This paper aims at demonstrating that the perspective of gender is indispensable in research on religion. Accordingly, stories of religious experience in Japan’s new religions (shin shūkyō) were examined from the perspectives of salvation and gender.

In a well-known article on the “vitalistic conception of salvation” (seimeishugiteki kyūsai kan), this common belief system―shared by new religions in Japan―is discussed; however, it does not address the perspective of gender. Nevertheless, in certain stories of religious experiences, the influence of gender is evident.

In this study, I examine narratives of mothers and fathers as well as husbands and wives based on stories of religious experience as found in multiple religious organizations. Furthermore, I examined the gendered order functioning therein.

I found that a gendered order has a significant influence regarding the ascription of meaning to suffering and salvation. Views of salvation and gendered orders change under the influence of societal changes. Consequently, viewpoints related to both societal change and gender are indispensable for research on religion.

As one of the principal participants in the effort to pursue research on religion and gender in Japan, I will perform a survey of problems for religious studies in Japan that are clarified by gender-critical turns. I will then point out a number of directions that could be taken to redress these problems. This is no simple project, and I will approach it by means of the theoretical texts of two trailblazers in feminist studies in religion, Ursula King (Professor Emerita, University of Bristol) and Morny Joy (Professor, University of Calgary). I have engaged in exchanges with them for many years, and I will contextualize the importance of their theoretical texts for this project in Japan. I would like to emphasize here that even though they may differ in their motivations and methods, religion and feminism share a goal. That is, to realize a justice that affirms, for all women, the integrity of their very existence. It appears, however, that this realization is going to take more time yet not least in Japan.

In Japanese society, it is difficult for women to undertake ascetic practices. Firstly, traditional teachings and practices such as go-shō (the five obstacles) and ketsue (the notion of blood as pollution) are mobilized to prevent women from entering sacred spaces and states. Secondly, if the woman is married, she will immediately be met by major barriers to the completion of her ascetic training. This creates the challenge of maintaining the role of housewife at home whilst also undertaking ascetic training. In contrast, male practitioners are less likely to encounter such problems, even if they have a family life. There is an asymmetry at play based on gender differences: this becomes clear through applying an understanding of gender dynamics to the issues at hand.

This paper critically examines how folk studies and folk religious studies have depicted female religious people, including female ascetic practitioners. It will then discuss the need for an awareness of gender dynamics to be cultivated by researchers and religious authorities, and will consider the possibility of achieving gender equality in religious groups.

Although “spirituality” has been discussed in contrast to established religions, the feminist religious scholar Ursula King has pointed out that this “spirituality” is what happened when many women started to express their own spiritual experiences and thoughts both inside and outside of established religions. The movement of modern Japan's spirituality is not unrelated to this situation of women who suffer daily in contradiction with gender norms. In this article, “spirituality” is discussed as a movement where women find meaning and a sense of fulfillment in their lives and create changes in everyday life by themselves. These movements are spreading not only through the relationship between the healer and the client, but also between people who hold small healing events locally, owners of restaurants who want to help solve customers'problems, the healers who enliven the events together, and various customers visiting these events and restaurants.

This article aims to explore the relationships between religion and the social system called “sexuality-gender regime.” It deals with women called devadāsīs (female servants for deities) in India. They are married to the goddess Yellamma. As they never become widows, they remain auspicious. In India the conceptual opposition between auspiciousness and inauspiciousness plays the role of dividing women into two and justifies discrimination against so-called inauspicious women. On the other hand, devadāsīs and Yellamma enjoy special status and can subvert a given sexuality-gender regime. In the latter part of this article, I suggest that the concepts of chastity and promiscuousness divide women into two: those who are “good” for marriage and motherhood and those who are “good” for sexual pleasure. Shikyū-iinchō Haru, a charismatic leader, emphasizes the spiritual value of the womb, but does not admire motherhood, rather recommending a sexually promiscuous life. I recognize the subversive possibility in her writings. Whether in India or in Japan, people live in a sexuality-gender regime, which is repressive, but through a religious or spiritual channel they can disturb it.

The purpose of this study is to examine how Church Fathers saw women in their Biblical interpretations and theological controversies. While the title “Fathers” continues to be widely used for its convenience, this use is not without criticism for its gender bias (Charles Kannengiesser).

Gender is an important issue in the recent study of Christian origins. The roots of gender studies and feminist studies started within the discipline of Biblical studies. Articles from feminist perspectives elucidated the role of women in the early churches, and discovered some level of egalitarianism within the early Christian movement.

Recent church historians began to evaluate the role of women in the Christian communities from the perspective of gender criticism. Elizabeth Clark shows that most ancient Christian writings were highly literary and rhetorical in their construction, and illustrates the gender bias of Fathers by showing examples of their allegorical interpretations of Genesis 16.

But when we turn to the interpretation of the Abraham-Sarah-Hagar motif in Clement's Stromateis, he could effectively assert the value of learning by means of feminine disciplinary images. The sociologist Rodney Stark has argued that this early egalitarianism was one of the major contributing factors to the initial success of Christianity, so Clement seemed to show a sort of egalitarianism for the acquisition of Virtue.

Christianity is one of the leading religions that contributed to the proliferation of homophobic discourses and practices in the modern world. Queer theology has questioned and struggled with sexual norms in Christianity since the late 1980s. From the perspective of queer theology, this paper examines homophobic discourses, which are one cause of discrimination against sexual minorities. In the United States, the so-called fundamentalists and evangelicals emphasize “family values” as traditional or cultural values rooted in Christian faith. They use the term “traditional family” to refer to a traditional nuclear family, namely a household composed of a breadwinning father, a homemaking mother, and their biological children. In presuming and asserting this concept of family, they aim to oppose legalizing same-sex marriage. This paper analyzes the history of Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals with a focus on their political intervention. Further, the paper will show that there is no textual evidence for their arguments to be found in the Bible. Rather, the study of the Bible through the lens of queer theology shows that Jesus denied the primacy of blood relationships.

The purposes of this paper are to problematize the norms of gender and sexuality in Christianity, and to reveal the resilient agency of sexual minorities.

Since 9/11, our world has become more unstable. The dichotomy between the Middle East and the West has been reconstructed and exploited in the context of international politics. Former American president George W. Bush's slogan “Save Muslim women from their own men,” used to justify military intervention in Afghanistan, is proof of this. Popular European, American, and Japanese stereotypes depict Muslim women as oppressed by men and religion. Such a view is often called “gendered orientalism.” Third World feminists, such as Chandra Mohanty, Gayatri Spivak, and Lila Abu-Lughod have discussed these issues very carefully. Scholars of religion in Japan, on the other hand, often downplay gendered orientalism and its associated problems. By understating the need for a critical assessment of orientalism and gender, Japanese religious studies perpetuate gender stereotypes. Instead of asking how gendered orientalism could be overcome, this paper suggests that researchers should clarify its underlying structure, thus rendering the question itself irrelevant. By involving the majority, by sharing the significance of gender mainstreaming, and by presenting a concrete methodology, it may be possible to break through this bottleneck, and to demand that scholars of religion obtain knowledge about gender issues and take part in gender mainstreaming proactively.