Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History

392 Pages·2005·5.96 MB·english

by  Rosemary Ruether

GODDESSES AND THE DIVINE FEMININE

Rosemary Radford Ruether
· GODDESSES AND
THE DIVINE FEMININE
A Western Religious History
University ofCalifornia Press
Berkeley Los Angeles London
University ofCalifornia Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University ofCalifornia Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2005 by The Regents ofthe University ofCalifornia
The author and publisher have made considerable effort
to contact copyright holders and to secure permission
prior to publication. Any copyright holder who remains
unacknowledged may contact the publisher, who will
correct the oversight at the earliest opportunity.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ruether, Rosemary Radford.
Goddesses and the divine feminine : a Western
religious history / Rosemary Radford Ruether.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-520-23146-5 (alk. paper)
1. Goddesses. 2. Women and religion.
3. Goddess religion. I. Title.
bl325.f4R84 2005
202'.114—dc22 2004029226
Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements ofansi/nisoz39.48–1992 (r1997)
(Permanence ofPaper).
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Gender and the Problem
of Prehistory 13
2. Goddesses and World Renewal
in the Ancient Mediterranean 41
3. The Hebrew God and Gender 73
4. Savior Goddesses in the Mystery
Religions and Gnosticism 98
5. The Spiritual Feminine in New Testament
and Patristic Christianity 127
6. Feminine Symbols in Medieval Religious
Literature 159
7. Tonantzin-Guadalupe: The Meeting
of Aztec and Christian Female Symbols
in Mexico 190
8. Mary and Wisdom in Protestant Mystical
Millennialism 220
9. Contested Gender Status and Imagining
Ancient Matriarchy 249
10. The Return of the Goddess 274
Conclusion 299
Notes 309
Index 359
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Venus of Willendorf 4
2. Bull, bucrania, and bulls’ horns 30
3. Leaping figure above bulls’ heads 31
4. Leaping figure 32
5. Vultures swooping down on headless human corpses 33
6. Seated female figure between two leopards 34
7. The Goddess Inanna, with foot on back of a lion 49
8. The courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi 51
9. Inanna riding ahead of a war chariot 52
10. Inanna/Ishtar, as Goddess of war, bringing captives to the king 53
11. The Goddess Anat on a war chariot 59
12. The Goddess Isis suckling an infant pharaoh 62
13. Isis and Nephthys behind Osiris 63
14. Osiris with wheat growing from his body 64
15. Osiris begetting Horus by Isis 66
16. The birth of Horus in the papyrus swamps 67
17. Demeter and Kore (Persephone) 70
18. Asherah figurine 75
vii
19. Shekinah holding the baby Moses 96
20. Magna Mater seated in her chariot, pulled by lions 101
21. Meter (Cybele) and Attis 102
22. Ceremony performed by worshippers of Isis 104
23. Worshippers of Isis 105
24. Lion-headed Aion of Time 114
25. Feminine Holy Spirit between the Father and the Son 136
26. Mary as woman clothed with the sun 139
27. Mary as Wisdom, on the lion throne 144
28. Madonna ofthe Misericordiaby Piero della Francesca 147
29. The Annunciation 149
30. The Virgin ofthe Great Panagia 154
31. Vierge ouvrante 155
32. Page for Assumption from feast-day gospel 157
33. The Assumption ofMaryby Titian 161
34. The Virgin ofthe Immaculate Conception 163
35. The Coronation ofMaryby Jacopo Torriti 165
36. The cosmic wheel, the universe as an egg, by Hildegard of Bingen 169
37. Hildegard of Bingen receiving revelations from God’s Holy Spirit 171
38. Hildegard of Bingen’s image of Wisdom, the Mother Church 173
39. The crucifixion of Christ and the sacraments, by Hildegard of Bingen 175
40. The struggle against evil within the church, by Hildegard of Bingen 176
41. The Aztec Earth Goddess Coatlicue 200
42. The dismembered Goddess Coyolxauhqui 201
43. Xochitecatl women figurines 202
44. Virgin ofGuadalupe 208
45. The Virgin with Two Angelsby Lucas van Leyden 222
46. Witches concocting an ointment for flying to the Sabbath,
by Hans Baldung Grien 224
47. Illustration to Apocalypse 17, the Whore of Babylon 225
viii · illustrations
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank many people who have given me critical feedback on this work. This
list includes Gale Yee of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachu-
setts, and Cheryl Anderson of Garrett-Evangelical in Evanston, Illinois, for read-
ing the chapter on Hebrew scripture; Luise Schottroª of the Pacific School of Re-
ligion in Berkeley for reading the section on the New Testament; Margaret Conkey
and Carolyn Merchant of the University of California at Berkeley for reading the
material on anthropology; David Lawrence of the Swedenborgian Institute at the
Pacific School ofReligion for reading the section on Swedenborg; Moses Penumaka,
doctoral student at the Graduate Theological Union, for his extensive work in scan-
ning and preparing the pictures for the book; and the students in the Spring 2003
course “Goddesses and the Spiritual Feminine,” for their reflections on what the ma-
terial in this book means to them.
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