Product Description: Religion in French Feminist Thought: Critical Perspectives brings together some of the leading modern religious responses to major French feminist writings on religion. It considers central figures such as Hélène Cixous, Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray and Catherine Clément, and its focus on questions of divinity, subjectivity, and ethics provides an accessible introduction to an area of growing philosophical interest...read more

French Feminists on Religion: A Reader offers the first representative selection of important writings by French feminist thinkers on the topic of religion, including the most influential and provocative texts on the subject from Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous, Monique Wittig and Catherine Clément. Each thinker is introduced by a bibliographical preface, while individual essays are preceded by an editorial commentary explaining the context and significance of each piece for the study of religion.The collected texts cover a broad range of religious practices and discourses focusing primarily on Jewish and Christian concerns, but including elements of ancient Goddess traditions, Witchcraft, Hinduism and Buddhism. Critically examined themes include:* Jewish and Christian notions of sin, defilement, purity and redemption;* the relationship between subjectivity and divinity, as conceived in the feminine;* the feminist re-imaging of the Virgin Mary, and of Catholic theologies of love;* the repression of the maternal in Judeo-Christian culture.Brought together for the first time in French Feminist on Religion: A Reader, these essays demonstrate the central importance of French feminism for the study of religion, and at the same time make evident the significance of religious themes, figures and concepts to the world of French feminists. (view table of contents)