This collection of essays explores how women from a variety of religious
and cultural communities have contributed to the richly textured,
pluralistic society of Canada. Focusing on women's religiosity, it
examines the ways in which they have carried and conserved, and brought
forward and transformed their cultures--old and new--in modern Canada.
Each essay explores the ways in which the religiosities of women serve
as locations for both the assertion and the refashioning of individual
and communal identity in transcultural contexts. Three shared
assumptions guide these essays: religion plays a dynamic role in the
shaping and reshaping of social cultures; women are active participants
in their transmission and their transformation; and a focus on women's
activities within their religious traditions--often informal and
unofficial--provides new perspectives on the intersection of religion,
gender, and transnationalism.
Since the first European migrations, Canada has been shaped by immigrant
communities as they negotiated the tension between preserving their
religious and cultural traditions and embracing the new opportunities in
their adopted homeland. Viewing those interactions through the lens of
women's religiosity, the essays in this collection model an innovative
approach and provide new perspectives for students and researchers of
Canadian Studies, Religious Studies, and Women's Studies.
