Re-riting Woman

Re-riting Woman PDF Author: Kristy S. Coleman
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 0759110026
Category : Goddess religion
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book Here

Book Description
Re-riting Woman is an ethnographic study of Dianic Wicca, a modern Pagan religion in which the divine is solely feminine. Kristy S. Coleman explores Dianic Witchcraft, what it really means to practice Wicca today, and how our understanding of womanhood can change with the experience of a divine feminine.

Re-riting Woman

Re-riting Woman PDF Author: Kristy S. Coleman
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 0759110026
Category : Goddess religion
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book Here

Book Description
Re-riting Woman is an ethnographic study of Dianic Wicca, a modern Pagan religion in which the divine is solely feminine. Kristy S. Coleman explores Dianic Witchcraft, what it really means to practice Wicca today, and how our understanding of womanhood can change with the experience of a divine feminine.

Re-riting Woman

Re-riting Woman PDF Author: Kristy S. Coleman
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 0759113300
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
Re-riting Woman presents the first in-depth ethnographic study of Dianic Wicca. Its subject, Circle of Aradia, is a branch of the religion based in the Los Angeles area. This religion-of, by, and for women-conceives the Divine as exclusively female, and has infused feminism into Wicca worldwide. Kristy S. Coleman combines ethnography with theory to present a full account of what Dianic Witches' lived practice looks like and what it means. The theorist of focus, Luce Irigaray, asserts that women must reclaim their own space and imagine the Divine as female to achieve full emancipation. Moreover, Irigaray's critical analysis of Western culture creates a subtext that clarifies what is at stake in this practice. Thick description of seasonal rituals dispels fears and stereotypes about Wicca, and offers readers a comforting familiarity and shared healing. Coleman employs ritual theory to suggest why and how these rites wield such meaning-altering possibilities. Practitioners' statements that describe a shift in worldview and self-conception elicit Coleman's proposal that Dianic rituals re(w)rite the valuation and meaning of woman. Dianic women's stories reveal both the transformative power of the tradition's practice and the organization's challenges related to power politics.

Female Leaders in New Religious Movements

Female Leaders in New Religious Movements PDF Author: Inga Bårdsen Tøllefsen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319615270
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book, historians of religion and gender studies explore the biographies of a number of female leaders, and the factors within their groups and cultural contexts that support these women’s religious leadership. New Religious Movements have been supportive of women taking roles of leadership for a long time. Authors of this book examine issues of gender and female leadership from diverse theoretical and methodological standpoints. The book covers a broad range of groups both with regard to time and place, covering Paganism, Hindu guru groups, Christian organizations, esoteric/ mystical movements, African churches, and a Japanese NRM. The common focal point is the powerful, prophetic, charismatic women who have founded and/ or led New Religious Movements.

Writing Woman Anthology

Writing Woman Anthology PDF Author: Tendai Mwanaka
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 1779314809
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book Here

Book Description
The stars are in alignment. Her dramatists and scholars have spoken on the tapestry of these pages as a testament to the powers that be and the knowledge of the ancients. The language and the expertise involved will speak to your heart in praise of Africa. These word artists, these scholars and dramatists bring their life experience to the book, a noble kind of variety, an energy, their particular aura, the juxtaposition of the effervescent flux of ideas, ideals, innovation and ideology. The narrative in the essays and plays is based on reality and non-reality, the substance of dream killers in some very captivating and enticing lines, it is Africa’s time to shine. This volume is anchored to a dream, and tethered to a goal. Since ancient times there have been generational curses in the bloodline and strongholds that are determined not to let us go. Terrain that in a nutshell has been deposited in our genetic code, but now it is time for the divine awakening of our ancestors and for divine wisdom and new insights to prevail. We owe our ancestors that much. There is truth that speaks to power on these pages.

Re-writing Women as Victims

Re-writing Women as Victims PDF Author: María José Gámez Fuentes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351043587
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume critically analyses political strategies, civil society initiatives and modes of representation that challenge the conventional narratives of women in contexts of violence. It deepens into the concepts of victimhood and agency that inform the current debate on women as victims. The volume opens the scope to explore initiatives that transcend the pair abuser–victim and explore the complex relations between gender and violence, and individual and collective accountability, through politics, activism and cultural productions in order to seek social transformation for gender justice. In innovative and interdisciplinary case studies, it brings attention to initiatives and narratives that make new spaces possible in which to name, self-identify, and resignify the female political subject as a social agent in situations of violence. The volume is global in scope, bringing together contributions ranging from India, Cambodia or Kenya, to Quebec, Bosnia or Spain. Different aspects of gender-based violence are analysed, from intimate relationships, sexual violence, military contexts, society and institutions. Re-writing Women as Victims: From Theory to Practice will be a key text for students, researchers and professionals in gender studies, political sciences, sociology and media and cultural Studies. Activists and policy makers will also find its practical approach and engagement with social transformation to be essential reading.

Woman, Native, Other

Woman, Native, Other PDF Author: Trinh T. Minh-Ha
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253205032
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Get Book Here

Book Description
" . . . methodologically innovative . . . precise and perceptive and conscious . . . " —Text and Performance Quarterly "Woman, Native, Other is located at the juncture of a number of different fields and disciplines, and it genuinely succeeds in pushing the boundaries of these disciplines further. It is one of the very few theoretical attempts to grapple with the writings of women of color." —Chandra Talpade Mohanty "The idea of Trinh T. Minh-ha is as powerful as her films . . . formidable . . . " —Village Voice " . . . its very forms invite the reader to participate in the effort to understand how language structures lived possibilities." —Artpaper "Highly recommended for anyone struggling to understand voices and experiences of those 'we' label 'other'." —Religious Studies Review Audio book narrated by Betty Miller. Produced by Speechki in 2021.

Absent Mother God of the West

Absent Mother God of the West PDF Author: Neela Bhattacharya Saxena
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498508065
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book about the missing Divine Feminine in Christianity and Judaism chronicles a personal as well as an academic quest of an Indian woman who grew up with Kali and myriad other goddesses. It is born out of a women's studies course created and taught by the author called The Goddess in World Religions. The book examines how the Divine Feminine was erased from the western consciousness and how it led to an exclusive spiritually patriarchal monotheism with serious consequences for both women’s and men’s psychological and spiritual identity. While colonial, proselytizing and patriarchal ways have denied the divinity inherent in the female of the species, a recent upsurge of body-centric practices like Yoga and innumerable books about old and new goddesses reveal a deep seated mother hunger in the western consciousness. Written from a practicing Hindu/Buddhist perspective, this book looks at the curious phenomenon called the Black Madonna that appears in Europe and also examines mystical figures like Shekhinah in Jewish mysticism. People interested in symbols of the goddess, feminist theologians, and scholars interested in the absence of goddesses in monotheisms may find this book’s perspective and insights provocative.

Wicca

Wicca PDF Author: Ethan Doyle White
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1782842551
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 287

Get Book Here

Book Description
The past century has born witness to a growing interest in the belief systems of ancient Europe, with an array of contemporary Pagan groups claiming to revive these old ways for the needs of the modern world. By far the largest and best known of these Paganisms has been Wicca, a new religious movement that can now count hundreds of thousands of adherents worldwide. Emerging from the occult milieu of mid twentieth-century Britain, Wicca was first presented as the survival of an ancient pre-Christian Witch-Cult, whose participants assembled in covens to venerate their Horned God and Mother Goddess, to celebrate seasonal festivities, and to cast spells by the light of the full moon. Spreading to North America, where it diversified under the impact of environmentalism, feminism, and the 1960s counter-culture, Wicca came to be presented as a Goddess-centred nature religion, in which form it was popularised by a number of best-selling authors and fictional television shows. Today, Wicca is a maturing religious movement replete with its own distinct world-view, unique culture, and internal divisions. This book represents the first published academic introduction to be exclusively devoted to this fascinating faith, exploring how this Witches' Craft developed, what its participants believe and practice, and what the Wiccan community actually looks like. In doing so it sweeps away widely-held misconceptions and offers a comprehensive overview of this religion in all of its varied forms. Drawing upon the work of historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and scholars of religious studies, as well as the writings of Wiccans themselves, it provides an original synthesis that will be invaluable for anyone seeking to learn about the blossoming religion of modern Pagan Witchcraft.

Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions [2 volumes]

Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions [2 volumes] PDF Author: Susan de-Gaia
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440848505
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 993

Get Book Here

Book Description
This reference offers reliable knowledge about women's diverse faith practices throughout history and prehistory, and across cultures. Across the span of human history, women have participated in world-building and life-sustaining cultural creativity, making enormous contributions to religion and spirituality. In the contemporary period, women have achieved greater equality, with more educational opportunities, female role models in public life, and opportunities for religious expression than ever before. Contemporaneously with this increased visibility, women are actively and energetically engaging with religion for themselves and for their communities. Drawing on the expertise of a range of scholars, this reference chronicles the religious experiences of women across time and cultures. The book includes sections on major religions as well as on spirituality, African religions, prehistoric religions, and other broad topics. Each section begins with an introduction, followed by reference entries on specialized subjects along with excerpts from primary source documents. The entries provide numerous suggestions for further reading, and the book closes with a detailed bibliography.

The Spirituality of Anorexia

The Spirituality of Anorexia PDF Author: Emma White
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351103342
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Get Book Here

Book Description
Widely popularized images of unobtainable and damaging feminine ideals can be a cause of profound disjunction between women and their bodies. A consequence of this dissonance is an embodied performance of these ideals with the potential development of disordered eating practices, such as anorexia nervosa. This book develops a spirituality of anorexia by suggesting that these eating disorders are physical symptoms of the general repression of feminine nature in our culture. Furthermore, it puts forward Goddess feminism as a framework for a healing therapeutic model to address anorexia and more broadly, the "slender ideal" touted by society. The book focuses on the female body in contemporary society, specifically the development of anorexia nervosa, and what this expression communicates about female embodiment. Drawing upon the work of a variety of theorists, social commentators, liberation theologians and thealogians, it discusses the benefits of adopting female-focused myths, symbols and rituals, drawing upon the work of Marion Woodman and Naomi Goldenberg. Ultimately, it theorises a thealogical approach to anorexia aimed at displacing the damaging discourses that undermine women in the twenty-first century. Offering an alternative model of spirituality and embodiment for contemporary women, this book will be of keen interest to scholars of theology, religious studies, gender studies and psychology.