Bodies in space
transcendence and the spatialization of gender
pp. 217-233
in: Pamela S. Anderson (ed), New topics in feminist philosophy of religion, Berlin, Springer, 2010Abstract
This chapter revisits and rearticulates a fundamental issue in the feminist philosophy of religion, namely, the relationship between gendered embodiment and spirituality. Starting from an existentialist phenomenological understanding of transcendence, which is indebted to, but also departs from, the early Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, the issue is rethought in terms of spatiality. The argument is thus directed against idealized conceptions of gender, spirituality and the relationship between them; however, the intersubjectivity and objectivity of theoretical aspects of discourse—whether in the philosophy of religion or in other disciplines—does hinge on the possibility of stepping over particularities of gendered embodiment. In feminist philosophy, such epistemological values, as well as practical ideals, like equality and political solidarity, rely on some account of neutrality. This gives rise to tensions and a certain dilemma, and I suggest that the inquiry into the spatiality of human existence can offer new ways of dealing with such problems.
