Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History

[Guest guest]

In the 1950s NCR columnist Rosemary Ruether began to study goddesses of the

ancient Near East and Greece. At the time, she was introduced to theories that

ancient societies had originally been matriarchal and had " fallen " into

patriarchy. In the 1970s she developed a class for the Harvard Divinity School

based on a thesis, popular among feminists, that the archaeological discovery of

figurines depicting female forms was proof of such woman-dominated societies. To

her surprise, the students in the class--almost all of them feminist women--did

not think the figurines expressed a positive view of women at all but thought

that the fat, faceless, large-breasted female forms were exploitative and

repellent. Their reaction, says Ruether, " made me aware that both of these

responses are projections from our modern context and that neither view may have

much to do with what the creators of these images actually had in mind. "

 

Goddesses traces female imagery of the divine throughout human civilization,

starting with a critique of how feminist anthropologists have interpreted

prehistoric relics to create the " pre-patriarchy " theory. The book then moves

through Jewish and Christian treatments of feminine imagery (or the suppression

thereof) and more modern feminist-oriented religions, such as the brand of Wicca

practiced by Margaret Starhawk. " My hope is to further an alliance among the

many forms of religious feminism, while recognizing that we are all

reinterpreting ancient traditions and imagery whose ancient meaning is partly

lost to us, " Ruether writes.

 

COPYRIGHT 2005 National Catholic Reporter

COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

 

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