Published in 1990 (first published 1976)
256 pages
Merlin Stone, a teacher of art and art history as well as a widely exhibited sculptor, became interested in archaeology and ancient religion through her art. She has produced pieces on the Goddess for both radio and the stage, and conceived and organized Goddess festivals in both New York and Toronto.
Her other major work, Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood collects stories, myths, and prayers involving goddess-figures from a wide variety of world religions, ancient and otherwise. Stone’s hypotheses are radical and challenging to the accepted views of antiquity, and as such they remain controversial. She is the author of numerous short stories, book reviews, and essays, including “3,000 Years of Racism.” Stone’s book When God Was a Woman had a profound effect on the emerging Goddess Culture of the 1970s and 80s in the US. It spoke clearly and simply to women raised in traditional Judeo-Christian traditions, and made the concept of a female deity accessible.
What is this book about?
Here, archaeologically documented, is the story of the religion of the Goddess. Under her, women’s roles were far more prominent than in patriarchal Judeo-Christian cultures. Stone describes this ancient system and, with its disintegration, the decline in women’s status. When God Was a Woman describes the author’s theory of how the Hebrews suppressed allegedly goddess-based religions practiced in Canaan and how their reaction to what she asserts as being the existing matriarchial and matrilineal societal structures shaped Judaism and, thus, Christianity.
