- When God Was a Woman
When God Was a Woman is the U.S. title of a 1976 book (ISBN 0-15-696158-X) by sculptor and history professor
Merlin Stone . It was published earlier in the UK as "The Paradise Papers". It has been translated in french as "Quand Dieu était femme" (SCE-Serivces Complets d'Edition, Québec, Canada) in 1978 and 1989.Drawing largely upon the speculations of
Margaret Murray andRobert Graves , Stone postulates a prehistoricmatriarchy , painting ancient societies, includingAncient Egypt as matriarchal paradises, destroyed by the patriarchal Indo-Europeans. She concludes that the HebrewLevites , because of their clearly patriarchal outlook "must have been Indo-Europeans", allegingmisogyny and hatred ofgoddess worship withinIsraelite society, which she connects to the later development ofChristianity . It reflects the rise offeminist theology in the 1970s to 1980s, along with authors such asElizabeth Gould Davis andRiane Eisler .References
*Philip G. Davis, "Goddess Unmasked", Spence Publishing, New York, 1998. ISBN 0-9653208-9-8; review: R. Sheaffer, Skeptical Inquirer (1999) [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-54600098.html]
ee also
*
Feminist theology
*Second-wave feminism
*Marija Gimbutas External links
* [http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2000/stone2.html External link to Sunshine for Women page: "When God Was a Woman"]
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