Widowhood and Religious Perception

Abstract

This article is based on the author’s doctoral thesis, Breaking the Barriers: A Reflection on Suffering in Buddhism and Christianity in the Perspectives of War-widows in Sri Lanka. 1 Using theoretical and empirical lines of investigation it attempts to discover the theological possibilities, challenges and relevance of the survival strategies of Buddhist and Christian war-widows by critically describing, analysing, interpreting and exploring an inter-relatedness in their situations, and relating these findings to existing systematic theological concepts. Since the research is also empirical, it includes fieldwork done with a selected group of Buddhist and Christian war-widows – Tamil Christian, Sinhala Christian and Sinhala Buddhist – in post-war Sri Lanka. These women are from different social, religious, political, cultural, economic and educational backgrounds in select provinces of Sri Lanka. The theological research is partly based on interviews, dialogues with unheard voices, and a critical analysis of the daily experiences of widows –‘everydayness’, 2 which help to reflect both on the notion of suffering in Buddhist and Christian thinking that is different, and on their influence on the perception of widows and their suffering.