A01=Rosemary Ruether
ancient matriarchy
Author_Rosemary Ruether
aztec religions
babylonia
Category=JBSF
Category=QR
Category=QRAC
christianity
comparative religions
deity
divine feminine
egypt
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
female mysticism
feminine divinity
femininity
feminist ecological spirituality
gender studies
goddess movements
goddesses
judaism
mariology
matriarchal structures
medieval catholicism
medieval religious literature
myths and rituals
religion
sacred female imagery
sacred feminine
spiritual
sumerian
western civilization
western culture
western religions
Product details
- ISBN 9780520250055
- Weight: 680g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 20 Nov 2006
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
This landmark work presents the most illuminating portrait we have to date of goddesses and sacred female imagery in Western culture - from prehistory to contemporary goddess movements. Beautifully written, lucidly conceived, and far-ranging in its implications, this work will help readers gain a better appreciation of the complexity of the social forces - mostly androcentric - that have shaped the symbolism of the sacred feminine. At the same time, it charts a new direction for finding a truly egalitarian vision of God and human relations through a feminist-ecological spirituality. Rosemary Radford Ruether begins her exploration of the divine feminine with an analysis of prehistoric archaeology that challenges the popular idea that, until their overthrow by male-dominated monotheism, many ancient societies were matriarchal in structure, governed by a feminine divinity and existing in harmony with nature. For Ruether, the historical evidence suggests the reality about these societies is much more complex.
She goes on to consider key myths and rituals from Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Anatolian cultures; to examine the relationships among gender, deity, and nature in the Hebrew religion; and to discuss the development of Mariology and female mysticism in medieval Catholicism, and the continuation of Wisdom mysticism in Protestanism. She also gives a provocative analysis of the meeting of Aztec and Christian female symbols in Mexico and of today's neo-pagan movements in the United States.
Rosemary Radford Ruether is Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She is author of numerous books, including Sexism and Godtalk: Toward a Feminist Theology (second edition, 1993), Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing (1992), and Women and Redemption: A Theological History (1998).
