Part one : Bodies. Introduction -- Stereotypes, false images, terrorism : the white assault upon Black sexuality / Kelly Brown Douglas -- Sin / Lynne Gerber -- Blood, sweat, and urine : the scent of feminine fluids an Anton Szandor LaVey's The satanic witch / Cimminnee Holt -- Sex / Janet Gyatso -- The ultimate man / John Powers -- Tkhines for niddah, pregnancy and childbirth / Chava Weissler -- Gendering the ungendered body : hermaphrodites in medieval Islamic law / Paula Sanders -- "Mildred, is it fun to be a cripple?" : the culture of suffering in mid-twentieth century American Catholicism / Robert A. Orsi -- Discussion questions -- Part two : Desires. Introduction. Introduction : axiomatic / Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick -- Scientia sexualis / Michel Foucault -- Law and desire in the Talmud / David Biale -- Tongues untied : memoirs of a Pentecostal boyhood / Michael Warner -- Sexual desire, divine desire ; or, queering the beguines / Amy Hollywood -- Kūkai and the tradition of male love in Japanese Buddhism / Paul Gordon Schalow -- The passions of St. Pelaguis / Mark D. Jordan -- Masturbation, salvation, and desire : connecting sexuality and religiosity in colonial Mexico / Zeb Tortorici -- Discussion questions -- Part three : Performances. Introduction -- Gender trouble : feminism and the subversion of identity / Judith Butler -- Witches, female priests and sacred manoeuvres : (de)stabilizing gender and sexuality in a Cuban religion of African origin / Carolyn E. Watson -- Mama Lola and the Ezilis : themes of mothering and loving in Haitian vodou / Karen McCarthy Brown -- (Per)formative selves : the production of gender / Gayatri Reddy -- Toward a queer theology of flourishing : transsexual embodiment, subjectivity, and moral agency / Jakob Hero -- Intimacy surveilled : religion, sex, and secular cunning / Mayanthi Fernando -- Release from bondage : sex, suffering, and sanctity / Daniel A. Lehrman -- Nakedness, nonviolence, and brahmacharya : Gandhi's experiments in celibate sexuality / Vinay Lal -- Discussion questions.

"How do religion, gender and sexuality interact? How have they impacted, and continue to impact, human culture? The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion, Sexuality and Gender brings together, for the first time, the key texts in the field. Designed as a textbook for use in a classroom setting, it offers thought-provoking selections of some of the most compelling and timely readings available today. The Reader is divided into three parts (bodies; desires; performances). Each considers, from a thematic perspective, the ways in which people have made sense of their religious and sexual experiences, the ways they imagine and talk about gender, sex and the sacred, and the multiple meanings they ascribe to them. Traditions represented include indigenous spiritualities, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Asian traditions and new religious movements. Some readings are more theoretical or historical in nature, thereby providing wide-ranging contexts for reflection and discussion. The reader includes extensive introductions to the book as a whole and to each of the three parts, as well as short paragraphs contextualizing each of the readings. Each section includes discussion questions for classroom use; additional readings and resources, as well as a glossary of key terms, are also provided. The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion, Sexuality and Gender is an ideal resource for courses on religion and sexuality, religion and gender, or religion and contemporary culture more generally"--