women in spirituality (Essay Sample)

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Women in Spirituality
Introduction
From the time of Virgin Mary to the Vestal Virgins and from the time of the Earth Goddesses to Shakti Devis, the feminine ideology has taken a centre stage and impacted on how women utilize their spiritual powers (Deborah 3). On one hand, particularly in ancient spiritual practices, women were put on pedestals or worshipped based on their femininity and purity while, on the other hand, women have been excluded from performing religious practices and entering some places of worship even until now. The fact is that women have never been put in the same equality with men in terms of spiritual leadership or spiritual pursuit. This trend is rooted not only in the cultural and sociological systems but also in the conscious levels where the spirituality and attitudes are based.
Different researches have provided different findings concerning spirituality of woman (Hollywood 5). This paper seeks to explore the various dimensions and ideologies concerning the role of the feminine in relation to the Divine. It also looks at the various belief systems, myths and archetypes from ancient Goddess worship to 20th century feminist theology. However, it is worth noting that the aforementioned is looked in terms of psychological consequences as well as philosophical content. Noteworthy, exceptional importance is based on feminist metaphysical structures, essential for understanding reality in addition to consciousness. The analysis of this paper helps us understand and interpret the multi-faceted dimensions of women in spirituality. Understanding this topic is important for coming up with a comprehensive conclusion that can help resolve the widely controversial and highly debated topic whether women are more spiritual than men (Dixon 223).
Literature Review
Scholars have explored several explanations for the spirituality differences between women and men including emotionality, biology socialization and their gender roles. In order to understand the subject of women and spirituality, it important to first understands the meaning of the term spirituality. There are numerous definitions of the word spirituality with the word having different meanings for different people. However, despite the lack of the definitive definition of the word spirituality, there has always been a common basic idea behind every definition of the term. This denominator is faith. Spirituality can, therefore, be generally defined as something that a person believes in.
Various authors define spirituality using different terms, although such terms do not change the meaning of the term. With reference to Bryant (835), spirituality is described as the practice of searching for personal authenticity, wholeness and genuineness; that transcends one’s current locus of centricity (i.e., recognition of concerns beyond self); developing a greater connectivity with self and others through relationships and community roles; deriving of purpose, meaning and direction in life, and openness to explore a relationship with a higher spiritual power or powers that transcend human knowledge and human existence. This paper relies on this definition in its examination of this subject.
Spirituality is different to religiosity although they intertwine in some aspects. Religion is included in the study of spirituality although Bryant’s study differs from other researches in this area because the study mainly focuses in spirituality wholly and not religiosity. The construct of spirituality involves finding one’s true purpose and meaning in life and interest in dealing with spiritual issues as well as growing in them. Spirituality also involves one’s willingness to help others in their sphere for the betterment of mankind. Bryant (2007) points out that the spirituality in women has been assumed to be different from spirituality in men based on the gender differences in religiosity and not spirituality.
To help in this research this paper will relies on the reviews of three books, the first by Deborah Pickman Clifford titled The Passion of Abby Hemenway: Memory, Spirit, and the Making of History, the second by Joy Dixon called the Divine Feminine: Theosophy and Feminism and the third is by Amy Hollywood titled Sensible Ecstasy: Mysticism, Sexual Difference, and the Demands of History and published in 2012 in the University of Chicago Press. These three books provide comprehensive information on understanding the feminist theology from the 19th century to the late 20th century that includes studies on myths and archetypes from ancient Goddess worship during this period.
Most current research has indicated that women are more spiritual than men. This paper seeks to examine the potential explanations of this phenomenon. The potential explanations include the socialization capacity of women, the emotionality of women, personal motivations for religion and faith, church congregational factors and biology (Hollywood 51). This paper examines each of this factor and compares it to how it relates to women in order to form a comprehensive interpretations between the interaction of gender and spirituality and why its implications is different for men and women.
A survey that was conducted by Simpson, Cloud, Newman & Fuqua, in 2008 and published in the Journal of Psychology and Theology with a title Sex and gender differences in religiousness and spirituality provides insightful information in this topic (Dixon 21). The survey was administered to 699 men and women to assess their spirituality. The most recent sophisticated women and spirituality studies published in November 2010 by theologists from the University of North Carolina, the University of Massachusetts and University of California reviewed numerous researches that have been conducted on spirituality of women from the time of the medieval era coming to the present day.
The research by Simpson et al. sought to measure the perceived significance of what is termed spiritual or the spiritual things in the participant’s life and interactions, level of spiritual activities in their religious organizations, community involvement and level of studying with the purpose of being inspired spiritually (Dixon 222). This is different from many previous religiousness and spirituality studies that have largely focused on women’s relational and emotional connections. The study had hypothesized that men would score in a great extent similarly to women on spirituality if the survey emphasized on community involvement and action rather than emotional relationships. The results of the study indeed supported the hypothesis as no significant difference was observed between the scores of men and women on the spirituality tests. The conclusion of the researchers was that instead of women being more spiritual than men, the suggestion of their research was rather that the difference is how men and women expresses their spirituality.
A corresponding research conducted by Alyssa N. Bryant used longitudinal and a national sample of 3,680 college students assessed by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey (2003) and the College Students Beliefs and Values (CSBV) Survey (2003) to examine spirituality gender differences on 13 spiritual characteristics and explore the personal and academic factors associated with changes in spirituality during school life.
Woman’s Formation
Every human being has a unique soul. The psychological differentiations provide for different types of soul including the soul of a child, the soul of an adolescent, adult artist etc. and so is there a soul of a woman and man. The soul of a woman determines the type of a woman, and this explains why there different types of women. The deepest feminine longing is to achieve a loving union which stimulates the desire of perfection in others. This longing expresses itself in diverse ways some of which appear distorted. This longing is specifically feminine and is not prevalent in masculine nature and is essential in determining the eternal spiritual destiny of a woman.
Men’s essential desires are revealed through work, action and objective achievements. They are less concerned with their problems and problems of others. It is important to note that the state of soul is not static but developing, and in order to bring the predispositions that it was endowed with by the creators, it must be developed through activation. Therefore, women can perfectly develop their souls through activation of their spiritual powers. This is the same case for men and in that case the metaphysical structures of the soul of women and men are the same. The soul is housed in a body and the vigor and health of the body is fundamental.
The nature of the body in terms of motion, life, form, gestalt, and spiritual significance is received from the soul. The spiritual world is founded on sensuousness that is so real as much as the physical world is (Deborah 73). The intellect reveals a world, the will intervenes formative and creatively in this world and the emotions receive this world inwardly tests it. The extent of the relationship of these powers varies between man and woman and individuals.
Another point is that the relationship of soul and body differs between a man and a woman. Woman’s soul is more intensely present in all parts of her body, and it is affected inwardly by what happens to the body. The man’s soul is more detached, and their bodies more profoundly portray the character of instruments of service in their work more detached from the soul. This is also associated to motherhood where the mysterious process of the formation of a new being in the motherly organism represents an intimate unity of the physical and spiritual that explains that a woman’s soul union with the body is mo...