When God Was a Woman
by Merlin Stone

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Book Reviews of When God Was a Woman

Book Review: In The Beginning...God Was A Woman
Summary: 5 Stars

Merlin Stone makes a strong point, stating her case with sufficient evidence. The Bible was written by men. The early patriarchs of the Jews wrote in masculine terms, convinced that there had never been a Goddess and that God had always been male. This was advantageous for men politically as well as socially. Empowered by the belief that a male God favored men as the superior creation, they abolished any female worship.

The Old Testament is chalk full of prophets and king-warriors destroying the idols of Asherah and Astarte. The women of ancient Israel were obligated to live a life of subjugation to a man- first, her father and then a husband. She was condemned to death by stoning for a single act of adultery but the man could have as many wives and concubines and sex with other women eventhough he himself was married. There are very few strong heroines in the Bible, and even Queen Esther used her "sex appeal" not her brains to win the heart of the Assyrian king and save her endangered people from a holocaust. Jezebel, simply for worshipping foreign gods, was brought to a terrible death. The truth of the matter is that originally the Mother Goddess (Creatress of the world, taking forms of birds (later to become in Gnostic tradition as the Holy Spirit Chokmah or Sophia in the form of the dove) was once revered and worshipped as one deity who ran the world. The Paleolithic people traced lineage and provided inheritence from the female line- the mother's line. Matriarchy was suppressed when men, mostly powerful warriors and hunters of the Indo-European race, suppressed worship of the Goddess (or goddesses plural) and brought about political change, empowering men.

This still holds true today. The Indo-European men may long be gone, but they planted the seeds that have grown to this day. It seems there will never be a female President. When a woman is powerful, a man feels threatened when he should feel so. He should share the power equally with able women. Martha Stewart for example, after the scandal of her fraudulent business dealings, was completely crushed by a media frenzy, men eager to see her in jail simply because she was a powerful woman in the world of business. There are many men who resent the Iron Maiden, Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of England. And let's not forget what happened to Joan of Arc. When a woman is empowered as much as a man, whether it be in athletics, military, politics, etc. she is dubbed a witch, a harlot, a number of things simply because women are not treated as equals to men. To this day, men like to think that women are "almost" as good as they are, but never equally as good. When the male and the female principle lovingly hold hands in equality and fairness and the two forces are balanced, perhaps the world will be a better place. This books should reawaken the spirit of Women's Liberation and bring about a new consciousness to religion worldwide. Remember... women are not superior to men, but they are not inferior in any way either. We are equals..equals in the forming of a better world.

Summary of When God Was a Woman

History Books

• Subjects > History
• Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Comparative Religion
• Spirituality
• Women's Studies > History