Arvind Sharma 
Methodology in Religious Studies 
The Interface with Women’s Studies

Methodology in Religious Studies assesses the impact of women’s studies on the various methods employed in studying religion. Since its inception in the 1860s, the study of religion as an academic discipline has evolved over time, ranging from the classically historical to the boldly hermeneutical. The women’s studies movement has, since the 1980s, become part and parcel of the intellectual landscape of our times, and the study of religion has become increasingly influenced by it. What are the implications of this new development for the methodology of religious studies? Leading practitioners of psychological, theological, sociological, anthropological, phenomenological, historical, and hermeneutic approaches examine the mutually enriching interface between religious studies and women’s studies, as they explore the broader issue of the interaction between method and the nature of the subject itself.

Table of Content

Preface
Arvind Sharma

Introduction
Katherine K. Young

1. Women’s Studies and the History of Religions
David Kinsley

2. From the Phenomenology of Religion to Feminism and Women’s Studies
Katherine K. Young

3. Feminist Issues and Methods in the Anthropology of Religion
Rita M. Gross

4. Feminist Research in the Sociology of Religion
Constance A. Jones

5. The Impact of Women’s Studies on the Psychology of Religion: Feminist Critique, Gender Analysis, and the Inclusion of Women
Diane Jonte-Pace

6. Feminist Philosophy of Religion
Mary Ann Stenger

7. Methodologies in Women’s Studies and Feminist Theology
Rosemary Radford Ruether

8. Method in Women’s Studies in Religion: A Critical Feminist Hermeneutics
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza

About the Contributors

Index of Names

Index of Terms

Subject Index

About the author

Arvind Sharma is Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at Mc Gill University. He is the editor of
Women Saints in World Religions and
Women in World Religions and the coeditor (with Katherine K. Young) of
Feminism and World Religions, all published by SUNY Press.