The Pious Sex Essays on Women and Religion in the History of Political Thought

by Radasanu, Andrea; Bonnette, Amy L.; Boxel, Lise van; Connors, Catherine; Grace, Eve; King, Heather; Ludwig, Paul; Orwin, Clifford; Rosenfield, Kathrin H.; Stauffer, Dana Jalbert; Schaub, Diana J.

• ISBN13: 9780739131053
• ISBN10: 0739131052
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-01
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

The Pious Sex strives to enlighten the reader with respect to the relationship between women and religion. The notion that there is a special relationship between women and piety may call to mind the worst of the prejudices associated with women over the ages: the characterization of women as superstitious and inherently irrational creatures who must be kept firmly in hand by the patriarchal establishment. The suggestion that there is a special relationship between women and piety conjures up the most oppressive picture of womanly virtue. The contributors of this volume revisit the claim that women constitute the pious sex and investigate the implications of such a designation.

Author Biography

Andrea Radasanu is assistant professor of political science at Northern Illinois University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: The Pious Sex?	p. 1
The Piety of Esther	p. 15
Three Tragic Versions of Female (Im)piety: Clytemnestra, Jocasta, and Antigone	p. 35
Women, War, and Piety in Plato's Laws	p. 63
Educating the Perfect Wife: Piety and Rational Control in the Oeconomicus	p. 77
Love and Piety in Machiavelli's Mandragola	p. 101
"Nay, then 'Tis past Jesting": Piety and Female Friendship in Catharine Trotter's Love at a Loss	p. 127
Women, Christianity, and the Modern in Montesquieu's Considerations on the Romans	p. 149
Rousseau's Domestication of Amour-Propre	p. 169
Jane Austen's Education of Women: A Study of Mansfield Park	p. 201
Flaubert: Eros and Politics After Rousseau	p. 231
Nietzsche in Eden	p. 255
Index	p. 281
About the Contributors	p. 289
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