Religion and decolonial feminism: The protagonisms and the new religious assemblages of women in the twenty-first centur

Abstract

Religions and the research about them were significantly affected by the feminist practices and studies in the twentieth century. In the religious context that has been presented in this third millennium, marked by the autonomy of women and their role in society, further studies are necessary to understand the religious phenomenon that occurs in the silent protagonism of women. One has to ask how to research and to think religion from a feminist perspective at this time; what religion is for women, how women experience religion and appropriate of it in the third millennium. The new religious practices, the connection of women to religion or the ruptures with religions, spearheaded by them, the resistances, their active subjectivity, as alternatives to the traditional spaces circumscribed by religious patriarchy, as well as the issue of autonomy and responsibility of the women in the construction of spiritual and religious alternatives in the contemporary society deserve attention. This text aims to present signs of these protagonist movements of women, especially in the Christian context in the current Brazil, stating hypotheses and presenting reflections on this reality. The text dialogues with the de-colonial feminism and has implications for the ways of conceptualizing and studying religion from the institutionalized religious forms.