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Title: Restoring the Goddess: Equal Rites for Modern Women by Barbara G. Walker ISBN: 1-57392-786-4 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: March, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A LIFE CHANGING BOOK
Comment: When I read this book, I was already well-versed in the damage that patriarchal religions have done to women's lives, bodies & souls. But this book validated my anger. It was comforting to know that there are women out there who are as angry about it as I am! Any man who finds himself getting angry at this book should take a long, hard look at his own fear of women. Anybody with half a brain can see what's going on & what's been going on for centuries: women are denied spriitual comfort & recognition because they're women. It's time (way past time) for this to change & if books like this make a few people uncomfortable, GOOD. Change is never easy.
My only complaint about this book is that Ms. Walker's solution is atheism. She goes to great lengths in this book to say that the idea of believing in a deity is detrimental and a part of the patriarchal past. I disagree totally. What is the point of the author wanting equality for women if she is telling them what to believe or not believe? I feel the Goddess all around me everyday; not as an abstract or symbol but as a real being, a real force. Does this belief harm me? I don't think so....Ms. Walker stressed her athiestic beliefs so strongly that I had the suspician that some of the excerpts of other women (at the end of the book) were written by her. Why she seems to have such a vendetta to make everyone an athiest, is beyond me.
Having said that, you must read this book for the rest of the book; Ms. Walkers empassioned argument that patriarchy has hurt so many cannot be ignored.
Rating: 5
Summary: Men of quality are comfortable with womens equality
Comment: I am a male, and I found this book extremely interesting, from a historical and cultural perspective. The author believes that in ancient times, human culture was more respectful toward women, and this may be true, at least in some lands. Certainly, in intervening centuries, women have been treated as having far less worth than many animals, especially in lands ruled by patriarchal governments.
I didn't interpret her book as a recommendation for atheism. Instead, Ms Walker offers a view of what the world would be like if, instead of an angry, vengeful Father God, our culture had instead a gentle, nurturing, Mother Goddess as its highest moral example. She does make a point that, statistically, atheists tend to be somewhat more law-abiding than the general population in the U.S., but she doesn't encourage everyone to become atheists. Rather she offers an alternative image of deity, in hopes that a kinder deity will serve to inspire kinder followers. She suggests, not a simple inversion of the patriarchal system, but rather a system in which the qualities of the Goddess are defined by what anyone can observe in the workings of the natural world, rather than simply made up by some self-proclaimed prophet (who may or may not agree with the writings of earlier prophets). In her system, society is not heirarchal, with power concentrated at the top, but cooperative, with power and responsibility shared.
I thought that her view sounded like a better world in which to live than the one in which we find ourselves at present. It seems reasonable that, if people grew up in a culture where crime and violence were not viewed as entertainment, members would be far less likely to perpetrate such acts. And if children were trained, from infancy, that Earth was one aspect of the sacred Goddess, then in adulthood perhaps they would act as responsible stewards of the environment. Her book is extremely thoroughly researched, and I found I was reading it for a couple of hours each evening before going to bed.
I hope to see this movement grow stronger over time, I'd like to be part of the world described.
Rating: 5
Summary: Part manifesto, part group therapy, part philosophy textbook
Comment: I think that some Wiccans who bought this seemed disappointed that it wasn't a more practical work. I love this book specifically because it is a total exercise in thought. It examines where we may have been, where we know we've been, where we are and where we *could* go in human society.
The book for the most part serves as an indictment of patriarchal society, and like any good manifesto, it tells why the proposed system is better. Unlike a manifesto, however, it doesn't get bogged down in the minutia and instead retains its philosophical focus. Yes, there are practical suggestions, but they are a side benefit to the overall thinking process going on.
The group therapy part is the comments from "modern women" at the end of each chapter. They are all different shades of thought on the same subject, and no they don't all agree with each other.
The other concept indicted is Christianity, and to some extent the other two religions that stem from the same root, Judaism and Islam. It is a very good, very thorough indictment of the many fallacies and inconsistencies in Christian thought, action and doctrine.
Unlike Ronald L. Russell, who did not believe that the author was advocating atheism in any way, I believe that in a way Ms. Walker was in fact advocating a thealogy that is so radically different in its application and in how its followers view it that in a way it is atheism as we define it today. Rather than encouraging people to believe in a literal Goddess, she encourages people to view Her as a metaphor or a work of art that we use to recreate our society ourselves. She also emphatically encourages scientific discovery and thought, and criticizes irrationalism, epecially as it pertains to religion, many times.
Ms. Walker recognizes the emotional needs that humans have concerning religion. She proposes that a Goddess system, which is about celebrating the truth of the cycles of our lives and the importance that women actually have in the biological and social structures of our species, would work better than the patriarchal "zero-sum game" that we are all living through now.
In a very real way, Ms. Walker is proposing that we redefine what religion is, based on a more knowing, scientific and adult viewpoint than our forebears were capable of thousands of years ago. She theorizes -- and I think that she is right -- that if our mythology and the images, stories and art that we surround ourselves with reflect a more mature thinking process, a more rational thinking process, that in turn our societies will mature beyond their current state of near-constant crisis and inequality.
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Title: Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara G. Walker ISBN: 006250925X Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 01 November, 1983 List Price(USD): $34.00 |
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Title: When God Was a Woman (Harvest/Hbj Book) by Merlin Stone ISBN: 015696158X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1978 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects (More Crystals and New Age) by Barbara G. Walker ISBN: 0062509233 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 01 October, 1988 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future by Riane Eisler ISBN: 0062502891 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 01 September, 1988 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Essential Handbook of Women's Spirituality by Barbara G. Walker ISBN: 1931412642 Publisher: Fair Winds Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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