Maternal Silences: Motherhood and Voluntary Childlessness in Contemporary Christianity
In Christianity, there is an ideology of motherhood that pervades scripture, ritual, and doctrine, yet there is an academic silence that means relatively little space has been given to motherhood and mothering, and even less to voluntary childlessness, from a faith perspective. By drawing on qualita...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2016]
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| In: |
Religion & gender
Year: 2016, Volume: 6, Issue: 1, Pages: 64-79 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Christianity
/ Motherhood
/ Childlessness
/ Role expectation
/ Exclusion
/ History 2011-2013
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| RelBib Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality FD Contextual theology KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history NBE Anthropology NCF Sexual ethics |
| Further subjects: | B
voluntary childlessness
B Caroline Gatrell B Christianity B Motherhood B maternal silences B maternal bodies |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | In Christianity, there is an ideology of motherhood that pervades scripture, ritual, and doctrine, yet there is an academic silence that means relatively little space has been given to motherhood and mothering, and even less to voluntary childlessness, from a faith perspective. By drawing on qualitative in-depth interviews with Christian women living in Britain, narrating their experiences of motherhood and voluntary childlessness, I suggest there are also lived maternal silences encountered by women in contemporary Christianity. There is a maternal expectation produced through church teaching, liturgy and culture that constructs women as ‘maternal bodies’ (Gatrell 2008); this silences and marginalises women from articulating their complex relationship with religion, motherhood, and childlessness in ways that challenge their spiritual development. However, this article also introduces the everyday and intentional tactics women employ to disrupt the maternal expectation, and hereby interrupt the maternal silence. |
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| ISSN: | 1878-5417 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion & gender
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.18352/rg.10131 |