","doi":"10.1558/bar.26756","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.26756","url":null,"abstract":"Virgin Territory: Configuring Female Virginity in Early Christianity By J. K. Lillis (2023) Oakland: University of California Press, xvi + 222pp.","PeriodicalId":247531,"journal":{"name":"Body and Religion","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114593361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Be content with the decree of Allah’","authors":"Garrett Kiriakos-Fugate","doi":"10.1558/bar.22482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.22482","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the fatwas of Salafi-Sunni and conservative Shi'i scholars on transsexuality, and how their legal reasoning is limited by the cis-heteropatriarchal nature they ascribe to the nafs (self). Most Shi'i jurists in Iran permit sex-reassignment surgeries, while Salafi scholars forbid them as adulterations to the body except in the case of intersex persons. Both inherit normative legal reasoning that privileges the able-bodied, adult, free man as normative. They reference premodern rulings on the khuntha (those with ambiguous genitalia) and build upon the criteria developed by their predecessors to determine an individual’s so-called ‘true’ sex/gender. These scholars also take part in a contemporary world in which the body is medically and psychologically overburdened with gendered meanings. After analyzing these fatwas, I discuss how these cis-heteropatriarchal conceptions of the nafs greatly limit juristic creativity in addressing the spiritual wellbeing of trans, intersex, and non-binary Muslims.","PeriodicalId":247531,"journal":{"name":"Body and Religion","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115206702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"space for the truth","authors":"Arpan Bhandari","doi":"10.1558/bar.22398","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.22398","url":null,"abstract":"Hosayn b. Mansur Hallaj’s (d. 922 CE) words ‘I am the truth’ gave premodern Muslims, followers and scholars alike, an unconventional perspective on self-hood, embodiment, and the body–soul dichotomy. For Hallaj, his masculine identity suggested that his corporeal existence was made in the image of the divine. As a result, he was able to view himself as being near the divine, however, unable to unify with the divine given the limits of the flesh. This study reads Hallaj’s words through the perspective of masculinity and space. Hallaj’s embodied masculine existence gave him the ability to draw parallels between himself and the divine. By drawing these parallels, Hallaj was engaging in an esoteric understanding of God, which was considered blasphemous by his companions and the political elite. This article works through three sections that illustrate the complexity of Hallaj’s words, the issues of embodiment, and the role of gender in this conversation.","PeriodicalId":247531,"journal":{"name":"Body and Religion","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116909119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reading the self through a hermeneutic of divine immanence","authors":"Rose Deighton-Mohammed","doi":"10.1558/bar.22475","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.22475","url":null,"abstract":"Research in the field of Sufism and gender attests to the patriarchal and elite male foundations of the tradition. Scholars highlight how patriarchal renderings of Sufism emphasize divine transcendence and frame Sufi training of the self (nafs) through punitive mechanisms. Through a case study of Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi, the grand Shaykha (Sufi guide) of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi community, this article explores approaches to Sufism that resist its patriarchal formulations. Shaykha Fariha’s teachings about the self, Sufi training methods, and pedagogical relationships show critical reflection on the effects of patriarchy on individuals with varying social and embodied experiences. She resists patriarchy by engaging in a hermeneutic of divine immanence, a multi-faceted way of interpreting the body and material elements of creation as the divine immanent. This article demonstrates scenarios in which a hermeneutic of divine immanence informs Shaykha Fariha’s pedagogy and her approach to training the self through embodied self-exploration.","PeriodicalId":247531,"journal":{"name":"Body and Religion","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123968227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"man-like woman and the menstruating man","authors":"Sara Abdel-Latif","doi":"10.1558/bar.23377","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.23377","url":null,"abstract":"There are a number of oblique references in Sufi literature to pious women whose austerities resulted in the loss of their menstrual cycle, as well as pious men who ascribed to themselves a type of metaphorical menstruation as a method of self-disparagement. This article analyzes such references in relation to dominant medieval Sufi discourses of purity and piety, in order to investigate the gendered rhetoric and presuppositions that underlie explicit and implicit allusions to menstruation in Sufi texts. In isolating and analyzing allusions to menstruation, four categories of reference emerge: depersonalization of menstrual blood, metaphorical male menstruation, masculinization of pious women, and reification of amenorrheic women. These narrative strategies, although applied inconsistently, all contribute to an overall deliberate effort by male authors to justify the inclusion of female bodies in male-dominated discursive spaces, while ultimately perpetuating hegemonic theologies of sacred masculinity. Through examining these inconsistent applications of gender in male-authored Sufi writings, this analysis identifies new avenues for revisiting medieval Islamicate notions of gendered identity in society in ways that dismantle ahistorical binary models of gender that have often skewed readings of Sufi and medieval Muslim sources.","PeriodicalId":247531,"journal":{"name":"Body and Religion","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120971990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gendering madness","authors":"Brittany Landorf","doi":"10.1558/bar.23222","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.23222","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I examine what narratives of enraptured madness (jadhb) and the figure of the mad female saint (majdhuba) reveal about the articulation of gendered saintly orthodoxy within the modern Moroccan hagiographical compendium Salwat al-Anfas wa-Muhadathat al-Akyas bi-man Uqbira min al-‘Ulama’ wa’l-Sulaha’ bi-Fas (The entertainment of souls and the discourse of the wise concerning the scholars and the Sufis who in Fez met their demise). Written by the nineteenth-century Moroccan historian and Sufi, Muhammad ibn Ja‘far al-Kattani, this text draws on and also plays with the genre of Sufi hagiography. Because it is arranged as a ‘tomb visiting guide,’ it appears to scatter traditional vestiges of Sufi hierarchies and rhetorical organization strategies, presenting a composite picture of Sufi sainthood. However, al-Kattani also reaffirms entrenched gendered hierarchies of spiritual authority. Throughout Salwat al-Anfas, al-Kattani’s depiction of the majdhuba acts as a literary foil for the paradigm of the ‘good Sufi woman’ or normative female sainthood. Although al-Kattani includes narratives of the majdhuba that depict potentially transgressive gender performances experienced within the state of enraptured madness – such as uncovering the body, growing a beard, babbling, gossiping, and acting aggressively in public spaces – these deviant performances serve to solidify normative modes of sainthood. Or, in other words, enraptured madness sticks to certain saints more than others, creating gendered hierarchies of spiritual authority.","PeriodicalId":247531,"journal":{"name":"Body and Religion","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136022344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Imagery, Ritual, and Birth: Ontology Between the Sacred and the Secular by A. Hennessey, foreword by R. E. Davis-Floyd","authors":"B. Kobow","doi":"10.1558/bar.26115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.26115","url":null,"abstract":"Imagery, Ritual, and Birth: Ontology Between the Sacred and the Secular by A. Hennessey, foreword by R. E. Davis Floyd (2019) Lanham: Lexington Books, xxi + 195pp., 35 figures","PeriodicalId":247531,"journal":{"name":"Body and Religion","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116878186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Play, Pain and Religion: Creating Gestalt through Kink Encounter by A. Robertson","authors":"Cody Musselman","doi":"10.1558/bar.26116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.26116","url":null,"abstract":"Play, Pain and Religion: Creating Gestalt through Kink Encounter by A. Robertson (2021) Bristol: Equinox, ix + 213pp., 15 figures","PeriodicalId":247531,"journal":{"name":"Body and Religion","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128471879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Physiology is Theology’","authors":"Rose Deighton-Mohammed","doi":"10.1558/bar.25141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.25141","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":247531,"journal":{"name":"Body and Religion","volume":"193 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122830370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam by S. C. Finley","authors":"Nick Andersen","doi":"10.1558/bar.26117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.26117","url":null,"abstract":"In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam by S. C. Finley (2022) Durham: Duke University Press, xi + 252pp., 4 figures","PeriodicalId":247531,"journal":{"name":"Body and Religion","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132703998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}