HERDER EDITRICE E LIBRERIA
INTERNATIONAL BOOK CENTER

This volume presents the contributions from a workshop of international scholars, meeting in Rome on November 11-13, 2004: The Impact of Cultural and Religious Gender Models in the European Formation of Human Rights.
The workshop, funded by the European Science Foundation and organised by Kari Elisabeth Børresen and Sara Cabibbo, focused on the interaction of gender, religion and human rights. Since the 1970s, the social, cultural and political influence of these themes has been investigated by scholars from several disciplines, i.e. Historical, Social, Legal and Religious Gender Studies, producing a vast bibliography. These research fields have often remained separate and limited to material from the last centuries. The impact of religious gender models on the development of universal human rights for both sexes remains less explored, especially concerning the variants of monotheism, i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The meeting of scholars from Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and Spain, aimed to discuss how religious gender models have shaped European culture, from Late Antiquity to the present. Thanks to the contributions of scholars from various disciplines, the workshop clarified significant differences and similarities in various parts of Europe, mainly resulting from confessional variants, i.e. countries with Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox or Protestant churches.

The workshop developed four main and consistent themes in order to investigate the interaction of gender, religion and universal human rights. Accordingly, the present volume is divided in four parts:

I. Religious Studies, with articles on two main aspects of Judaeo-Christian monotheism: a) God's scriptural revelation (Hebrew Bible and New Testament) and incarnation through Jesus Christ, as actualised in human history. b) Subsequent interpretation of Scripture through historically situated Christian tradition. The resulting interaction of religious ideas and socio-political organisation has shaped European society. This process of continuing inculturation has structured various models of gender-specific social roles, differing in time and space.

II. Philosophical and Political Thought, with articles on concepts of male and female gender as expressed in significant texts from Western Europe. Since the Enlightenment, the concept of universal human rights has been problematised with regard to concepts of gender equality and/or gender difference. Traditional religious models of non interchangeable, genderspecific rights and duties for men or women are challenged by the 20thcentury ideal of universal human rights for both sexes.

III. Civil Law, Canon Law and Human Rights, with articles clarifying the conflict between women's modern human rights and freedom for pre-modern religious institutions, as acted out in the UN. In the EU, the CEDAW obligations are opposed by many national concordats with the Holy See.

IV. Symbolic Representation and Social Practice, with articles on the manifold and often ambivalent presence of women in European history. Particular attention was given to the impact of gender asymmetry in different social, political and religious contexts: Ancient prophetesses, Byzantine empresses, female mystics, Hebrew women, enclosed nuns and contemporary Orthodox society. Historically changing, this material showed constant negotiation with religious and legal norms, from obedience to violation.

This collection of articles does not only present the results of the international workshop held in Rome, but the starting point for a network of diligent and fruitful investigation of religious gender models and inclusive human rights in European culture.

Kari Elisabeth Børresen is Senior Professor at the Department of Church History, University of Oslo.
Sara Cabibbo is Senior Researcher at the Dipartimento di Studi storici, geografici, antropologici, Università di Roma III.