Pious Sex : Essays On Women And Religion In The History Of Political Though

1. Introduction: The Pious Sex?
Andrea Radasanu
2. Esther’s Piety
Clifford Orwin
3.Three Tragic Versions Of Female (Im)piety: Clytemnestra, Jocasta And Antigone
Kathrin H. Rosenfield
4. Women, War, And Piety In Plato’s Laws
Dana Jalbert Stauffer
5. Educating The Perfect Wife: Piety And Rational Control In The Oeconomicus
Paul Ludwig
6. Love And Piety In Machiavelli’s Mandragola
Catherine Connors
7. Nay, Then Tis Past Jesting: Piety And Female Friendship In Catharine Trotter’s Love At A Loss
Heather King
8. Women, Christianity, And The Modern In Montesquieu’s Considerations On The Romans
Diana J. Schaub
9. Rousseau’s Domestication Of Amour-Propre
Eve Grace
10. Jane Austen’s Education Of Women: A Study Of Mansfield Park
Amy L. Bonnette
11. Nietzsche In Eden
Lise Van Boxel

Additional Info
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.

This collection of original essays examines the relationship between women and religion in the history of political thought broadly conceived. This theme is a remarkably revealing lens through which to view the Western philosophical and poetical traditions that have culminated in secular and egalitarian modern society. The essays also give highly analytical accounts of the manifold and intricate relationships between religion, family, and public life in the history of political thought, and the various ways in which these relationships have manifested themselves in pagan, Jewish, Christian, and post-Christian settings.