Ten ‘We are all Goddesses’: female sacred paths in Italy
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Roberta Pibiri
Abstract
This chapter reflects on the relations between gender and religion, by analysing a new form of spirituality coming from the Anglophone world — Goddess Spirituality — which has arrived in Italy in the new millennium. Goddess Spirituality is one of the most important and challenging forms, where the movement of rediscovering paths of the sacred female is evident. As some studies demonstrate, while an ever increasing proportion of women leave the Catholic Church, the majority do not redirect their spiritual seeking outside the Catholic milieu by approaching the world of so-called alternative spiritualities. Goddess Spirituality’s contemporaneous spiritual/secular orientation is a source of empowerment for its adherents because it is capable of integrating into its symbolic, axiological universe a gender concept with a sacred dimension.
Abstract
This chapter reflects on the relations between gender and religion, by analysing a new form of spirituality coming from the Anglophone world — Goddess Spirituality — which has arrived in Italy in the new millennium. Goddess Spirituality is one of the most important and challenging forms, where the movement of rediscovering paths of the sacred female is evident. As some studies demonstrate, while an ever increasing proportion of women leave the Catholic Church, the majority do not redirect their spiritual seeking outside the Catholic milieu by approaching the world of so-called alternative spiritualities. Goddess Spirituality’s contemporaneous spiritual/secular orientation is a source of empowerment for its adherents because it is capable of integrating into its symbolic, axiological universe a gender concept with a sacred dimension.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures, tables and appendices v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Women and religion: contemporary and future challenges: editors’ introduction 1
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Women, gender equality and religion between past and present
- Gender equality in different readings of Islam in post-revolutionary Iran 21
- Religion and gender equality in Catholic Philippines: discourses and practices in the 21st century 41
- A slow march forward: the impact of religious change on gender ideology in the contemporary United States 59
- Divine shadows: Indian Devadasis between religious beliefs and sexual exploitation 79
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Identities, women’s movements and religion
- Formation of ‘religious’ identity among British Muslim women 95
- Christian women’s movements in secularizing and diversifying contexts: a case study from Belgium 117
- Muslim women in contemporary Argentina 135
- The impact of religious unorthodoxy on family choices and women’s well-being in Turkey 157
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Contemporary women’s religious experiences
- ‘Between me and my God’: a life story narrative of conciliating cultural discourses and personalization of Islam 175
- ‘We are all Goddesses’: female sacred paths in Italy 191
- Explorations of spiritual embodiment in belly dance 207
- From exclusion to inclusion: women and interfaith dialogue in the Mediterranean area 221
- Index 237
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures, tables and appendices v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Women and religion: contemporary and future challenges: editors’ introduction 1
-
Women, gender equality and religion between past and present
- Gender equality in different readings of Islam in post-revolutionary Iran 21
- Religion and gender equality in Catholic Philippines: discourses and practices in the 21st century 41
- A slow march forward: the impact of religious change on gender ideology in the contemporary United States 59
- Divine shadows: Indian Devadasis between religious beliefs and sexual exploitation 79
-
Identities, women’s movements and religion
- Formation of ‘religious’ identity among British Muslim women 95
- Christian women’s movements in secularizing and diversifying contexts: a case study from Belgium 117
- Muslim women in contemporary Argentina 135
- The impact of religious unorthodoxy on family choices and women’s well-being in Turkey 157
-
Contemporary women’s religious experiences
- ‘Between me and my God’: a life story narrative of conciliating cultural discourses and personalization of Islam 175
- ‘We are all Goddesses’: female sacred paths in Italy 191
- Explorations of spiritual embodiment in belly dance 207
- From exclusion to inclusion: women and interfaith dialogue in the Mediterranean area 221
- Index 237
