In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth
10 best books like In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth (Tikva Frymer-Kensky): The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World, The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, Volume 1, Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood: A Treasury of Goddess and Heroine Lore from Around the World, The Goddess Path: Myths, Invocations, and Rituals, When Women Were Priests, The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult Images, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History, Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth and the Politics of the Body
The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World
| Author | David Ulansey |
| ISBN | 0195067886 |
In the centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great the dramatic unification of the Mediterranean world created exceptionally fertile soil for the growth of new religions. Christianity, for example, was one of the innovative religious movements that arose during this time. However,...
| Author | Anne Baring |
| ISBN | 0140192921 |
A comprehensive, scholarly accessible study, in which the authors draw upon poetry and mythology, art and literature, archaeology and psychology to show how the myth of the goddess has been lost from our formal Judeo-Christian images of the divine. They explain what happened to the goddess, when,...
| Author | James George Frazer |
| ISBN | 1404304789 |
Sir James George Frazer's comparative study of anthropology, folklore, and myth has been an influential work for writers and a standard text for scholars since its original publication, in several volumes, in the early part of the 20th century. Frazer was a professor of social anthropology and a classicist.
(This...
| Author | Merlin Stone |
| ISBN | 0807067512 |
I really like this book, but that might surprise people who know me well. That's because I studied Classics and ancient Greek goddesses, and this book does not provide a balanced academic portrayal of the deities. Which is not to say its not well researched, but neither is that the book's point, I suspect....
| Author | Patricia Monaghan |
| ISBN | 1567184677 |
Now you can find more meaning and joy in your life, journey inward, find the divine, and become transformed, when you read The Goddess Path by Patricia Monaghan.
The Goddess Path can be your guide to speed you on your spiritual quest. Think of this book as a signpost on your spiritual travels,...
| Author | Karen Jo Torjesen |
| ISBN | 0060686618 |
This is a challenging book, not in the sense that it is a tough read (it's very well written book), but in the sense that it forces readers to address their own assumptions and the way in which they view women and the church. In her book, Karen Jo Torjessen makes an attempt to both defend the reality of women's...
| Author | Marija Gimbutas |
| ISBN | 0520046552 |
European civilization between 6500 and 3500 BC - long before Greek or Judaeo-Christian civilizations flourished - was not a provincial reflection of neighboring Near Eastern cultures but a distinct culture with its own unique identity. The mythical imagery of this matrilinear era tells us much...
| Author | Karl Kerényi |
| ISBN | 0691019150 |
The Sanctuary of Eleusis, near Athens, was the center of a religious cult that endured for nearly two thousand years and whose initiates came from all parts of the civilized world. Looking at the tendency to "see visions, " C. Kerenyi examines the Mysteries of Eleusis from the standpoint not only of Greek...
Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History
| Author | Rosemary Radford Ruether |
| ISBN | 0520250052 |
This landmark work presents the most illuminating portrait we have to date of goddesses and sacred female imagery in Western culture—from prehistory to contemporary goddess movements. Beautifully written, lucidly conceived, and far-ranging in its implications, this work will help readers...
| Author | Riane Eisler |
| ISBN | 0062502832 |
Let me begin with a series of quotes that I (and science) do not necessarily agree with.
1. To maintain relations of domination and submission, the natural bonding of the give and take of sexual pleasure and love between the female and male halves of humanity has to be distorted. Where does this...
Levenson presents an excellent introduction to the Jewish faith as it is represented in scripture. In Sinai & Zion he takes a clear look at the two mountains and the traditions which arose from Jewish experience of them and details their symbolism, meaning, and theological trends which arose:...
Selected Subaltern Studies
| Author | Ranajit Guha |
| ISBN | 0195052897 |
This provocative volume presents the most wide-ranging essays from the first five volumes of Subaltern Studies, along with an introductory essay by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak--the translator of Derrida's Of Grammatology into English--and a foreword by eminent critic Edward W. Said. Addressed...
| Author | Walter F. Otto |
| ISBN | 0253208912 |
In this classic study of the myth and cult of Dionysus, Walter F. Otto recreates the theological world of ancient Greek religion. Otto's provocative starting point is to accept the immanent reality of the gods. To understand the cult of Dionysus, it is necessary to reimagine the original vision of the...
A History of Women in the West. Vol 1. From Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints
In the words of the general editors, A History of Women seeks "to understand women's place in society, their condition, the roles they played and the powers they possessed, their silence, their speech, and their deeds. It is the variety of the representations of women--as gods, Madonnas, witches,...
The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future
| Author | Cynthia Eller |
| ISBN | 0807067938 |
According to the myth of matriarchal prehistory, men and women lived together peacefully before recorded history. Society was centered around women, with their mysterious life-giving powers, and they were honored as incarnations and priestesses of the Great Goddess. Then a transformation occurred,...
| Author | Margaret Alice Murray |
| ISBN | 1595479813 |
This book is intended for the general reader as well as for the student of anthropology. In this volume I have followed one line only of anthropological enquiry, the survival of an indigenous European cult and the interaction between it and the exotic religion which finally overwhelmed it. I have traced...
| Author | Raphael Patai |
| ISBN | 0814322719 |
Having read the Myths of Genesis book coauthored with Robert Graves, I was atuned to Patais' name and approach. Finding a copy of his Hebrew Goddess therefore led to its purchase at a local bookstore.
Contrary to some reviewers, the Hebrew bible is replete with contradictions. It's just that...
The Love Spell: An Erotic Memoir of Spiritual Awakening
| Author | Phyllis Curott |
| ISBN | 1592401651 |
The sequel to the acclaimed memoir Book of Shadows, ready to enchant readers in paperback
This is the true story of a love spell that worked. Ivy League lawyer and Wiccan priestess Phyllis Curott has a super-charged career in law and filmmaking, but one thing is missing: love. She casts a sexy...
The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype (Bollingen)
| Author | Erich Neumann |
| ISBN | 0691097429 |
Neumann examines how the Feminine has been experienced and expressed in many cultures from prehistory to our own time. Appearing as goddess and demon, gate and pillar, garden and tree, hovering sky and containing vessel, the Feminine is seen as an essential factor in the dialectical relation of individual...
The Shambhala Guide to Taoism
| Author | Eva Wong |
| ISBN | 1570621691 |
For the first time, the great depth and diversity of Taoist spirituality is introduced in a single, accessible manual.
Taoism, known widely today through the teachings of the classic Tao Te Ching and the practices of t'ai chi and feng-shui, is less known for its unique traditions of meditation,...
Ancient Mystery Cults (Revised)
| Author | Walter Burkert |
| ISBN | 0674033876 |
The foremost historian of Greek religion provides the first comprehensive, comparative study of a little-known aspect of ancient religious beliefs and practices. Secret mystery cults flourished within the larger culture of the public religion of Greece and Rome for roughly a thousand years. This...
The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity
| Author | Hyam Maccoby |
| ISBN | 0760707871 |
Maccoby, a Talmudic scholar from London's Leo Baeck College, will inflame many with his contention that Paul, not Jesus, was the true founder of Xianity. Despite impressive research, the author's needlessly pugilistic stance--he comes off as one defending the honor of Judaism against pagan insurgents--bleeds...
