Bringing together an international team of contributors from different disciplines, this collection addresses the intersection of religion, gender, corporeality and/or sexuality in various Western and Eastern cultures.

Introduction: From Reflections to Membranes: Transcripts on the Body in Religious Discourse, Georgios T. Halkias 1 Semper Aliquid Haeret! The Accusation of Fornication and of Sexualized Cults as a Means of Demarcation in the Hebrew Bible, Christian Frevel 2 Some Daoist Theories on Sexual Body Alteration, Stephen Eskildsen 3 The Female Body In The Practice Of Minority Muslim Communities In Medieval Iberia, Ana Echevarria 4 Strong Men and Sensual Women in Sinhala Buddhist Poetry, Stephen C. Berkwitz 5 The Dangers of the Body in Early Jewish Mysticism, Rebecca Lesses 6 Hoc est Corpus meum - Body Talk in 'Orthodox' Lutheran Protestantism in the Eighteenth Century, Knut Martin Stünkel 7 Fishing for Cod: The Image of the Penis in European Imperial Expansion, Adam Knobler 8 Body, Senses and Gender-related Questions as Gates to the Transcendent: A New Reading of the Masäil ¿Abdallah ibn Salam, Ulisse Cecini 9 Ambivalent Models of Manliness in Medieval Islamic Hagiography, Linda G. Jones 10 Coming Together in the Air: Mysticism and the Queering of Jesus in the Toledot Yeshu, Alexandra Cuffel 11 Embodying the Diamond Sow: Tantric Pilgrims in the Secret Lotus Land, Amelia Hall 12 Monasticism, the Body, and Sexual Desire in Mongolian Pastoral Culture, Vesna A. Wallace

Alexandra Cuffel is Professor of the history of Jewish Religion at Ruhr University, Germany. Her work focuses on Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations in the Middle Ages, particularly in the realms of inter-religious polemic and gender. She has written articles on gender in Jewish mysticsm, inter-religious polemic, Arabic epics, and shared religious practices, and has published a monograph, Gendering Disgust in Medieval Religious Polemic (2007). She is currently leading a project, "JEWSEAST" (Jews and Christians in the East: Strategies of Interaction from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean) and co-directing a project "The Ten Lost Tribes" A Cross-Cultural Approach".

Ana Echevarria is Profesora titular of Medieval History at UNED, Spain. She works on relations between Muslims and Christians, especially interreligious polemic, Muslims living under Christian rule, and crusade. Among her books, Knights in the Borders. The Moorish Guard of the Kings of Castile (1410-1467) (2008) and The City of the Three Mosques: Ávila and its Muslims in the Middle Ages, (2011). She has been Visiting Fellow in several US and German universities, and has finished a project about "Mudejars and Moriscos in Castile".

Georgios T. Halkias is Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong. He specializes on Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhism and inter- and intra-religious contacts in Central Asia. Currently Co-editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Buddhism (OUP) he has worked on several editorial projects including Principle Editor for Tibetan and Central Asian bibliographies on Buddhism and as co-editor for Contemporary Visions in Tibetan Studies. He has many publications including Luminous Bliss: A Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet. He has recently completed a project at the Centre of Buddhist Studies titled "Entangled Histories between East and West: Sources and Interpretations for the Development of Buddhism in Hellenistic Central Asia."