Main Theme

Gender Discourse Transformation within Contemporary Catholicism

This article analyzes the transformation of gender discourse within contemporary Catholicism after Vatican II Council. The author shows how numerous discussions among Catholic intellectuals and ordinary Catholics on gender equality, women’s role in the church tradition, respect to sexual minorities and other out-groups historically discriminated within the traditionalist conservative approach are being actualized at the current stage of development of Catholic thought.

“Blessed Are You, Who Has (Not) Made Me a Woman”? Feminist Turn in Judaism and Jewish Studies

The article presents a review of the scholarship published in the last half-century that constitutes the feminist turn in Judaism and Jewish studies and analyzes the causes and the main trends of this phenomenon, in particular, the practice of combining academic research and public activism. The first part of this review examines feminist criticism of Judaism and feminist theorizing aimed at gender reform of contemporary Judaism. The second part analyzes research that recovers women’s presence in Biblical, Talmudic, and medieval Judaism.

Women Talking About Women: A Muslim Woman in the Tatar Periodical Press of the Early 20th Century

This article deals with the study of the formation of two gender discourses, male and female, in Muslim Tatar periodicals of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. The study is based on an analysis of such journals as “Syuyumbike”, “Azat Khanym” (“Liberated Woman”), the most authoritative journal of the Russian Muslims “Shura” (“The Council”), and other periodicals that dealt with the “women’s issue.” In this discourse, women took as active part as men, with respective differences.

Gender Strategies and Disciplinary Practices in Religious Communities. Introduction

What is the mechanism of construction and implementation of masculinity and femininity, family and sexuality in various religious communities? Strategies and disciplinary practices, especially related to gender, play a paramount role in all religious cultures. Individual piety and sin are regarded through the prism of proper sexual behavior and precise definition of the role of every gender in a theological discourse.

The Study of Religion in Russia at the End of the 19th and the First Quarter of the 20th century: From Phenomenological Description to Critical Study

This article is devoted to the main trends in the development of the science of religion in Russia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Unlike in other European countries, Russian universities lacked theological departments, and the study of religion was concentrated exclusively within the Church schools. This was one reason for the late development of the science of religion in Russia.

From the History of Russian Religious Studies: The Origins of the Scientific Psychology of Religion in Russia (Late 19th to Early 20th Centuries)

This paper treats the psychological direction of the study of religion in Russia in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Psychological approaches to investigating religiosity in Russia in this period can be divided into two main areas: the philosophical-psychological (N.I. Grot, G.I. Chelpanov, L.M. Lopatin, etc.) and the scientific (V.M. Bekhterev, A.A. Tokarsky, V.F. Chizh, A.F. Lazursky, A.I. Jarockij, etc.).

The First Russian Female Scholars of Religion and Their Academic Legacy

This article is devoted to the study of the academic careers and public activities of three Russian female scholars, Nadejda Brullova- Shaskolskaya, Sara Ratner-Shternberg and Vera Kharuzina, in the context of the history of Russian religious studies in the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. Theirs was some of the first research work in Russia that highlighted the new science of religion.

D.A. Chwolson as an Expert Witness and Student of Abraham Geiger: Three Chapters from a Scientific Biography

This article is based on unpublished sources from St. Petersburg archives (the Manuscript Department of the Russian National Library, the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy, and the Russian State Historical Archive). It explores the forms and methods of Daniel Chwolson’s (1819–1911) work on academic protection for the Jewish minority. Apart from his well-known effort to refute blood libel accusations that spanned five decades (1861–1911), Chwolson’s activities on behalf of Jews included less obvious projects and approaches.

The Formation of Russian Islamic Studies: Between Confessionalism and Scientific Objectivity (Second Half of the 19th to the Beginning of the 20th Century)

This article is devoted to an analysis of the emergence of Islamic studies in Russia in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The Faculty of Oriental Languages at St. Petersburg University opened in 1855, and the so-called Anti-Muslim Branch in Kazan Theological Academy opened in 1854. The two schools were usually called the “academic” and the “Kazan missionary” school, respectively. The key figures in the academic school were A. Kazem-bek, V. Rozen, V. Barthold, A. Schmidt, and I. Krachkovsky.

The Religion of Ancient Mesopotamia in the Works of St. Petersburg Orientalists and Folklorists of the Late 19th to Early 20th Centuries

This article reviews publications by St. Petersburg orientalists and folklorists on various aspects of Mesopotamian religion. In each case, it determines the place of the work in modern scholarship.

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