Customer Reviews

Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion

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This book and its successor, Weaving the Visions, are the keystones of my library of feminist religious studies. The contributors expose us to feminist critiques of religion from many perspectives and backgrounds. This book is an uplifting source of inspiration for men and women alike. At the same time, it remains a pinnacle of scholarship in its field. I would highly recommend it to anyone with even a remote interest in feminist religious thought!

I was introduced to this book in a feminist spirituality class, taught by a methodist (woman) minister. This and its sequel, Weaving the Visions, helped change my spiritual life. It affirmed the feminine face of God for me, and it did help me to know there are others out there seeking the Femininity of God. That we all have our own, bizarre path to the Divine One; be it one sex or another. This book opens up to a world of feminist thought and ritual; how different feminists, scholars and religious leaders experience divinity and come to terms with it. There are Christians, Jews and Pagans here. An excerpt from "The Color Purple" which Christ seems to favor in other publications. Truly a wonderful work of art for women. A feminist must have.

Womanspirit Rising is an important book for anyone looking to explore religion outside of the traditional patriarchal understanding. It provides a new perspective and new options for the experience of religion, spirituality, and the divine, particularly for women who have experienced isolation or oppression in their religious tradition. The volume brings to attention the realities of not so long ago when women were absent or ignored in the study of religion, within the context of academia and in the larger realm of society. The essays contained in this volume are written by many of the most important female religious scholars including Mary Daly, Rosemary Radford Reuther, Phyllis Trible, Judith Plaskow, and Carol P. Christ. These women, along with many other contributors, wish to challenge the traditions of Jewish and Christian religious traditions and the burden of inferiority of women that has emerged from and been sustained by them.
The contributing authors vary on their approach to the equality of women (whether they should be equal to men or be elevated above them), the anthropomorphic language of god/ess, whether or not religious understanding can be restored to a place where women can find liberation and value, and the relationship between women and nature. Thankfully, the editors allow these differences to be held in tension within the volume. This provides a plethora of language to surround and begin to define the importance of women's experiences within the realm of religious understanding. I found healing in the openness for religious expression in new terms: those according to women and their experiences.
This collection readily addresses the reality that the idea of a male god has oppressive consequences for women in other realms of life outside religion; male conceptualization of god has given male humans control and power in all of society. One of the most meaningful chapters for me, "Why Women Need the Goddess" by Carol Christ, was about the social and political implications of the image of a goddess. Instead of being oppressed by men and a male god, a new vision of the divine is offered, one where women have power and control over their own lives in a way that is affirmed by their understanding of the divine. This provides hope for women not only in religious contexts, but in the world of work, home, and public society.

Carol P. Christ has taught at major universities such as Columbia University, Harvard Divinity School, Pomona College, San Jose State, and the California Institute of Integral Studies; she is also the author of books such as She Who Changes: Re-imagining the Divine in the World, Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality, Laughter of Aphrodite: Reflections on a Journey to the Goddess, etc. Judith Plaskow is Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College, and author of books such as Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective, The Coming of Lilith: Essays on Feminism, Judaism, and Sexual Ethics, 1972-2003. Both co-edited the follow-up volume to this collection, Weaving the Visions : New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality / Edited by Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ.

They wrote in the Preface to the original (1979) edition of this book, "In 1972 and 1973, we began to teach courses on women and religion. Those early years were a struggle because there were so few sources... we and our students were frustrated by the overwhelmingly negative picture of religion that emerged... we wanted also to show our students that religion could be reconstructed or recreated to speak to the experiences of women."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"For the temptations of woman as woman are not the same as the temptations of man as man, and the specifically feminine forms of sin... have a quality which can never be encompassed by such terms as 'pride' and 'will-to-power.'" (Pg. 37)
"The women's movement will present a growing threat to patriarchal religion less by attacking it than by simply leaving it behind." (Pg. 57)
"And while it is true that Catholics revere Mary as the mother of Jesus, she cannot be identified as divine in her own right: if she is 'mother of God,' she is not 'God the Mother' on an equal footing with God the Father." (Pg. 107-108)
"To affirm that Christian faith and theology are not inherently patriarchal and sexist and, at the same time, to maintain that Christian theology and the Christian churches are guily of the sin of sexism is the task of feminist theology." (Pg. 145)
"If we do not mean that God is male when we use masculine pronouns and imagery, then why should there be any objections to using female pronouns and imagery as well?" (Pg. 170-171)
"(F)emale God language is especially important in the Jewish context because so much of the Jewish religious enterprise involves talking, not about God, but TO God." (Pg. 172)
"Witchcraft today, is a kaleidoscope of diverse traditions, rituals, theologies and structures. But underneath the varying forms is a basic orientation common to all the craft." (Pg. 262-263)

This book is quite simply an essential buy for the feminist or neophyte feminist theologian. Though significant advances have been made in the field since the time of the book's first publication, the articles offer a sample of the diversity of feminist thought - from radical deconstructionists like Mary Daly to constructive theologians such as Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza. I highly recommend this text as a good point of departure for those who think theology is necessarily patriarchal and oppressive (despite the fact that it often is).

writen in 1979, i suppose the world was in a very different place in terms of the feminist dialectic. this book has a very significant focus on christian and judiac tradition, so if you are interested in a more thorough read for our contempory diverse world, you may find more to be desired. however, this book does have some great strengths. the articles that are writen about feminist perspectives on christianity and judiasm are very insightful and well writen. and this book is worth having and reading for "part 4- creating new traditions" alone. i do refer to this book from time to time when doing research and find it elequent and inspiring, despite its narrow focus. perhaps a revised edition that includes more diverse contributions from feminists of other major religions like islam, hinduism, and budhism, ect. is long overdue.

..hopefully this review will not rile anyone up. If so, my apologies. I was shocked at the venom in this book. The professor wound up forcing all the boys to leave except one, who took her hostility each and every day. This was at the University of Washington.

I was not a Christian when I took this course. In fact, I didn't want anything to do with Church, I was hostile to the church, and I was still stunned.

The book did get me to look at the Bible again and really realize that Jesus is the biggest feminist that has ever lived, so that is why I remember this book. It got me thinking that if Jesus makes people so angry, maybe he has something to say. I guess now that I think about it, it was one of the first stepping stones to becoming the outspoken for the gospel Christian that I am. Other than that, I do not recommend this book.