Goddesses and Religious Images of Women

Bound course-pack collection of all required readings.

Juliette Wood, “The Concept of the Goddess,” in Billington and Green (eds.), The Concept of the Goddess. Routledge, 1996.

Rosemary Radford Ruether [source spells Reuther], “Gender and the Problem of Prehistory,” Goddesses and the Divine Feminine. University of California Press, 2005.

Marija Gimbutas, “Women and Culture in Goddess-Oriented Old Europe,” Weaving the Visions. Harper & Row, 1989.

J. Ochshorn, “Ishtar and Her Cult,” The Book of the Goddess, 1983.

S. Hollis, “Goddesses and Sovereignty in Ancient Egypt,” Goddesses Who Rule. Oxford University Press, 2000.

T. Frymer-Kensky, “Asherah and Abundance,” In the Wake of the Goddesses. Free Press, 1992.

“Eve,” in Carol Meyers (ed.), Women in Scripture. Eerdmans, 2000.

Homeric Hymn to Demeter, translated by Helene P. Foley, and “The Eleusinian Mysteries and Women’s Rites.” Princeton University Press, 1994.

S. Cole, “Demeter in the Ancient Greek City and Its Countryside,” Oxford Readings in Greek Religion.

Eva Stehle, “Thesmophoria and Eleusinian Mysteries,” Finding Persephone. Indiana University Press, 2007.

R. Egan, “Isis: Goddess of the Oikoumene,” Goddesses in Religions and Modern Debate. Scholars Press, 1990.

Ines Talamantez, “The Presence of Isanaklesh,” Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives. Wadsworth, 2001.

J. Kroger and Patrizia Granziera, Aztec Goddesses and Christian Madonnas. Ashgate, 2012, selections.

D. Kinsley, “Mary: Virgin, Mother, and Queen,” The Goddesses’ Mirror. SUNY Press, 1989.

William Christian, “Mary of the Cross in Castile,” Apparitions in Late Medieval and Renaissance Spain. Princeton University Press, 1981.

Luis Laso de la Vega, The Story of Guadalupe: Huei tlamahuicoltica of 1649, edited/translated by L. Sousa et al. Stanford University Press, 1998, selections.

Vidya Dehejia, “Encountering Devi,” Devi: The Great Goddess. Smithsonian, 1999.

Usha Menon, “Mahadevi as Mother,” Seeking Mahadevi. SUNY Press, 2001.

W. Harman, chapter 2 in Goddesses Who Rule. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Brigitte Merz, “Wild Goddess and Mother of Us All,” Wild Goddesses in India and Nepal. Peter Lang, 1996.

Barbara Reed, “The Gender Symbolism of Kuan-yin Bodhisattva,” Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender. SUNY Press, 1992.

Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura, “The Significance of Amaterasu in Japanese Religious History,” The Book of the Goddess, 1983.

Sarah Pomeroy, “The Role of Women in the Religion of the Romans,” Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves. Schocken, 1975.

B. Mohanty, “Lakshmi and Alakshmi,” The Constant and Changing Faces of the Goddess. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008.

Jose Cabezon, chapter 8 in Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender. SUNY Press, 1992.

J. Hackett, “Can a Sexist Model Liberate Us?,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 5 (1989), pp. 65–76.

Carol Christ, “Why Women Need the Goddess,” Womanspirit Rising. Harper & Row, 1979.

Tracy Pintchman, “Is the Hindu Goddess Tradition a Good Resource…,” Is the Goddess a Feminist? NYU Press, 2000.

Charlene Spretnak, “The Myth of Demeter and Persephone,” The Long Journey Home. Shambhala, 1994.

Starhawk, “Witchcraft as Goddess Religion,” The Politics of Women’s Spirituality. Anchor, 1982.