Maternal Agency and Choice: Raising Children in or against Religion/s

This second Exploratory Session builds on the efforts of a core group of SBL and AAR members who focus on the study of mothers, motherhood, mothering and religions and have organized and participated in a series of events at the AAR annual meetings – 2019 roundtable, pre-conference workshops (2020, 2021, and 2022) and first Exploratory Session (2023). The aim of this collective and collaborative scholarly endeavor is to form a new AAR Unit on motherhood and religions. We draw on Rich’s (1976) pivotal distinction between motherhood as the patriarchal institution that subordinates and oppresses women and mothering, women’s lived experience of being mothers, and on Ruddick’s (1989) conceptualization of this difference, which avoids gender norming by defining mothering and mothers not based on “a biological or legal relationship … but [based on] the work they set out to do”. The intellectual rationale for this session is the need to address the “triple-blind” (building up on the “double-blind” evidenced by King, 2005) faced by scholarship on mothers, motherhood, mothering and religions. First, religious traditions and academics who study them rarely recognize mothers or the maternal as central issues. Few scholars of religions have examined motherhood or mothers, and even fewer mothering. Second, gender and feminist studies also participate in this triple-blind: until recently, religion and motherhood were often identified as factors of oppression for women and thus dismissed as irrelevant. Our unit aims to close this gap by bringing “matricentric feminism” (O’Reilly, 2016) alongside other intellectually responsible epistemologies to explore this overlooked but crucial subject. Third, in conjunction with, and resulting from the triple-blind first two strands, motherhood is still neglected in the now extensive scholarship on women, gender, and religion. Although religious studies and theology have successfully negotiated the “gender-critical turn” as early as the 1980s (King 2005), most research focuses on women who do not conform to the religiously sanctioned script of marriage and motherhood and are “special figures”: martyrs, saints, nuns, priestesses, or poetesses, with few presented as mothers. AAR papers and panels on “women and religion”, which discuss women’s religious agency, often ignore the distinction between mothering and motherhood, or fail to consider mothering as a potential site of religious agency. Women’s religious experiences as mothers (and those of others who do not identify as women) have also not been sufficiently examined. Access to contraception and abortion, religious agency and subordination remain key issues for feminist research in religious studies, but it is necessary to examine further issues – after giving birth, women childless by choice or by circumstance, and other forms of mothering not tied to biology, such as othermothering, communal mothering, families with several maternal figures (e.g. polygynous marriages in religious contexts), and spiritual mothering (inside and outside of religious institutions and traditions). Building on motherhood studies’ focus on religion either as a decisive vector in enforcing traditional or conservative gender norms or as a possible path to empowerment, this Exploratory Session, as a roundtable co-presided by the organizers leading the collaborative effort to form a new AAR unit, will examine notions of maternal agency and choice through case studies of raising children in or against religion/s. Maternal agency, the ability of mothers to make autonomous decisions that shape the lives of their children, is indeed a pivotal aspect of parenting. However, the influence of religious beliefs and practices on maternal agency cannot be overstated. For many mothers, religion serves as a guiding force in shaping decisions regarding themselves and their children, from moral teachings to rituals and community engagement. Yet, for others, religion may pose challenges or conflicts, constraining their agency and prompting questions about autonomy and freedom of choice. In this context, the Exploratory Session will bring together scholars seeking to apply matricentric feminist perspectives to religious studies and create new paths for research. The roundtable’s participants will explore the complex interplay between maternal agency, choice, and the upbringing of children within or against religious frameworks, gathering insights, perspectives, and empirical research in several religious contexts, past and present, including Judaism, the Ancient World, Buddhism, Daoism, and Christianity. In particular, they will engage with: • Matricentric art and artistic creativity in relation to the sacred • Mothers and wet nurses in the religious upbringing of children in the Ancient World • Cambodian Theravāda identities after/through surviving genocide • The weight of Jewish motherhood • (Pro)creative callings and complications in Christian spirituality Based on these short presentations, the discussion between the contributors to the roundtable and the attendees will aim to focus on a range of topics, including: • The negotiation of maternal agency within religious communities • Maternal influence on children’s construction of religious identity • The impact of religious doctrines on maternal decision-making processes • Challenges faced by mothers who choose to raise their children outside of religious frameworks • Strategies for navigating conflicting identities and values within the context of motherhood and religion • The role of education, social support networks, and policy interventions in empowering mothers to exercise agency in religious contexts • Conflicting views on child-rearing between religious institutions and the State (government) • Religious perspectives on othermothering and alternative forms of mothering • Mothering and motherwork within religious frameworks by people who do not identify as mothers or as women With this second Exploratory Session, our collaborative collective continues efforts towards establishing a Unit on Mothers and Religion at the AAR to examine methodological issues and affirm the relevance of mothers and motherhood as fruitful and valuable categories of analysis in religious studies and theology at large. The session will also allow us to continue consolidating a community of scholars researching the intersection of religion with mothers, motherhood and mothering. The eventual new AAR Unit will provide an institutional home for the matricentric study of religion and reach a wider audience in religious studies and biblical studies as well as allow scholarly community building between AAR and SBL members.