Motherhood in Christianity and Islam

Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
MOTHERHOOD IN CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM: Critiques, Realities, and Possibilities

Author(s): Irene Oh
Source: The Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 38, No. 4 (December 2010), pp. 638-653
Published by: Blackwell Publishing Ltd on behalf of Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc
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MOTHERHOOD IN CHRISTIANITY
AND ISLAM
Critiques, Realities, and Possibilities
Irene Oh
ABSTRACT
Common experiences of mothering offer profound critiques of matern

ethical norms found in both Christianity and Islam. The familiar respo
sibilities of caring for children, assumed by the majority of Christian
Muslim women, provide the basis for reassessing sacrificial and self
love, protesting unjust religious and political systems, and dismant
romanticized notions of childcare. As a distinctive category of wom
experience, motherhood may offer valuable perspectives necessary
remedying injustices that afflict mothers and children in particular
well as for developing cross-cultural understandings of justice in gener
KEY WORDS: motherhood, Christianity, Islam, comparative religion
justice, agency, feminist
BECAUSE IT is common to the lives of so many women, both Ch

and Muslim, motherhood is an ideal subject for comparative re
ethics. Do Christian and Muslim sources, however, offer different
of motherhood? Put differently, might Christian and Muslim w
mother differently as a result of their religious beliefs? In founda
religious sources such as the Bible, papal documents, the Qur'a
hadith, commentaries concerning motherhood differ only slight
usually in emphasis upon one particular aspect of mothering v
another. These differences, moreover, pale in comparison to the re
sibilities familiar to mothers everywhere: years dedicated to th
work of feeding, clothing, cleaning, holding, educating, and myriad
activities necessary for the survival and flourishing of the next ge
tion. Indeed, both Christian and Muslim texts that address mothers
little prescriptive ethical guidance for them; in these traditions on
that mothers tend to be objectified as symbols of willing and s
devotion. The actual experiences of mothers, however, challenge
assumed ethical norms of maternal selfless love, re-evaluate the role of
mothers in establishing just societies, and correct romanticized views of
childcare. The first part of this essay examines how maternal experi-
JRE 38.4:638-653. © 2010 Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc.
Motherhood 639
enees might be employed to critique the ideal of materna

found in both Christianity and Islam. The second part ex
Christian and Muslim mothers interpret their religious trad
the margins to protest unjust political situations. The third
that such critical views of religion and society are largely po
result of accurate and complex, rather than simplistically
renderings of motherhood. The fourth and concluding sec
the distinctiveness of motherhood as the basis for cross-cult
movements. Given the shared concerns and experiences of Ch
Muslim mothers, the possibility emerges of a cross-cultu
motherhood rooted in women's experiences of caring for chi
1. Critical Assessments of Agape and Selflessne

Perspectives borne out of experience oner a critical view
maternal norms, such as love, agape, and selflessness fou
gious texts. The lived experiences of mothers frequently
shock compared to the idealized expectations of mothers
forced by religious traditions. Adrienne Rich, for example, r
many of her frustrations and feelings of inadequacy as a mother
stemmed from her unquestioning acceptance that "a 'natural' mother is
a person without further identity, one who can find her chief gratifi-
cation in being all day with small children . . . that maternal love is,
and should be, quite literally selfless" (Rich 1986, 22). Rich remembers
feeling "haunted by the stereotype of the mother whose love is
'unconditional'" (Rich 1986, 23). Martha McMahon, in her study on
middle- and working-class Canadian mothers, found that the women
she interviewed "implicitly 'knew' the cultural associations of caring,
morality, and character in women's lives" (McMahon 1995, 159).
The most powerful critiques of Christian ethics come from the
perspective of mothers themselves, who question such expectations of
selfless, other-regarding love. The ideal of unconditional, disinterested
love, often assumed between mother and child, is interrogated by actual
maternal responsibilities and experiences. Pope John Paul II in Redemp-
toris Mater typically idealizes Mary as the archetype of maternal love,
which he describes as "self-offering," "limitless," and "tireless." He
equates Mary, in her saintly devotion to her son, with the sacrifices of
women:
In the light of Mary, the church sees in the face of w

of a beauty which mirrors the loftiest sentiments of
heart is capable: the self-offering totality of love;
capable of bearing the greatest sorrows; limitless f
devotion to work; the ability to combine penetrating
of support and encouragement [John Paul II 1987] .
640 Journal of Religious Ethics
Christine Gudorf, by contrast, offers a critical view of agape based on

her experiences as the mother of one biological child and two adopted
children with disabilities. For Gudorf:
The insistence on Christian love as selfless has created tremendous guilt

in people who constantly find that they cannot forget themselves com-
pletely in their loving as they should. The experience of having their love
rewarded, returning fourfold, frustrates many who come to assume that
Christian love must be only for the saints, not for ordinary people
[Gudorf 2005, 85].
Gudorf finds that the assumption of parental love as selfless giving

without any thought to one's self is both inaccurate and demoralizing
The maternal expectation set by glorified depictions of Mary is unre
alistic and, moreover, ignores the social realities and web of mutual
concern that surrounds the parent-child relationship. Although
Gudorf s experience is imaginably more difficult than that of most
mothers because of her children's medical conditions, her sentiment -
shared earlier by Rich - echoes a profound dissatisfaction with the gap
between idealistic expectations of mothering and the actual experi-
ences of mothering. John Paul IPs euphemistic descriptions of moth-
ering reinforce the belief that women ought to revel gloriously in the
responsibilities of motherhood without any concern for themselves.
Holding Mary up as the paragon of mothers, John Paul II sets an
impossibly high bar for them. The absence of Mary's own reflections
on motherhood further enables the pope's rendering of Mary as the
model mother. Without her testimony and given the papacy's ultimate
interpretive authority, Christian expectations of mothering fail to rec-
oncile the ambivalent feelings actual mothers may have about moth-
ering. The Church's expectations of mothers are questionable given
that these are based on incomplete and inaccurate understanding of
childcare.
As Gudorf suggests, the Church's skewed understanding of Mary
has serious ethical implications for mothers. Although mothers are
certainly concerned about the lives of their children, mothers are also
concerned about their own happiness and satisfaction. If, as the pope
indicates, mothers are to "love" and "work" with unquestioning devo-
tion, the Church essentially silences critiques of the injustices that
unduly burden mothers. There is little space for understanding how
mothers realistically perceive their own lives. Mothers sometimes do
feel overwhelmed or depressed or simply fail to experience the joy that
they, according to the Church, ought to feel, particularly when they
are burdened with medical, economic, or psychological issues. The
Church's maternal vision obscures the many factors that facilitate or
hinder a mother's ability to care for her children, including the role of
Motherhood 641
other family members, neighbors, and governments. M

personified through the singular example of Mary is not onl
misunderstood but also ethically negligent.
The practices of mothering provide a lens through which o
stands more accurately both agapeistic neighbor-love and
love. The physical and emotional work of caring for a child r
many mothers the notions of both self-love and other-regar
caring for one's own child, one might better imagine how on
and loves children who are not one's own, and how others ca
love their own children. Because children are both other and
they also provide a unique opportunity to examine how love
and self-love interact. The relationship between the abilit
oneself and the ability to love a child, who may not be capable of
expressing love in return, tests the boundaries of such loves.
Gudorf reminds her readers that when parents raise their young,
they do so not purely out of self-sacrificing love, but also with the hope
that their efforts will be returned with love and affection from their
children and with the satisfaction in seeing children mature. In con-
sidering the raising her two disabled children, Gudorf remarks that
there
was no way to do that without also gratifying our own self-interest in

that when they learned to walk, talk, eat, use the toilet, attend school,
and form other relationships not only would their horizons expand, but
ours also. As with all children, every achievement of the child is both a
source of pride and a freeing of the parent from responsibility for the
child [Gudorf 2005, 80].
She points out that when parents care for their young, they do so with
the expectation that the giving will become mutual. Parents are not
completely selfless in their love. While self-sacrifice and selflessness
surely characterize much of childcare, especially when young children
are utterly dependent upon parents, self-love and self-concern remai
inextricably tied to the efforts and work of mothers.
Christian feminist thought has explored the relationship between
self-love and other-regarding love (Weaver 2002), but Islamic thought
also contains possibilities for reading religious texts with similar
concerns in mind. That is, one might take passages from the Qur'an
and the hadith with a critical eye that focuses upon acknowledging the
self-consciousness and moral awareness of the mother, rather than her
selfless love. In one of the most common wedding gifts given to Muslim
brides in Southeast Asia, a century-old guidebook titled Bihishti Zewa
(Heavenly Ornaments), the reader does not encounter the terminolog
of "self-love," but the text clearly indicates that young women ought to
respect and care for themselves in order to prepare for marriage an
motherhood. Author Maulana Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi encourages women

to educate themselves about Islam. With emphasis placed upon taking
the time and effort to become literate and well versed in Islam, to
master essential math skills, and above all, to question confidently
traditions and customs that may be more harmful than good; Bihishti
Zewar validates a bride's intellectual, emotional, and social abilities
(Metcalf 1997, 59, 97, 102). His guidebook also provides numerous
portrayals of inspiring Muslim women, including scholars, doctors, and
religious leaders.
The vast majority of exemplary Muslim women in Bihishti Zewar,
however, gain their knowledge and prominence in relation to the needs
of men (Metcalf 1997, 293-308). Although they are responsible for
saving their own souls, women pursue educations so that they may
better serve their children and husbands. Women who learn to read
and write "manage their homes well," "raise their children well," and
know "every minute the proper status of her mother, father, husband,
and other relations; and she will fulfill her obligations (huquq) to them"
(Metcalf 1997, 59). The education of young women remains ultimately
couched in other-regarding terms.
In Islamic canonical texts, mothers are described as objects of
veneration. The traditional canon comprising the Qur'an and hadith
contains numerous references to mothers made by observers of
mothers, but few references come directly from mothers themselves.
The Qur'an as well as the hadith of Bukhari, considered the most
reliable archivist of hadith in Sunni Islam, state explicitly that chil-
dren are to respect their mothers. In one famous hadith, mothers are
deserving of the kindest of companionship, even before fathers. Many
Muslims view the wives of Muhammad as exemplars of virtue and
behavior, but hadith concerning Khadija, the Prophet's first wife, are
especially popular among Muslim women in part because, of all of
Muhammad's wives, she is the only one to have borne a child who
survived the death of Muhammad (Stowasser 1992). Still, traditional
religious references to motherhood are mostly variations on the theme
of respect for one's mother, without providing guidance to mothers
themselves for handling the struggles and complexities of motherhood.
Although hadith from Muhammad's wives exist, few can be attributed
to Khadija (most are attributed to Aisha, who did not have children),
and no substantial commentary from mothers about mothering exists
from this formative period.
In several hadith, however, the nursing mother is described as
performing moral work that deserves divine reward. Notably, these
hadith are addressed to mothers themselves and refer to concrete
practices of mothering. The nursing mother in the Qur'an and hadith
is depicted as a woman who receives reward for the work of mothering.
Motherhood 643
According to one hadith, Muhammad explains that when

nurses, "she receives for every mouthful [of milk] and for e
the reward of one good deed. And if she is kept awake by
night, she receives the reward of one who frees seventy slav
sake of Allah" (Schleifer 1986, 53). Although it might be
religious reinforcement of the sacrificial mother, this hadit
be viewed as the Prophet's explicit recognition of the ph
moral tasks of mothering. Mothers' pain in labor and we
childcare are not viewed as punishment for sin, as described
3, but rather as occasions for immense gratitude. The Qur
that a Muslim ought to revere one's mother because a mot
him in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in tw
(Qur'an 31:14). The Qur'an also acknowledges the ambivalence that
mothers may feel, given the hardships associated with pregnancy and
nursing: one's "mother beareth him with reluctance, and bringeth him
forth with reluctance, and the bearing of him and the weaning of him"
(Schleifer 1986, 52).
Developing an understanding of the ethical agency of mothers may
require the retrieval of sources within these religions that acknowledge
more realistically the lives of mothers. Both Mark and Luke in the
Christian scriptures, for example, describe pregnant and nursing
women as those who suffer greatly at the end of days: "And alas for
those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days!"
(Mark 13:17), and "For behold, the days are coming when they will say,
'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the
breasts that never gave suck!'" (Luke 23:29). Genesis 3, of course,
famously describes the pain in childbearing that will plague women
since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. These
and similar texts in religious sources avoid romanticizing motherhood
and begin to acknowledge the realities and work of mothering. Focus-
ing on such sources may provide a means for developing an under-
standing of motherhood as ethical practice, rather than as an
impossible ideal.
2. Mothers, Religion, and Political Protest

The physical, emotional, and intellectual experiences of mothering
may contribute to a mothers' awareness of political justice and the role
of religious institutions in establishing just societies. These perspec-
tives of religion and society based upon maternal experiences, however,
ought not to be construed as a maternal, feminine ideal of peace as
opposed to a paternalistic, masculine tendency toward violence and
war. Indeed, the dangers of gendered polarization prompt many
caveats against the attempt to forge a politics based upon motherhood.
Fearful of reviving "the mystique of woman's moral superiority," Rich

cautions against the use of motherhood as a basis for political, par-
ticularly antimilitarist, work (Rich 1986, xxiv). She "questions the
implicit belief that only 'mothers' with 'children of their own' have a
real stake in the future of humanity" (Rich 1986, xxiv). Similarly,
Marilyn Friedman sheds doubt on the association between an ethic
of care and women's practices (Friedman 1995, 66). Nonetheless, a
heightened sensitivity to injustice and violence may emerge out of
maternal experience. The experiences of caring for children arguably
result in "maternal thinking," which, as feminist philosopher Sarah
Ruddick describes, constitutes a kind of intellectual effort that is finely
attuned to the nature of violence, the employment of force, and the
fragility of peace (Ruddick 1989). She asserts that common maternal
practices of protection, nurturing, and training - familiar to mothers
despite cultural differences - result in the development of moral per-
spectives that are especially aware of the effects of injustice (Ruddick
1989, 65-123).
Given the ban against women holding positions of authority
within major Christian denominations and in Islam, mothers have
sometimes found greater opportunity to voice their concerns about
injustices in the public, secular square. The Madres de Plaza de
Mayo, the Mothers of the Disappeared, in Argentina, carefully
employed the image of the Mater Dolarosa, the grieving mother of
Christ, by dressing in simple, homely attire and grieving publicly for
their missing children during Argentina's Dirty War (1976-83)
(Femenia 1987). After being turned away by the Catholic Church,
which had in fact been complicit with the military government, a
group of mothers donned white head coverings and silently circu-
mambulated a major public square to protest the kidnappings of
their children. Their imaginative, subversive use of the Catholic
Church's imagery in the political sphere awakened the consciousness
of the international public to the terrors of Argentina's military
regime. The Madres skillfully played upon cultural and religious
expectations of the apolitical, domestic, subservient mother to shock
the country into action and generated worldwide support. The
mothers effectively employed Catholic symbols to point out the injus-
tice of the Church and the government in the face of those human
rights abuses. In this example, maternal experience led to political
protest that resulted in global awareness of the massive human
rights violations. Mothers around the world found themselves moved
by the pain and suffering experienced by Argentine mothers for their
disappeared children. Indeed, the Madres have since inspired numer-
ous other mothers' groups who call forth our sympathies and our
indignation toward injustice.
Motherhood 645
Muslim scholar and activist Amina Wadud draws from he

ence as the mother of five children to speak out against the
reinforced by the oft-quoted hadith stating that "paradise
feet of the mother" (Wadud 2006). Her protests against the poor
treatment of mothers within patriarchal cultures are "inspired by the
living hell for many single female parents, or women with disabled or
un-able fathers, husbands, and brothers in a Muslim community that
pretends that such an idiom [or more accurately, an adage] is a
statement of fact and therefore ignores the agony of these women
making them invisible" (Wadud 2006, 126). Through the lens of moth-
erhood, Wadud provides a subversive reading of the story of Hajar
(Haggar), the ancestral mother of the Arabs and Islam. She notes that
Hajar's status "as single head of household is never commented upon,
no one was held accountable for its resolution, and later legal codifi-
cations in Islam would still overlook it" (Wadud 2006, 144). This
oversight within Muslim societies carries important implications, espe-
cially considering the ways in which current Islamic laws treat single
mothers by harshly penalizing pregnancy out of wedlock. Wadud calls
for a more equitable system of justice within Islam that recognizes a
single mother not as a deviant figure, but as a paradigm that demands
greater consideration and just treatment.
For Wadud and the Madres, protests against the injustices carried
out by religious traditions and political systems come directly from
their experiences as mothers. While their status as mothers lends them
the credibility to speak out publicly concerning these issues, their
direct observations of mothers' lives seem to have provided the critical
lens that motivates their activism. Rich and Friedman are rightly
concerned about the dangers of associating motherhood with political
movements - mothers may very well be reinforcing stereotypes by
protesting issues directly relevant to children's welfare - but given the
urgency of these injustices, such concerns are arguably secondary to
the need to call attention to them, whether by mothers or by others.
Rather than view mothers' politicization as a step backward, the
unexpected activism of mothers against the abuses of children and
mothers may in fact constitute a step toward overturning romanticized
images of motherhood.
3. The Possibility of Critique: The Recognition of Motherhood

The critiques of political injustice and religious norms above are
possible as the result of taking seriously the perspectives of mothers.
Although images of mothers abound, their voices are largely absent.
This absence has severe implications for the development of com-
prehensive ethical frameworks. Feminist philosopher Susan Okin
observes, for example, that the history of Western philosophy has paid
scant attention to the process by which babies become rational adults
and especially to those mothers who raise them. Aristotle's Nicoma-
chean Ethics, which has played a significant role in the development of
both Christian and Islamic ethics, does not acknowledge the role that
mothers play in the upbringing of virtuous young male citizens. Ironi-
cally, the women who are expected to raise children, at least in their
earliest, most formative years, are themselves excluded from the edu-
cation of virtue. This omission raises concerns about the accuracy and
comprehensiveness of Aristotle's pedagogy of virtue. With regard to the
liberal tradition within philosophy, Okin observes that it
appears to be talking about individuals, as components of political

systems, it is in fact talking about male-headed families. Whereas the
interests of the male actors in the political realm are perceived as
discrete, and often conflicting, the interests of the members of the family
of each patriarch are perceived as entirely convergent with his own, and
consequently women disappear from the subject of politics [Okin 1979,
202].
Mothers have historically played a vital, but unacknowledged role in

the formation of the body politic. Their absence from philosophical
thinking about virtue, governments, and the good life does not consti-
tute a mere oversight, but has potentially serious ramifications for the
development of any complete ethical framework.
Author Jane Smiley has similarly observed the "extreme paucity of
mothers and the tradition of a maternal vision in Western literature."
She asks, "What do we know about mothers from reading our litera-
ture? We know what they look like and what others feel about them"
(Smiley 1993, 6). Very little reliable information exists, for example,
about how Mary thought and acted as a mother except in relation to
her son's birth and death. The Greek term used for Mary in Orthodox
Christianity, theotokos, literally the "God-bearer," emphasizes the
physical relationship of Mary to Jesus, rather than the emotional,
intellectual, or spiritual one that she may have had with her son.
Similarly, in stories of exemplary women found in the Qur'an, the
"importance of childbearing as a central part of a Muslim woman's
identity is emphasized" (Brockopp 1999, 7). Charles Hallisey, describ-
ing the dearth of information about women in Buddhism, remarks that
rarely "do we see the women in these models depicted as having the
complex, if not contradictory, characters that most of us do in fact
have. . . . Nowhere is a gap between idealization and realistic possibil-
ity more visible than in Buddhist models of mothers" (Hallisey 1999,
123-24). Available information about mothers is often secondary, told
through the voices of male observers, redactors, or authors, not
Motherhood 647
through the voices of the mothers themselves. This lacuna h

tant implications for developing a more complete understandin
good life.
Understanding motherhood as an ethically rich and complex expe-
rience ultimately depends upon accurate portrayals of motherhood in
society. Traditional images of mothers in Western religious history
and in popular media portray young, healthy, content, and presum-
ably married women, with equally healthy and content babes in their
arms. One questions the accuracy of the placid images of Mary and
the baby Jesus given the physical drain and messiness of the birth-
ing process, newborn care, and nursing. The iconic image of mother
and baby is so deeply entrenched that a contrary view, such as that
of a profoundly destitute mother and her young children portrayed in
Dorthea Lange's Depression Era photograph, "Migrant Mother," elic-
ited comments that the photographs were "subversive propaganda"
and "false" (Stevens and Fogel 2001). * Poor women have long expe-
rienced motherhood differently than white, middle-class women.
From the time of slavery, African American mothers have had to
work outside the home while their own children were raised by
"othermothers" - women in the African American community who
shared the work of raising each other's children (Collins 1995, 120-
24).
Images of Mary and Khadija, hardly "normal" mothers, are not the
only culturally prominent mothers. Celebrity mothers and fictional-
ized mothers can be found in supermarket tabloids and in light-
hearted "mommy lit," as the genre is dubbed (Bazelon 2006, 10). Our
culture is simply inundated with skewed images of motherhood.
These diversions, however, hint at the need to recognize the ethical
struggles of real mothers. The attraction to Mary and Khadija, Ange-
lina Jolie and Britney Spears, as well as the protagonists of mommy
lit may suggest the public's desire to understand maternal view-
points on a plethora of topics, both trivial and profound. These
women symbolize moral boundaries in the form of "good" mothers
and "bad" ones. Unfortunately, like Mary and Khadija, celebrity and
fictional mothers are promoted without sincere reflection upon the
actual experiences of mothers. They provide little insight into the
mundane but ethically important daily work of mothering. The
danger of these modern depictions of motherhood lies in their glam-
orous extremity and the applications of that extremity in creating
ethical norms for mothers.
1 See the photograph at http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html.
4. A Distinctive Voice
In recognizing mothers' voices and recording their experiences s

that they are available as sources of critique, one needs to value
motherhood as a distinct category of experience. Some may argue that
experiences of mothering and fathering are similar enough such that
the term "parenting" is the more valid term. Other thinkers may argue
against the use of the term "motherhood" for political reasons, bell
hooks, for example, reasons that the use of mothering as a term to
denote childcare exacerbates the problem of the gendering of childcare
(hooks 1984, 138-39). Changes in language to become more sex- and
gender-inclusive, she asserts, may function as a precursor to social and
institutional equality. Also, men who have borne a fair share of their
work raising young children may protest the decision to use the
gendered language of mothering, rather than the more inclusive term
of parenting. In North American and Western European societies, men
are increasingly active partners in the rearing of young children.
Additionally, some women do not want or cannot become pregnant,
while yet others may not be able to or choose not to become primary
care givers to the children they bear.
The choice to employ the term "mother" instead of "father," "parent,"
or "caregiver" honors the fact that historically and across cultures,
women have typically carried the responsibility of childcare (Ruddick
1989, 44-45). Nancy Chodorow also reminds us that while substantial
changes have occurred over the last few centuries with regard to
women's work, marriage rates, and fertility, women's "mothering is one
of the few universal and enduring elements of the sexual division of
labor" (Chodorow 1978, 3). Discussions of men as primary caregivers to
young children are virtually absent in traditional religious resources.
Caring for children, especially young children, has, for both physical
and cultural reasons, been typically viewed as women's work. Lactat-
ing women - either biological mothers or wet nurses - have fed infants,
and women in their roles as mothers, teachers, nannies, and sitters
have raised children to maturity.
Choosing to use "mother" and its obvious association with women
also makes sense given that most women have no choice but to confront
the biological possibility of pregnancy and motherhood. The possibility
of pregnancy (through rape, for example) is significant because it forces
women to consider motherhood, even if they never want to become
mothers. Men, on the other hand, may never know for sure if they are
biological fathers; unless confronted with DNA evidence, they can fairly
easily deny their biological role in creating a child. For women, con-
cealing a pregnancy or birth, while possible, is quite difficult. Con-
fronted by their biology, women inevitably face the question of whether
Motherhood 649
or not they want to become mothers. Women therefore spen

portionate amount of thought, time, and money to avoid
mothers. Susan Starr Sered observes that
in every known culture adult women grapple with motherhood. Most

women are, have been, or try to become mothers, or conversely, make
efforts - sometimes even life-threatening efforts - to avoid becoming
mothers. Many, if not most women, are concerned with controlling the
number of children whom they bear and raise, and with determining the
way in which their children are raised. The diverse implications of
motherhood . . . strongly resonate with women's religious beliefs and
rituals [Sered 1996, 7].
By choice or by coercion, many women find themselves facing possible

motherhood.
The non-gendered term "caregiver," while in many ways appropriate
to this study, is also not acceptably accurate. Caring for a young child,
an elderly person, and a disabled person (child or not) engender
different ethical reflections. All three types of care involve a relation-
ship between a caregiver and one who is cared for, but the physical,
psychological, and intellectual demands of each type of care differ. A
person who cares for her aging parents, for example, experiences
distinct, though no less profound, emotions than in caring for her
young infant. In the former case, memories of being cared for by one's
parents; surprise, shock, and anger at the aging process; and the
reality of end-of-life concerns entail different ethical responses than
those emerging from the care of a child whose future and whose
memories are yet to be created.
For many women awareness of the ethical demands of motherhood
begins with pregnancy, a condition that women alone experience.2
Many women, for example, prepare for the responsibilities of caring for
an infant during pregnancy when they restrict the consumption of
certain foods and tobacco, seek prenatal medical care, and begin or end
other practices unique to their pregnant lives. Arguably construed as
exercises in virtue, pregnant women attempt to habituate certain
practices deemed culturally "good" over the course of months with the
goal of fulfilling a desired end of a healthy mother and child. Emo-
tionally, women often begin the process of bonding with their infants
when they are still fetuses in utero. The intense physical and emotional
bond between women and their children, found through practices such
as nursing, often develops through infancy and into early childhood.
Thomas Beatie, a transsexual man who kept his female reproductive organs intact
despite a sex-change operation that transformed his outward appearance, has recently
announced that "he" is pregnant. So, although I state here that women confront
pregnancy, I realize that exceptions may occur (Beatie 2008, 24; Winfrey 2008).
Pregnancy involves different, but related, ethical issues than mother-

hood because pregnancy often initiates the ethical lives distinct to
motherhood.
The morally transformative process often begins with pregnancy,
but lies predominantly in the years of work caring for dependent
children. Biological mothers may perform the majority of early child
care work, but adoptive mothers, fathers (biologically male parents),
and other persons who assume a primary role of caregiver for a child
can also care for children. Therefore, fathers, adoptive mothers, and
others who take on this role may similarly experience the moral
work of caring for children. Notably, the Abrahamic traditions
acknowledge our moral responsibilities to non-biological children.
Both Moses and Muhammad were orphaned and cared for by adop-
tive parents. Psalm 68:5 praises God as "Father of orphans" who
"gives the desolate a home to live in" (NRSV). The Qur'an warns
Muslims to protect the assets of vulnerable orphans (6:152, 17:34;
18:82), to feed orphans (76:8), and to avoid the harsh treatment of
orphans (93:9, 107:2). Even in caring for adopted children, however,
women in most cultures still assume the lion's share of the work of
caring for children.
The language of "mothering" has admitted deficiencies. Nonetheless,
such language best suits this particular study because it reminds us o
the fact that women have, and continue to bear, the primary respon-
sibility of caring for young children. The gendered term also acknowl-
edges that most women do in fact become biological mothers. Perhaps
most significantly, the category of motherhood prods us to consider
more fully the ethical perspectives that result from the experiences of
women who care for the next generation of humanity. Mothers consti-
tute a distinct group of persons who, as women and as caregivers to the
young, may develop particularly valuable and much-needed perspec
tives on religion and society.
5. Conclusion: Conversing as Mothers, with Mothers,

for Mothers
In a forceful critique of Judith Butler's theories that destabilize the

notion of biologically determined gender, Martha Nussbaum argues
that the failure to recognize the category of "woman" as a discrete
category has the dangerous implication of dismantling the foundation
of feminist work (Nussbaum 1999). For Nussbuam, Butler's discredit-
ing of the notion that there is such a thing as a woman means that the
injustices carried out against women because they are women become
delegitimized. Specifically, the work of feminists with regard to issues
such as women's heath, reformation of rape laws, ownership and
Motherhood 651
property rights, and workplace discrimination, loses traction i

lose status as a distinct sex. One might extend this argument to
mothers as a discrete, albeit large, category among women. There are
serious issues of injustice facing mothers in particular - issues such as
alarmingly high maternal mortality rates in poor communities, work-
place discrimination against mothers, and disproportionately large
numbers of mothers and children living in poverty - that require the
recognition of both the plight of mothers and the voices of mothers
themselves if we are to remedy these injustices (United Nations 2010,
30-38).
The unpublicized struggles and joys of motherhood potentially
provide a basis for cross-cultural justice movements. Although mothers
would be the first to claim that the experience of raising a child differs
from child to child and culture to culture, enough of the experience of
childcare is similar that mothers from different religious traditions are
able to empathize with each other over the various triumphs and
travails of mothering. Experiences of motherhood as complex practices
of care bring into sharp relief the relationships between self, other, and
society. Mothers see how the well-being of a child relies upon the
well-being of the mother, and how this relationship depends also upon
a well-functioning society. Mothers across political spectrums and
religious divides share a concern for the communities and environ-
ments that they and their children inhabit. The care for one's own
children and the empathetic recognition of other mothers' work can
translate into a profound concern about cultural values and the role of
religious institutions in upholding or neglecting those values. Changes
in moral self-understanding as a result of motherhood may provide the
impetus for social and political change, including the transformation of
religious traditions.
In creatively seeking moral agency through their respective reli-
gious traditions, mothers illuminate the potential of religion in ways
that might otherwise be neglected. Indeed in both Christian and
Muslim communities, children possess the unique status of being
"social objects of great social worth" and have the "symbolic power to
transform women's identities" (McMahon 1995, 21). As symbols of
society, children imbue mothers with the legitimacy to act in the
public sphere on their behalf and on the behalf of other mothers.
Especially in these times of intense discord, the needs of mothers,
witnessed to by mothers, may provide platforms to critique unjustified
religious conflict. Because mothers, in their experiences of nurturing
the future generation of humanity, comprehend the responsibilities of
caring for children, they especially may provide much-needed perspec-
tives to foster greater understanding and justice between cultures and
traditions.
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Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

MOTHERHOOD IN CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM: Critiques, Realities, and Possibilities

Critiques, Realities, and Possibilities

Common experiences of mothering offer profound critiques of matern

BECAUSE IT is common to the lives of so many women, both Ch

JRE 38.4:638-653. © 2010 Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc.

enees might be employed to critique the ideal of materna

1. Critical Assessments of Agape and Selflessne

In the light of Mary, the church sees in the face of w

Christine Gudorf, by contrast, offers a critical view of agape based on

The insistence on Christian love as selfless has created tremendous guilt

Gudorf finds that the assumption of parental love as selfless giving

other family members, neighbors, and governments. M

was no way to do that without also gratifying our own self-interest in

motherhood. Author Maulana Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi encourages women

According to one hadith, Muhammad explains that when

2. Mothers, Religion, and Political Protest

Fearful of reviving "the mystique of woman's moral superiority," Rich

Muslim scholar and activist Amina Wadud draws from he

3. The Possibility of Critique: The Recognition of Motherhood

appears to be talking about individuals, as components of political

Mothers have historically played a vital, but unacknowledged role in

through the voices of the mothers themselves. This lacuna h

1 See the photograph at http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html.

In recognizing mothers' voices and recording their experiences s

or not they want to become mothers. Women therefore spen

in every known culture adult women grapple with motherhood. Most

By choice or by coercion, many women find themselves facing possible

Pregnancy involves different, but related, ethical issues than mother-

5. Conclusion: Conversing as Mothers, with Mothers,

In a forceful critique of Judith Butler's theories that destabilize the

property rights, and workplace discrimination, loses traction i

Metcalf, Barbara Daly, trans.

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