Abstract
While the Catholic theology of gender places great emphasis on the gendered body, it tends to be overly abstract and simplistic. A more realistic theology of gender must be centered on actual women in the midst of their lives. This essay reflects on what a Catholic theology of gender can learn from Hindu women’s everyday rituals—which transform women’s bodies and channel power ritually through women to their families and society—in conversation with mujerista theology (Latina and Hispanic women’s theology). Ultimately, Tiemeier aims to reconstruct a broader ritual theology that decenters the male hierarchy, recenters the sacred on the gendered body engaged in the world, and expands the Catholic sacramental imagination into the ritual of everyday life.
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Notes
- 1.
See Joshua J. McElwee, “Francis Institutes Commission to Study Female Deacons, Appointing Gender-Balanced Membership,” National Catholic Reporter, August 2, 2016, https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-institutes-commission-study-female-deacons-appointing-gender-balanced
- 2.
See Joshua J. McElwee, “Pope Francis Confirms Finality of Ban on Ordaining Women Priests,” National Catholic Reporter, November 1, 2016, https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/pope-francis-confirms-finality-ban-ordaining-women
- 3.
John Paul II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (Vatican: May 22, 1994), https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1994/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19940522_ordinatio-sacerdotalis.html
- 4.
Francis, as quoted in Joshua J. McElwee, “Pope Francis Confirms Finality of Ban on Ordaining Women Priests.”
- 5.
“Petrine” refers to the apostle Peter. Catholic tradition interprets passages about Peter in Christian scripture in such a way that Jesus has given Peter himself special authority to lead the Church , as well as those priests, bishops, and popes who follow in Peter’s footsteps.
- 6.
In Catholic tradition, Mary, the mother of Jesus, represents the Church. The Church models itself on the actions of Mary, and this is the “Marian dimension.”
- 7.
Francis, as quoted in Joshua J. McElwee, “Pope Francis Confirms Finality of Ban on Ordaining Women Priests.”
- 8.
Tertullian, “On the Apparel of Women,” in Eve & Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender, ed. Kristen E. Kvam, Linda S. Schearing, and Valarie H. Ziegler (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), 132–133.
- 9.
Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, 2.8, Internet Medieval Sourcebook, http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/anselm-curdeus.asp#BCHAPTER VIII
- 10.
John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem (Vatican: August 15, 1998), 17, https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19880815_mulieris-dignitatem.html
- 11.
Ibid., 18.
- 12.
John Paul II, “Letter of Pope John Paul II to Women (Vatican: June 29, 1995), 11, https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1995/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_29061995_women.html
- 13.
Joseph Ratzinger, “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women” (Vatican: May, 31, 2004), 13, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040731_collaboration_en.html
- 14.
Ibid.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Ibid., 16.
- 17.
Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (Vatican: November 24, 2013), 284, https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html
- 18.
The Upanishads are a collection of holy texts that explore the true nature of ritual, self, and reality, and teach paths to liberation . Some Upanishads are part of the Vedas (the oldest and most sacred of Hindu scriptures).
- 19.
Taittiriya Upanishad 2.2.1, in Upanisads (Oxford World’s Classics), trans. Patrick Olivelle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 185.
- 20.
T. N. Madan, “Concerning the Categories Subha and Suddha in Hindu Culture: An Exploratory Essay,” in Purity and Auspiciousnes in Indian Society, ed. John B. Carman and Frédérique A. Marglin (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985), 13.
- 21.
Ibid., 17.
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Ibid., 15.
- 24.
Ibid., 18.
- 25.
The Bhagavad Gita is a part of the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. In it, Krishna, incarnation (avatar) of Vishnu, counsels Arjuna on the eve of a great battle and teaches the truth of sacred duty (dharma ), self (atman), the world, reality (Brahman ), action (karma ), and liberation .
- 26.
Bhagavad Gita 14.12. Gita references from Bhagavad Gita (Penguin Classics), trans. Laurie L. Patton (London: Penguin Books, 2008), 158.
- 27.
Bhagavad Gita 14.13.
- 28.
Bhagavad Gita 14.14.
- 29.
Krishna is believed by many Hindus past and present to be an incarnation of the Hindu deity, Vishnu.
- 30.
Bhagavad Gita 14.26.
- 31.
Bhagavad Gita 14.6.
- 32.
While “sati” has come to refer to the act of widow burning, it primarily refers to the woman herself. See John Stratton Hawley, “Introduction,” in Sati, the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India, ed. John Stratton Hawley (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 12–13.
- 33.
Lindsey Harlan, “Words That Breach Walls: Women’s Rituals in Rajasthan,” in Women’s Lives, Women’s Rituals in the Hindu Tradition, ed. Tracy Pintchman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 65–66.
- 34.
Lindsey Harlan, “Perfection and Devotion: Sati Tradition in Rajasthan,” in Sati, the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India, ed. John Stratton Hawley (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 80–81.
- 35.
Mary McGee, “Desired Fruits: Motive and Intention in the Votive Rites of Hindu Women,” in Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women, ed. Julia Leslie (Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991), 88.
- 36.
June McDaniel, Making Virtuous Daughters and Wives: An Introduction to Women’s Brata Rituals in Bengali Fold Religion (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003), 30.
- 37.
Ibid., 29.
- 38.
Anne Mackenzie Pearson, “Because It Gives Me Peace of Mind”: Ritual Fasts in the Religious Lives of Hindu Women (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), 133–157.
- 39.
McGee, “Desired Fruits: Motive and Intention in the Votive Rites of Hindu Women,” 79.
- 40.
Ibid., 76.
- 41.
Ibid., 76–77.
- 42.
Ibid., 80.
- 43.
Vijaya Rettakudi Nagarajan, “Threshold Designs, Forehead Dots, and Menstruation Rituals: Exploring Time and Space in Tamil Kolams,” in Women’s Lives, Women’s Rituals in the Hindu Tradition, ed. Tracy Pintchman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 85.
- 44.
See Vijaya Nagarajan, “Rituals of Embedded Ecologies: Drawing Kolams, Marrying Trees, and Generating Auspiciousness,” in Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water, ed. Christopher Key Chapple and Mary Evelyn Tucker (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).
- 45.
Nagarajan, “Threshold Designs, Forehead Dots, and Menstruation Rituals: Exploring Time and Space in Tamil Kolams,” 88.
- 46.
Ibid., 88.
- 47.
Nagarajan, “Rituals of Embedded Ecologies: Drawing Kolams, Marrying Trees, and Generating Auspiciousness,” 465.
- 48.
Nagarajan, “Threshold Designs, Forehead Dots, and Menstruation Rituals: Exploring Time and Space in Tamil Kolams,” 87.
- 49.
For a fuller discussion on this topic, see Anantanand Rambachan, A Hindu Theology of Liberation: Not-Two is Not One, Reprint ed. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015).
- 50.
See John Stratton Hawley, ed., Sati, the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).
- 51.
For a fuller discussion on mujerista theology , see Ada María Isasi-Díaz, En La Lucha/In the Struggle: Elaborating a Mujerista Theology, 10th Anniversary Ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
- 52.
Ada María Isasi-Díaz, Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996), 66.
- 53.
Ibid., 67–68.
- 54.
Ibid., 131.
- 55.
Ada María Isasi-Díaz, “Mujerista Discourse: A Platform for Latinas’ Subjugated Knowledge,” in Decolonizing Epistempologies: Latina/o Theology and Philosophy, ed. Ada María Isasi-Díaz and Eduardo Mendieta (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012), 64–65.
- 56.
Isasi-Díaz, Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century, 67–69.
- 57.
Isasi-Díaz, “Mujerista Discourse: A Platform for Latinas’ Subjugated Knowledge,” 48–49.
- 58.
Isasi-Díaz, Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century, 170–202.
- 59.
Ibid., 197–198.
- 60.
Ibid., 193.
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Tiemeier, T.S. (2018). The Ritual of Everyday Life: Hindu Women’s Rituals, Mujerista Theology, and the Catholic Theology of Gender. In: Gustafson, H. (eds) Learning from Other Religious Traditions. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76108-4_4
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