Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture
Editors Mary Ann Beavis and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang
Publisher Mago Books (Lytle Creek, CA)
Publication Date August 7, 2018
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Description This book fills the very real need for an affordable, accessible, academic textbook featuring Goddesses from a wide range of world religious, cultural and mythological traditions. As a textbook, its primary audience is professors and students in university and college courses in Goddess Studies, Religious Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies. It will also be of interest to students and instructors in the many Goddess-themed courses outside the academy. The contributors to the textbook were selected for their scholarly expertise and qualifications in their respective areas of study, both established and emerging scholars from Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Scandinavia, and Australia. The Goddess traditions surveyed in the 22 chapters include the Female Divine in the major world religions—not only Hinduism and Buddhism, but also in the “Western Religions” of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, popularly regarded as impervious to the Goddess. The coverage ranges from ancient to contemporary, Mago to Mary Magdalene. As such, it is a unique and much-needed resource for students and faculty, as well as a treasury of Goddess scholarship.
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Endorsements
“This brilliant collection of essays, Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture, is an invaluable contribution to several fields: thealogy, ecology, indigenous cultures, feminist theories, and intra-religious dialogue. The collection marks a new milestone in that it not only celebrates the growing maturity but also critically interrogates aspects of goddess scholarship. It is a rare gift to those searching for spiritual integrity in these darkening days, and a welcome contribution for those searching for thorough academic grounding in this emerging field.” Mary Condren, Th.D. Director of Woman Spirit Ireland, author of The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion and Power in Celtic Ireland.
“This meticulous assembly of historical, archaeological, artistic and religious sources retrieves one of Asia’s most ancient Goddess traditions and tracks the underground streams of its influence across millennia. It was a labor of love to piece together the shards of memories embedded in cliffs, clay, land stone and retrieve the threads of ancient myths in fragments of songs and ritual that belong to this tradition. The scholarship is both passionate and impeccable, patient and detailed, and breath-taking in its broad sweep. There is much to ponder here.” Karen Jo Torjesen, Margo L. Goldsmith Chair of Women’s Studies in Religion at Claremont Graduate University, author of When Women Were Priests: Women’s Leadership in the Early Church and the Scandal of Their Subordination in the Rise of Christianity.
“An academic textbook, regarding the Goddess placed cross culturally, as of the one much needed and numerous topics surrounding the Feminine Divine. Editors Mary Ann Beavis and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang have brought a wide collection of women and men writers, researchers, facilitators and instructors together, all from the Women’s Spirituality community, to bring analysis of cross cultural female wisdom—which has the foresight to appeal to a far reaching audience by giving them back their stories. Bravo Mago Publishers!” Jayne DeMente, MA WSE, CIIS, Feminine Reformation; a Goddess Meta Narrative, Volume I.
“This impressive book offers an erudite survey of the roots and manifestations of goddess worship across cultures while making a valuable contribution to re-emerging Thealogy in the 21st century that is deep, wide, and visionary.” Scott Daniel Dunbar, Ph.D.
“This book is a revelation—and a must-read book for any serious student of the sacred feminine. It shares new insights on the Great Goddesses of the past, and explores some of the contemporary spiritual traditions in Africa, Asia, and the Indigenous world where the Goddess/es are still honored.” Arisika Razak, Professor Emerita, Former Director of CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies) Women’s Spirituality Program.
“Thus far, there is no book encyclopedic in nature that examines the Divine Feminine of all major and minor religious traditions around the world in a single volume. This is a welcome addition. Not only will undergraduate students find it suitable, but graduate students, too, will find this book a useful resource.” Deepak Shimkhada, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor, Claremont School of Theology, President, South Asian Studies Association.
“Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture is an impressive collection of scholarly articles, which together fill a significant gap in the pedagogy of comparative religion, the history of religion, and cultural history. As textbooks go, it is a historic event.” Charlene Spretnak, author of States of Grace.
“I was delighted to read this textbook because back in 1978, when Lost Goddesses of Early Greece was published, I envisioned an entire shelf of kindred books that would tell the stories of (and cite the scholarly evidence for) Goddesses in cultures around the world in various eras. This book exceeds what I had imagined then. Many admirable versions have been written for a general audience, but this book weighs in as a solid scholarly contribution. I feel that my hope, so long ago, has come to fruition with Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture.” Charlene Spretnak, author of Lost Goddesses of Early Greece.
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