Functionalist Perspective of Religion
Discuss the contribution of the feminist perspective to our understanding of religion?
While studying feminism, it is very hard not to notice that all the major religions are patriarchal, they all have male Gods and favor men to be the officials on earth. They frequently devise ways of excluding women from both church and society. Many more new age movements seem to be keeping this patriarchal order. This essay will explore the feminist perspective on religion and the different feminist opinions and how they help us to understand religion.
Feminism is a theory concerned with the nature of women 's global oppression and subordination to men, this oppression cause’s pain which stems from patriarchy, they see religion as serving the interests of men. Studying the feminist perspective on religion allows us to look further into religion and gender equality within organized religion.
When we look back in religion women have not always been oppressed. Looking back to the paganism religion, women were seen as the top spiritual leaders and they were worshiped not oppressed because they were seen as the givers of life, through childbirth. The fact that a woman gave each baby a home inside her for nine months of pregnancy was a sacred worshiped thing; it was not seen as a punishment as it is in the Christian Bible. In the Middle East and Asia women were considered central to the spiritual quest, Karen Armstrong regards it as "The earth produced plants and nourished them in rather the same way a woman gave birth to a child and fed it from her own body. The magical power of the earth seemed interconnected with the mysterious creativity of the female sex."(Cited in Investigating Religion pg 134) Many early religions perceived the supreme deity to be female.
Simone De Beauvoir was an early iconic feminist, and she argues: "Religion is an instrument used by men to dominate women." (Cited in Haralambos and Holborn pg415) De Beauvoir had opinions in that religion
While studying feminism, it is very hard not to notice that all the major religions are patriarchal, they all have male Gods and favor men to be the officials on earth. They frequently devise ways of excluding women from both church and society. Many more new age movements seem to be keeping this patriarchal order. This essay will explore the feminist perspective on religion and the different feminist opinions and how they help us to understand religion.
Feminism is a theory concerned with the nature of women 's global oppression and subordination to men, this oppression cause’s pain which stems from patriarchy, they see religion as serving the interests of men. Studying the feminist perspective on religion allows us to look further into religion and gender equality within organized religion.
When we look back in religion women have not always been oppressed. Looking back to the paganism religion, women were seen as the top spiritual leaders and they were worshiped not oppressed because they were seen as the givers of life, through childbirth. The fact that a woman gave each baby a home inside her for nine months of pregnancy was a sacred worshiped thing; it was not seen as a punishment as it is in the Christian Bible. In the Middle East and Asia women were considered central to the spiritual quest, Karen Armstrong regards it as "The earth produced plants and nourished them in rather the same way a woman gave birth to a child and fed it from her own body. The magical power of the earth seemed interconnected with the mysterious creativity of the female sex."(Cited in Investigating Religion pg 134) Many early religions perceived the supreme deity to be female.
Simone De Beauvoir was an early iconic feminist, and she argues: "Religion is an instrument used by men to dominate women." (Cited in Haralambos and Holborn pg415) De Beauvoir had opinions in that religion
Bibliography: Ref: Akbur, A. and Taylor, J. (2008) The Many faces behind the veil, The Independent January 13th 2010. Ref: Best, S and Griffiths, J (2000): Active Sociology: AS level and A level, Newyor Longman. Ref: Bird, J. (1999) Investigating Religion: Collins Educational Limited. Ref: Macionis, J Plummer, K. (2008) Sociology: A Global Introduction. Essex: Pearson Prentice Hall Ref: Harambos, M and Holborn, M. (2004) Sociology Themes and Perspectives, sixth Edition, Seventh Edition: HarperCollins Publishers Limited.