Throughout history, gendered religious metaphors have contributed significantly to shaping human conceptions of transcendence, religion, religious life, and salvation, as well as conceptions of divine–human and transcendent–immanent relationships, and have thereby influenced the organization of human societies and their ideologies. Thus, the metaphorical conceptualizations of God as a masculine figure (GOD IS FATHER, GOD IS KING) in all three monotheistic religions supported and reinforced the closely related idea of GOD AS A SUPREME JUDGE and figure of authority, a RULER who rewards, punishes, and controls human beings and, at the same time, provided theological justification for social practices according to which only males could become priests, religious teachers, and community leaders in Jewish, Christian, and Moslem communities. Similarly, the metaphorically grounded association of emotion with passivity and suffering in ancient Greek thought (cf. the term πάθη ‘passions’), combined with the culturally gendered association of passivity with female roles, contributed to the notion that women are more emotional and less rational than men—a notion that had a considerable impact on both European intellectual traditions and societal practices.
Drawing on methodological approaches informed by gender theory and queer hermeneutics, the working group “Gender” within the CRC 1475 “Metaphors of Religion” will explore the multifaceted and ambivalent role of gendered metaphors and related conceptual frameworks in processes of religious meaning-making. In particular, it may focus on:
the role of gendered conceptual patterns in framing the relation between divine and human actors in religious texts and discourses, visual or multimedia representations;
gendered concepts and representations of the divine and their cultural implications, societal contexts, historical transformations, and “queerability”;
the role of gender as grammatical category in the emergence and use of gendered metaphors;
the impact of gender stereotypes on the translation and interpretation of gender-related metaphors in sacred texts within a religious tradition;
the use of gendered metaphorical language in specific communicative and performative situations, its conditionality and contingency;
the gendered attributes of speakers, protagonists, ritual participants, and figures of authority;
the fluidity of gender categories and identities in various contexts, and other topics.
If you have questions or ideas, please contact Carmen Judy Stamm and Nikita Artemov (subproject C08).
