Appendix D: Further Reading & Engagement by Tradition and Methodology
This bibliography prioritizes works that are rigorous, readable, and relevant to themes of gender, sacred texts, and historical recovery. Each entry includes full publication information and annotations describing relevance and scope. "Essential starter" titles are marked with ★ for readers new to each tradition.
Buddhism
★ The First Buddhist Women: Translations and Commentary on the Therigatha by Susan Murcott (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1991) A foundational and accessible translation of the poems of the early Buddhist nuns, with insightful commentary linking ancient voices to contemporary questions about women's spiritual authority.
Sakyadhita: Daughters of the Buddha edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1988) Collected essays from the international Buddhist women's movement, blending historical research with activist perspectives on ordination, education, and practice.
Buddhist Women Across Cultures: Realizations edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Albany: SUNY Press, 1999) Comprehensive examination of women's roles across Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana contexts, including contemporary revival movements.
Women Under Primitive Buddhism by I.B. Horner (London: Routledge, 1930; reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975) Classic scholarly study of early Buddhist women, though dated in terminology, remains valuable for its comprehensive treatment of Pali sources.
Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism by Miranda Shaw (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994) Groundbreaking study of women's roles in Tantric Buddhism, challenging assumptions about male dominance in esoteric traditions.
Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism by Rita M. Gross (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993) Comprehensive feminist analysis of Buddhist tradition with proposals for inclusive reconstruction.
Christianity
★ The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle by Karen L. King (Santa Rosa: Polebridge Press, 2003) Definitive scholarly translation and analysis of the Gospel of Mary, emphasizing its theological and historical significance for understanding women's early Christian leadership.
In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (New York: Crossroad, 1983) Seminal work demonstrating women's leadership in early Christianity and developing feminist hermeneutical methods.
Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women by Caroline Walker Bynum (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987) Innovative study of medieval Christian women's mysticism, focusing on embodied spirituality and alternative religious authority.
Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine by Barbara Newman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987) Comprehensive study of Hildegard of Bingen's theological innovations and feminine divine imagery.
The Book of Margery Kempe translated by B.A. Windeatt (London: Penguin Classics, 1985) First autobiography in English by a woman, with excellent scholarly introduction contextualizing medieval women's spirituality.
Women as Scribes: Manuscript Production and Monastic Reform in Twelfth-Century Bavaria by Alison I. Beach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) Groundbreaking study of women's roles in medieval manuscript production using paleographic evidence.
Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism by Grace Jantzen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) Feminist analysis of Christian mystical tradition examining how gender shaped spiritual authority.
Judaism
★ Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective by Judith Plaskow (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990) Foundational work in Jewish feminist theology arguing for recovery and reinterpretation of women's voices in Jewish tradition.
Voices of the Matriarchs: Listening to the Prayers of Early Modern Jewish Women by Chava Weissler (Boston: Beacon Press, 1998) Scholarly study of tkhines (Yiddish women's prayers) revealing parallel tradition of Jewish women's spirituality.
Rereading the Rabbis: A Woman's Voice by Judith Hauptman (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998) Analysis of women in Talmudic literature, revealing evidence of female participation in rabbinic culture.
In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth by Tikva Frymer-Kensky (New York: Free Press, 1992) Examination of how feminine divine imagery was suppressed in biblical literature.
Reading Ruth: Contemporary Women Reclaim a Sacred Story edited by Judith A. Kates and Gail Twersky Reimer (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994) Jewish women scholars and writers explore the Book of Ruth as site for feminist textual engagement.
The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006) New Testament scholarship that bridges Jewish and Christian interpretation while recovering Jewish women's contexts.
Islam
★ Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate by Leila Ahmed (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992) Pioneering work tracing Muslim women's history from the Prophet's era through modern reform movements, separating religious principles from cultural patriarchies.
Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective by Amina Wadud (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) Seminal reinterpretation of the Quran emphasizing justice and gender equity, with methodological introduction to Islamic feminist hermeneutics.
"Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an by Asma Barlas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002) Comprehensive hermeneutical framework for reading the Quran as anti-patriarchal text.
Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam by Asma Sayeed (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) Scholarly examination of women's roles in preserving and transmitting Islamic knowledge, particularly hadith.
The Lives of Muhammad by Kecia Ali (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014) Analysis of how biographical traditions about the Prophet shaped understanding of women in Islam.
Women in the Qur'an, Traditions, and Interpretation by Barbara Freyer Stowasser (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994) Academic exploration of women's portrayal in Islamic texts and evolution of interpretations.
One Woman's Jihad: Nana Asma'u, Scholar and Scribe by Beverly B. Mack and Jean Boyd (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000) Biography of West African Islamic female scholar, demonstrating women's religious leadership beyond Middle Eastern contexts.
Hinduism
★ Speaking of Siva translated by A.K. Ramanujan (London: Penguin Classics, 1973) Classic translations of Kannada bhakti poets including Akka Mahadevi, with introduction discussing gender and language in devotional verse.
The Vernacular Veda: Revelation, Recitation, and Ritual by Vasudha Narayanan (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1994) Study of Tamil devotional traditions including female poet-saints like Andal.
Songs of the Saints of India by John Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004) Comprehensive anthology including works by Mirabai and other female bhakti poets.
Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the Present edited by Susie Tharu and K. Lalita, 2 volumes (New York: The Feminist Press, 1991-1993) Monumental anthology featuring literary and religious writing by Indian women, including Vedic hymns and bhakti poetry.
Jewels of Authority: Women and Textual Tradition in Hindu India edited by Laurie L. Patton (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) Collection examining women's roles in Hindu textual traditions from Vedic period to present.
Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia edited by Paula Richman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) Includes feminist reinterpretations of Sita's story and women's agency in epic literature.
Sikhism
★ Relocating Gender in Sikh History: Transformation, Meaning and Identity by Doris R. Jakobsh (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003) Comprehensive study of women's roles in Sikh tradition from the Gurus' period to present.
The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition by Harjot Oberoi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994) Includes discussion of women's religious authority and community leadership.
Sikh Women in England: Their Religious and Cultural Beliefs and Social Practices by Parminder Kaur Bakshi (Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books, 1995) Contemporary study of how Sikh women maintain and adapt religious traditions.
Indigenous and African Traditions
★ The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions by Paula Gunn Allen (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986) Foundational work recovering traditions of Native American women's spiritual and political authority.
Daughters of Anowa: African Women and Patriarchy by Mercy Amba Oduyoye (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1995) African feminist theological perspective on traditional and contemporary women's religious roles.
Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas by Barbara Alice Mann (New York: Peter Lang, 2000) Comprehensive study of women's roles in Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) spiritual and political traditions.
Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming by Winona LaDuke (Boston: South End Press, 2005) Indigenous activist and scholar's perspective on traditional knowledge and environmental spirituality.
I Could Speak Until Tomorrow: Oriki, Women, and the Past in a Yoruba Town by Karin Barber (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991) Study of Yoruba praise poetry and women's roles in maintaining oral religious traditions.
East Asian Traditions
The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought by Sachiko Murata (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992) Comparative study bridging Islamic and East Asian perspectives on feminine spiritual principles.
Transcendence and Divine Passion: The Queen Mother of the West in Medieval China by Suzanne E. Cahill (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993) Study of feminine divine figures in Chinese Daoist and popular religion.
Immortal Sisters: Secret Teachings of Taoist Women translated by Thomas Cleary (Boston: Shambhala, 1989) Translations of female Daoist masters' teachings on internal alchemy and meditation.
Lives of the Nuns: Biographies of Chinese Buddhist Nuns from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries translated by Kathryn Ann Tsai (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994) Primary source translations revealing early Chinese Buddhist women's religious lives.
Comparative and Theoretical Studies
★ Feminism and World Religions edited by Arvind Sharma and Katherine K. Young (Albany: SUNY Press, 1999) Comprehensive collection with feminist perspectives on major world religions.
Gender and Religion edited by Ursula King (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995) Theoretical approaches to studying women in religious traditions globally.
Women in World Religions edited by Arvind Sharma (Albany: SUNY Press, 1987) Earlier but still valuable comparative study of women's roles across traditions.
Searching the Scriptures edited by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, 2 volumes (New York: Crossroad, 1993-1994) Feminist commentary on biblical and early Christian texts with methodological implications for other traditions.
Women's Sacred Scriptures edited by Kwok Pui-lan and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1998) Global perspectives on women's relationship to sacred texts.
Methodology and Recovery
★ Digital Humanities and Manuscript Studies edited by Peter Stokes and Edward Vanhoutte (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018) Introduction to how digital tools are revealing previously hidden voices in manuscript traditions.
The Hidden Hands: Women and Medieval Manuscript Culture edited by Mary Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) Studies of women's roles as scribes, patrons, and readers of medieval texts.
Feminist Biblical Interpretation by Letty M. Russell (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1985) Foundational work on feminist hermeneutical methods applicable across traditions.
Reading Women's Lives: The Politics of Biography edited by Caroline Heilbrun and Carolyn Heilbrun (New York: Teachers College Press, 1996) Methodological approaches to recovering women's historical experiences.
Computer-Aided Palaeography: Present and Future edited by Peter A. Stokes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019) Technical but accessible overview of how technology assists manuscript analysis and attribution.
Contemporary Voices and Applications
Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam by Amina Wadud (Oxford: Oneworld, 2006) Memoir and theological reflection by leading Islamic feminist scholar.
God's Phallus: And Other Problems for Men and Monotheism by Howard Eilberg-Schwartz (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994) Provocative analysis of masculine imagery in monotheistic traditions.
She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse by Elizabeth A. Johnson (New York: Crossroad, 1992) Christian feminist systematic theology incorporating insights from comparative religious studies.
Womanist Theology by Ada María Isasi-Díaz (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996) Latina feminist theological methodology applicable to biblical and contemporary interpretation.
Cave in the Snow: Tenzin Palmo's Quest for Enlightenment by Vicki Mackenzie (New York: Riverhead Books, 1998) Biography of contemporary Buddhist nun and advocate for women's ordination.
Starter Reading Recommendations by Tradition:
If you read only one book on Buddhism: The First Buddhist Women by Susan Murcott If you read only one book on Christianity: The Gospel of Mary of Magdala by Karen L. King
If you read only one book on Judaism: Standing Again at Sinai by Judith Plaskow If you read only one book on Islam: Women and Gender in Islam by Leila Ahmed If you read only one book on Hinduism: Speaking of Siva by A.K. Ramanujan If you read only one book on Indigenous traditions: The Sacred Hoop by Paula Gunn Allen If you read only one comparative study: Feminism and World Religions edited by Sharma and Young
Cross-References:
- For biographical information on scholars mentioned, see Appendix A
- For manuscript sources discussed in these works, see Appendix B
- For definitions of technical terms, see Appendix C: Glossary