Laywomen's Authority and Jain Theology

The final chapter describes a conflict over the efficacy of a particular formal liturgical worship performance and asks theological questions about the primacy of right thought and right knowledge over right action (here, religious gifting); it highlights the ways that the issues of theology, orthopraxy, authority, and hymn singing are navigated and negotiated by the Jain laywomen in the Parsva Women's Mandal. The women reconstructed this theological argument from a belief that they had both the authority to make a theological critique and a valid understanding of Jainism derived from their own experiences.

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