Asia is the cradle of the world’s major living religions. Generally speaking, religions are an expression of humankind’s desire or quest for salvation, freedom, enlightenment, nirvana, peace, or eternal life. But even though religions represent something of that divine vision or hope, realistically speaking, they came out of very patriarchal societies, patriarchal cultures and patriarchal mindsets. Most if not all of the founders or key teachers of these religions were men; so were their scribes, interpreters and preachers. Thus, patriarchal religions, together with patriarchal cultures, have seriously impacted the lives of women in Asia. Part of the reason why it has been so hard to root out the oppression of women in Asia is precisely because cultures and religions justify or reinforce the oppression. When the name of God, the divine, or a religious leader is invoked to justify oppression, such oppression would become normative – to be left unquestioned and to simply be propagated.

Feminist theologizing in Asia therefore has to deal with the reality of religions and cultures in Asia – apart from the other realities of colonialism and neo-colonialism, globalization and terrorism, and what have you. The subject of women and religions has been a core concern of the Asian Women’s Resource Centre for Culture and Theology (AWRC). The very name of this feminist organization affirms the interlinking impact of culture and theology upon the lives of Asian women. If we must end the oppression experienced by Asian women, we have to deal with the negative impact of religions and cultures on women. In previous years, AWRC organized a number of interfaith dialogue workshops in order to facilitate the sharing of feminist theologizing from various religious perspectives. Indeed, interfaith dialogue has remained an important component in the subsequent programs of AWRC.

When the AWRC embarked on its modules project we knew that the issue of women and religions must be one of the main topics for the project. Faced with constraints of time and financial support, however, it was not possible for us to hold a workshop during which time invited contributors to the module project could have been gathered together for dialogue and sharing. We simply wrote invitation letters to selected women representing the major religions in Asia to write something on specific issues that would bring out their feminist critique of what is oppressive in their respective religions and lift up what is liberating in the same. Although there are many religions in Asia we focused only on Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism and Islam. Yet we are also aware that there are many streams within each religion.

Although the process that led to the writing of these papers did not deliberately enable the writers to encounter each other in a context of dialogue, it is our hope that readers and users of the module book, Introduction to Asian Feminist Perspectives on Religions, will be encouraged to begin or continue their life of dialogue in their respective contexts. The book is the third in a series of four modules on Asian Feminist Theologies produced by the AWRC.

Although the module book has already come out, it is the practice of AWRC to produce the major papers in the module in an edition of In God’s Image in order that subscribers of the journal can also access the materials. 

We hope that you will find these papers informative, challenging and also inspiring.

Hope S. Antone
Publications Secretary

IGI stands for In God's Image, an Asian Christian women's effort to provide a forum for expressing our reality, our struggles, our faith reflections and aspirations for change.

If any of IGI Contents interests you, and you would like to have a copy of this journal, please write to igi@awrc4ct.org