Introduction: Embodying Religion, Gender and Sexuality

In this introductory chapter we put forward an argument for the centrality of the body in studying religion, spiritualities, gender and sexualities. We argue that a “lived” (McGuire, 2008) approach to understanding religion and spiritualities necessitates an understanding of the everyday embodiment of gender and sexualities, and we make connections between feminist and queer theorisations to conceptualise these intersections. In doing so, we illuminate the ways that embodiment is shaped by six intertwining factors, namely:
space, time, power, relationality, projects of the self, and projects of religious/spiritual communities. Theoretically, we argue that there are three crucial ways in which embodied religion needs to be addressed utilising the lens of gender and sexualities. These are through: troubling boundaries between religion and the secular; power, regulation and resistance; and the symbolism and representation of gendered bodies, and the book is structured around these three themes.