Exploring Spirituality and Sexuality: An Introduction to an Interdisciplinary Field is a collection of scholarly essays which focuses on the multiple interrelations of spirituality and sexuality, including such facets as intimate relationships, inner cultivation, gender empowerment, gender empowerment, sex education, eroticism, and ecstasy embodiments.
Author(s): Phil Shining, Nicol Michelle Epple
Series: At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries
Publisher: Brill | Rodopi
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 428
City: Leiden
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Figures
Introduction to the Sexuality and Spirituality Field of Research
1 Historical Overview of Sexuality and Spirituality Interrelations
1.1 The Prehistoric Sex, Life, and Death Continuum
1.2 The Archaic S&S Division: Separating the Divine and Nature
1.3 The Axial S&S Reintegration: Re- Joining the Human Body and the Divine
1.4 The Medieval S&S Division: Separating the Divine and Pleasure
1.5 The Modern S&S Division: Separating the Divine and the Truth
1.6 The Global S&S Reintegration: Re- Connecting Human Life and the Divine
2 Sexuality and Spirituality Key Issues and Problematizations
2.1 Life Renewal
2.2 Life Cycle
2.3 Feminine/ Masculine Polarity
2.4 Ecstasy
2.5 Eroticism
2.6 Inner Cultivation
2.7 Intimate Relationships
2.8 Gender Empowerment
3 Distinguishing the Sexuality and Spirituality Field and the Religion, Gender, and Sexuality Field of Studies and Research
4 Contents, Approaches, and Methodologies Presented in this Book
4.1 Natural Instincts: Exploring the Natural Conditioning of Sexual Expressions
4.2 Religious Rapture: Exploring Sacred Scriptures’ Views on Sexual Mysticism
4.3 Alternative Ecstasy: Exploring the Spirituality of Non- Hegemonic Sexuality
4.4 Taboo Challenges: Obstacles and Strategies for New S&SRe- Integrations
4.5 Limit-Experience Embodiments: Erotico-Mystical Arts and Non-Normative Sexual Practices
Bibliography
Part 1 Natural Instincts
Chapter 1 Spirituality of the Sexually Charged Landscape
Chapter 2 Spirituality and Sexuality in Prehistoric Art
1 Introduction
2 Georges Bataille on the Sacred and the Erotic
3 David Lewis-Williams’ Shamanistic Theory
4 Palaeolithic Southern Africa
5 Palaeolithic Northern Europe and North America
6 Neolithic Southern Anatolia and Ireland
7 Conclusion
Bibliography
Part 2 Religious Rapture
Chapter 3 A Spirituality of Pleasure: The ‘Thousand-Year’ Intercourse of Śiva and Śakti
Chapter 4 Experiencing yadaʿ: Holistic Encounters of Spiritual Bliss between Christian Believer and God
1 Introduction
2 Wholly Made for Holistic Experiences
3 Sex and Spirituality
4 Researching Sex among Christians
5 The Zeal of Love
6 The Intimate Union
7 Sensual Pleasure and Erotic Bliss: Song of Songs
8 The Divine Allure
9 The Words of Love
10 Contemporary Facilitations and Musicology
11 Coming Into: the Affect and Effect
Bibliography
Part 3 Alternative Ecstasy
Chapter 5 Oscar Wilde’s Spirituality: The Erotics of Queer Theology
Chapter 6 The Holy Rebellious Pussy: New Feminist Demands and Religious Confrontations
1 Introduction
2 Political Spirituality: from the Holy Catholic Spain to the New Alternative Sacredness(es)
3 The Establishment’s Abortion Law in Spain: Sacralising Motherhood, Uniting Religion and Politics
4 Feminist Movements after the 15M: New Forms of Demanding Reproductive Rights
5 The Holy Rebellious Pussy Procession: An Anthropological Interpretation
5.1 The Málaga Procession
5.2 The Sevilla Procession
6 The Globalization of Holy Pussy: from the Spanish State to Latin America
7 New Legal Actions against the Holy Rebellious Pussy
8 A New Spirituality from the Body. Feminist Artivisms against Religion and the State
9 Conclusions
Bibliography
Part 4 Taboo Challenges
Chapter 7 The (In)compatibility between Spirituality and Sexuality: Contemporary Chinese Case Studies
1 Social Background
2 Productive and Non-Productive Sex: Spirituality from a Buddhistic Perspective
3 Spiritualized Sex: Easier Said than Done
4 Queering Spirituality: Stigma, Taboo, Phobia, and the Revolutionary Undercurrent
5 Auto-Eroticism: a Paradox in Self-Extrication
6 Conclusions: Sexuality from a Wider Spiritual Perspective
Bibliography
Chapter 8 Sex Education and Tantra
Part 5 Limit-Experience Embodiments
Chapter 9 The Abandoned Self: Excess and Inner Experience in Sadomasochism
1 Introduction
2 The Exemplary Sufferers
3 What does Human Unhappiness Have to do with Sex?
4 Condemned Women
5 The Will to Depersonalise Oneself
6 Spirituality in Sadomasochistic Practice
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Chapter 10 Embodying ‘The Little Death’ of Orgasm: An Interdisciplinary Research on Sexual Trance
Index
