| Popis: |
The tension between kinship and community is at the heart of this chapter. Based on a selection of literary sources, diverse in their religious origin and genre, the chapter focuses on the significance of kinship ties for promoting religious agendas. The ancient conflict, witnessed in the terrible scene of the binding of Isaac, persisted in the endeavors of rabbinic sages, ecclesiastical leaders, and Muslim religious scholars to prioritize God over family, or community over kinship. Yet kinship was not seen only as a rival to the divine, but also as a path to it. Extensive attempts on the part of communal agents to enter and dominate the private household, by overseeing the proper administration of family affairs and assemblies, offer a useful indication of the perception of the family as a vehicle for transmitting religious ideals. Moreover, a sophisticated discourse, reflected in the writings of different religious leaderships, in which a vocabulary of kinship was employed to explicate the bond between God and believers, is a reminder of both the strength of kinship and its communal utility. It is here, at the center of competing and completing kinship and communal affiliations that women stood, both vulnerable and powerful at the same time. The final part of the chapter thus moves to explore the manner in which the presence of women in religiously mixed families was perceived as both threat and opportunity for communal agendas. |
