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The Gospel According to Woman: Christianity's Creation of the Sex War in the West
 
 
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The Gospel According to Woman: Christianity's Creation of the Sex War in the West [Paperback]

Karen Armstrong (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)


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Book Description

February 1, 1991
A history of women in Christianity, which reveals how women have been forced to accept cerain prescribed stereotypical roles, as virgins, martyrs, witches, wives and mothers, and which provides suggestions for ways in which women can make use of their modern improved position to amend aspects of these narrow images. First published in 1991.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One of the controversial theories of this ambitious study is that marriage and the family in the Christian West have not been accorded the value and respect they have enjoyed in other cultures. London-based feminist Armstrong traces this attitude back to Jesus and Paul. Her thesis is that Christianity's traditional hatred of women and of the body still cripples woman's self-image today. Protestantism, taking over from the Catholic Church, became the most efficient agent in controlling female sexuality. Men's fear and mistrust of the fair sex is traced from the medieval witch craze (a "giant collective fantasy") to sex-denying Victorian England. Certain specialized roles were available to Christian womenvirgin, martyr, mystic, motherbut each of these, the author argues, forced women to emulate male-created ideals of behavior.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Armstrong presents a stinging indictment of "Christianity," by which she means not the teachings of Jesus or official Christian doctrine but the influences of major scholars and theologians throughout Western history. She argues that in their terror of sex and hatred of women, theologians developed and propagated "the Christian sexual neurosis," an unholy trinity of women, sex, and sin that became identified with Christianity. This neurosis, with its myths of virgin, martyr, witch, or mystic, and later the myth of wife and mother, continues to plague relationships between men and women. Armstrong's endeavor to isolate causal relationships, attributing sexual neurosis to one monolithic villain, becomes tendentious. Not an essential purchase. Cynthia Widmer, Williamstown, Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 366 pages
  • Publisher: Anchor Books (February 1, 1991)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385240791
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385240796
  • Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,083,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Karen Armstrong is the author of numerous other books on religious affairs-including A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha, and The Great Transformation-and two memoirs, Through the Narrow Gate and The Spiral Staircase. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages. She has addressed members of the U.S. Congress on three occasions; lectured to policy makers at the U.S. State Department; participated in the World Economic Forum in New York, Jordan, and Davos; addressed the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington and New York; is increasingly invited to speak in Muslim countries; and is now an ambassador for the UN Alliance of Civilizations. In February 2008 she was awarded the TED Prize and is currently working with TED on a major international project to launch and propagate a Charter for Compassion, created online by the general public and crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, to be signed in the fall of 2009 by a thousand religious and secular leaders. She lives in London.

 

Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Christian Churches attitude to women, February 13, 2001
By 
catherine.murdoch@bigpond.com (Raymond Terrace, NSW, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Gospel According to Woman: Christianity's Creation of the Sex War in the West (Paperback)
Karen Armstrong's book "The Gospel according to woman" is an extremely well-written account of the Christian Church's attitude to, and lack of respect for, women. It certainly explains why women are still struggling to be accepted as equals by their male peers in the Church even in the 21st century, literally hundreds of years since the establishment of Christianity.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkably learned and beautifully written, January 13, 2002
By 
This review is from: The Gospel According to Woman: Christianity's Creation of the Sex War in the West (Paperback)
Stunning book. How can it be out of print? They must be planning some sort of reissue; maybe she is re-writing. I admit that I have read several others of her books and seen her speak and she is formidable. I think I am more impressed by this book than the others I have read. A remarkably erudite account of how the monotheistic religions of the West (it is NOT just about Christianity, although more space is devoted to that religion; Armstrong is an ex-nun) have systematically created and promulgated myths about the nature of women which have had tragic and violent consequences for them. The ancient complex which has targeted women in the Western collective mind is so immense and so deeply rooted that the book may surprise even those who are aware of it.
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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent history on religion and it's view of women, June 5, 2002
By 
Deborah00 (FL United States) - See all my reviews
but readers should use their own common sense and knowledge of history as they consider the message that the author trys to present in some cases. She is obviously knowledgeable in this field and I consider her books an excellent source. But I reject some of her opinions, particularly her statement that "in this century, women have managed to change things for the better, and they owe this achievement in large part to their Christian heritage, though they may be unaware ot this". I reject it because it is completely false. Women have obtained all of their rights; to vote, to own property, to keep their inheritance after marriage and freedom from physical abuse at the hands of their own husbands, not with the help of the church/clergy, but inspite of it. The church and clergy fought them every step of the way on every issue and was nothing but an impedement as they have been through out history in many aspects of civil and human rights. True there were some people of faith who advocated for civil rights and womens sufferage. But for the most part, aside from their faith, they were simply 'humanists' and some agnostics, who with or without religion, had human intelligence and a genuine concern for humanity.
If 'intelligent' human beings hadn't made sacrifices and fought the clergy, women would still be second rate citizens who are chattel property of their husbands, to do with what they please, and denied so-called 'artificial'methods of contraception. Civilized people would still be afflicted with small pox,(as they opposed the vaccine at one time), we'd still be kowtowing to some Pope insisting that the earth was 'flat'(rejecting Galileo)in fear of being persecuted. If not for human 'intelligence' and 'reason', we'de still be Stone Age people, squatting in the dust, picking fleas off each other, as they have been in Afghanistan under fundamentalist rule there. The elements of humanism, have been the true moral compass for guiding both religion and humanity out of barbarity and inequality.
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