This new volume offers enlightening new perspectives on the roles of love, sex, and gender in different faiths and covers issues from gender politics to religious ecstasy.

A unique exploration of sex and religion, covering a wide range of issues from marriage and celibacy, passion and love, to veiling, mystical union, and symbolism.

This is the first comprehensive resource on the subject of love in the teachings of the world's major religions, cultures, and philosophies. Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions is the first reference work to offer a comprehensive portrait of love in the context of the classic and contemporary literature of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, as well as other cultures and philosophies. Like no volume published to date, it reveals the full richness of religious teachings on love in all its many forms, exploring an extensive range of topics that offer philosophical, psychological, and religious perspectives to guide the quest for the meaning of love. Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions features approximately 300 subject entries, as well as insightful biographic sketches of preeminent thinkers, all written by a multidisciplinary team of some of the foremost scholars on the subject. Entries examine both general and culture-specific interpretations of love: not just the dichotomy of spiritual and physical love, but the full emotional spectrum of love in relationships and practices. Collectively, they encompass love's integral—and sometimes conflicting—role in shaping beliefs and behavior in a vastly diverse world.

Exploring one of the most controversial topics in contemporary theology, this scholarly volume reveals what the world's great faiths—East and West—preach about sexuality, with a special emphasis on American religion. What do the world's most important religious texts have to say about one of humanity's favorite activities? Editors David W. Machacek and Melissa M. Wilcox have brought together top scholars in the field of religious studies to ask and answer these critical questions. Carefully researched, elegantly written, and respectfully presented, Sexuality and the World's Religions explores the intersection of the spiritual and the carnal in Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and African and Native American spiritual traditions. A separate section explores critical religious and sexual topics in American society, including the role of spirituality in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities; the role of sex in the modern witchcraft community; and the ever thorny problem of religion and sexual liberty. Reconciling sexuality and spirituality in every human soul is one of religion's most important tasks. Students and other readers will find this timely and comprehensive volume of interest in exploring these issues.

"Offers a collection of diverse and authoritative viewpoints on the ... relationship between spirituality and sexuality in the world's major religions ... Each chapter explores the teachings and practices of a particular religion regarding sex and sexuality, explains controversial issues, and describes the diverse responses to those issues that exist within that traditions. This collection is perfect for courses in religion and sexuality, religion and gender, world religions, or the social aspects of religion"--Page 4 of cover.

Winner of the 2008 Grawemeyer Award in Religion This long-awaited book by one of American Christianity's foremost ethicists proposes a framework for sexual ethics whereby justice is the criterion for all loving, including love that is related to sexual activity and relationships. It begins with historical and cross-cultural explorations, then addresses the large questions of embodiment, gender, and sexuality, and finally delineates the justice framework for sexual ethics. Though Just Love's particular focus is Christian sexual ethics, Farley's framework is broad enough to have relevance for multiple traditions. Also covered are specific issues in sexual ethics, including same-sex relationships, marriage and family, divorce and second marriage.

The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality, and Gender presents an unrivalled overview of the theological study of sexuality and gender. These topics are not merely contentious and pervasive: they have escalated in importance within theology. Theologians increasingly agree that even the very doctrine of God cannot be contemplated without a prior grappling with each. Featuring 41 newly-commissioned essays, written by some of the foremost scholars in the discipline, this authoritative collection presents and develops the latest thinking in these areas. Divided into eight thematic sections, the Handbook explores: methodological approaches; contributions from neighbouring disciplines; sexuality and gender in the Bible, and in the Christian tradition; controversies within the churches, and within four of the non-Christian faiths; and key concepts and issues. The final, extended section considers theology in relation to married people and families; gay and lesbian people; bisexual people; intersex and transgender people; disabled people; and to friends. This volume is an essential reference for students and scholars, which will also stimulate further research.

Intersex is an umbrella term for many different conditions that cause ambiguous sexual biology. Intersex people are "in between," neither clearly male nor clearly female. Intersex has been largely hidden through surgery and secrecy, but is now coming out into the open. Many intersex people have experienced physical, psychological, and relational pain because of the shame attached to their bodily difference. The existence of people with unusual sexual biology presents a challenge to the Christian ideal of humanity as male and female. How can evangelical Christians rightly respond to this phenomenon? Intersex in Christ provides a balance of grace and truth, upholding male and female as God's created intent, while insisting that there is a positive place in the kingdom of God and the world for people with unusual sexual biology. Intersex people are created in the image of God, because of the love of God. Jesus accepts, loves, and dignifies intersex people. The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for all people, however sexed. An evangelical response to intersex will therefore be one of acceptance, love, justice, and inclusion. Intersex in Christ will help both intersex Christians and the church to understand intersex through the lens of Christ.

A groundbreaking cross-sectional study of the forms and extent of gender inequality in the "Big Five" religions of the world Sexism in Major Religions: A Comparative Introduction provides clear and accessible analyses of the complex forms of androcentrism and patriarchy in five of the world’s major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. With a unique comparative-thematic methodology, this student-friendly textbook bridges the gap between Religious Studies and courses in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Feminist Studies, Religion and Society, and more. Following a brief introduction to each religious system covered, Sexism in Major Religions defines important terms and concepts in modern religious feminism, including sex and gender, androcentrism and patriarchy, and revolutionary and reform feminisms. Each remaining chapter focuses on one of seven themes representing the main sources and manifestations of religious discrimination against women, such as the gender of the deity, the duties of the mother, and the status of the wife within marriage. Throughout the text, author Paul Gwynne discusses the formal gender-biased teachings and practices, distinctive features, intersecting areas, and core arguments of conservative defenders and feminist critics of each religion. Provides students with deep comparative insight into the similarities and differences between major religions on issues of gender equality Offers a fresh and original approach to exploring the forms of sexism across seven distinct themes Presents a timely and accurate account of the "landscape of sexism" in five of the world's largest religions Includes a dedicated chapter examining the status of intersex and transgender persons in religious systems Designed to broaden students' understanding of religions through systematic and impartial discussion, Sexism in Major Religions: A Comparative Introduction is an ideal textbook for undergraduate courses in Religious Studies and Social Sciences programs, as well as an invaluable resource for general readers interested in understanding and reforming sexist features within religious traditions.

Sex and religion are inevitably and intricately linked. There are few realms of human experience other than sex in which religion has greater reach and influence. The role of religion, of any faith, to prohibit, regulate, condemn, and reward, is unavoidably prominent in questions of sex—namely with whom, when, how, and why. In Sex and Religion, Dag Øistein Endsjø examines the myriad and complex religious attitudes towards sex in cultures throughout the world. Endsjø reflects on some of the most significantly problematic areas in the relationship between sex and religion—from sex before or outside of marriage to homosexuality. Through many examples from world religions, he outlines what people mean by sex in a religious context, with whom it’s permissible to have sex, how sex can be a directly religious experience, and what consequences there are for deviance, for both the individual and society. As Endsjø explains, while Buddhist monks call attention to gay sex as a holy mystery, the Christian church questions a homosexual’s place in the church. Some religions may believe that promiscuity leads to hurricanes and nuclear war, and in others God condemns interracial marriage. Sex and Religion reveals there is nothing natural or self-evident about the ways in which various religions prescribe or proscribe and bless or condemn different types of sexuality. Whether sex becomes sacred or abhorrent depends entirely on how a religion defines it. Sex and Religion is a fascinating investigation of mores, meanings, rituals, and rules in many faiths around the globe, and will be of interest to anyone curious about the intersection of these fundamental aspects of human history and experience.