T&T Clark Reader in Abortion and Religion - by Rebecca Todd Peters & Margaret D Kamitsuka (Hardcover)

About the Book

These readings present the complicated and multifaceted reality of abortion as addressed by the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions.

Book Synopsis

This volume introduces students to the history of cultural and theological responses to abortion as background for understanding a diversity of ethical positions in contemporary Christian, Jewish, and Muslim writings. Politicized debates about abortion are often presented in terms of a binary rhetoric of prolife versus prochoice; however, this collection of essays shows how that binary often breaks down when abortion is seen from different religious perspectives and in light of the voices of women themselves.

While abortion is a global phenomenon, this volume focuses on the U.S. context. American abortion politics and culture wars have been dominated by Christian voices; nevertheless, Jewish and Muslim abortion ethics engage many of the same issues from different cultural and religious perspectives. Finally, this volume presents important examples of recent social scientific studies about the relationship of religion and abortion in the diverse cultural, racial, and economic fabric of American society.

Pedagogical features include:
- boxed text sections with primary sources
- introductions to each part of the book
- questions for a discussion
- key terms in bold

Review Quotes

In this timely collection of essays-some new, some classic-feminist religious ethicists Margaret Kamitsuka and Rebecca Todd Peters expand Muslim, Jewish, and Christian ethics of pregnancy and its termination beyond the pages of religious texts to the lives of pregnant people as they unfold in very different historical, cultural, and religious settings. The stunning variety of disciplinary perspectives and the editors' careful contextualizations make this rich volume indispensable for everyone who wants to reflect on religious responses to pregnancy and abortion in all of their moral complexity.

Nuanced, focused, and wide-ranging, this volume could not have been put together at a better time or by more qualified editors. It is an essential tool for religious advocates and their allies in the ongoing struggle for reproductive justice. I will certainly use and teach it.

This is a thoughtful, wide-ranging introduction to some of the central literature on abortion in a diverse range of religious traditions. It presents a careful, scholarly, and deeply felt account of the complex and contradictory ethical appeals that surround one of the most fiercely debated issues in American political life. The authors and editors allow the reader to listen closely to a variety of arguments and to explore the terrain of the debate and its vast traditional and contemporary literature. I can think of no better guides.

About the Author

Rebecca Todd Peters is Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Poverty and Social Justice Program at Elon University, USA.

Margaret D. Kamitsuka is Francis W. and Lydia L. Davis Professor Emeritus of Religion at Oberlin College, USA.