A Review of the Book Gender and the Language of Religion

Feminists discuss God's gender, female students keep silent in religious classes in Canada, Tourette syndrome patients exhibit uncontrollable swearing, and participants in American religious associations discuss God, parents, gender, and eroticism. At first glance, these topics seem unrelated, but in this book, Allyson Jule attempts to portray a picture of the intersection where language, gender, and religion meet. Some of the topics appearing in these articles are fundamental to our understanding of gender and language: The importance of power in the asymmetry of gendered language; the use of language in individuals' gender identities; the importance of local language and gender analysis in communities; gender differences in language teaching; and the interaction of discourses about gender and sexuality. This book broadens our understanding of such issues and introduces religion as a new perspective through which linguistic issues can be dealt with.