Western Buddhist Feminists’ Contribution to Christian Theology

This book discusses gender injustice and justice in religious institutions and spiritual life. Fixed as a gender, God/Goddess leads those who have the same gender to subordinate anyone who differs. In this sense, the patriarchal and androcentric system has caused many religious women to lose their spiritual and faithful equality and identities in a church. This book details how Western Buddhist feminists find that, after recuperating women’s equivalent rights and identities, both religious men and women need to meditate to achieve the emptiness of gender ego—gender privilege and prejudice—which then leads to awakening and enlightenment from ignorance. To apply such skills in Christian theology, gender justice comes from spiritual equality and courage—awakening and repentance—in their contemplative and meditative lives. This book suggests that, for women’s spiritual and real liberation and happiness, both inner trainings and external social actions have to go together.