Towards Lived Religion and Lived Citizenship: Binaries and Complexities in the Study of Religion, Gender, Feminism and Citizenship

Abstract

With overall trends towards increasing secular beliefs and more gender-equal relations and practices in contemporary Europe, how can it be that so many European women continue to adhere to religious faiths and doctrines that support the equal value of women and men yet also support gender inequality? This issue is complex, not the least because neither ‘religious’ nor ‘secular’ and neither ‘equal’ nor ‘equality’ are straightforward terms. Instead, they are being read, understood and practised in many different ways. Moreover, women have ambivalent and contradictory relations to religious institutions and authorities. They may choose to accept and submit to some religious prescriptions and practices, while contesting or rejecting others. As Casanova (2009: 17) has argued, ‘the religious politics of gender has become one of the most important issues facing humanity worldwide’, and it is therefore urgent to address how religious women themselves live and practise religion, gender relations and citizenship. This chapter situates our empirical study of Christian and Muslim women in Europe in relation to relevant theoretical perspectives, concepts and empirical works in the sociology of religion, women’s and feminist studies, and citizenship studies. It forges links between contemporary scholarly debates on religion and secularization, gender and secularization, institutional and everyday forms of religion, the role of agency and structure in the analysis of gender and religion, different feminist approaches to religion, feminist theory’s contributions to citizenship theory, and, finally, the conceptualization of religious citizenship.