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Why Do Men Need the Goddess?
Male Creation of Female Religious Symbols
Author(s) -
Radford Ruether Rosemary
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
dialog
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.114
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1540-6385
pISSN - 0012-2033
DOI - 10.1111/j.0012-2033.2005.00262.x
Subject(s) - patriarchy , judaism , christianity , sociology , gender studies , aesthetics , religious studies , philosophy , theology
: It is not safe to assume that feminine religious symbols are intrinsically empowering to women. Indeed, it is often the case that the explicit use of divine female imagery in religious traditions such as Judaism and Christianity serves to reinforce the restrictive structures of patriarchy. In light of this we must seek ways to theologically and socially reconstruct such systems of religious symbolism so that neither gender is valued above the other.