The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature

The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature
Author: Rami M. Shapiro
Publisher: SkyLight Paths Publishing
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2005
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1594731098

The pure and penetrating message of the Divine Feminine Wisdom can become a companion for your own spiritual journey The first of God's creations and God's endless delight, Wisdom (also known as Chochma and Sophia) is the Mother of all life, the guide to right living. She is God manifest in the world you encounter moment to moment. Her teachings, embedded in the Holy Scriptures of Jews and Christians, are passionate, powerful calls to live in harmony, love with integrity and act joyously. Through the Hebrew books of Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes and Job, and the Wisdom literature books of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon, the Divine Feminine speaks to you directly, and Her only desire is to teach you to become wise. Rami Shapiro's contemporary translations and powerful commentaries clarify who Wisdom is, what She teaches, and how Her words can help you live justly, wisely and with compassion. This is not a book about Wisdom but the voice of Wisdom Herself, liberating, uplifting and compelling. Now you can experience the Divine Feminine and understand Her teachings with no previous knowledge of Wisdom literature. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents insightful commentary that explains Sophia's way of wisdom and illustrates the countless opportunities to experience Her creative energy through which God fashions all things.

The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature

The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature
Author: Rami M. Shapiro
Publisher: Skylight Paths Publishing
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2005
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

Insightful commentary explains Sophia's way of wisdom through the Wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible and illustrates the countless opportunities to experience Her creative energy through which God fashions all things.

The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature

The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature
Author:
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2011-06-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1594733708

The pure and penetrating message of the Divine Feminine—Wisdom—can become a companion for your own spiritual journey The first of God’s creations and God’s endless delight, Wisdom (also known as Chochma and Sophia) is the Mother of all life, the guide to right living—She is God manifest in the world you encounter moment to moment. Her teachings, embedded in the Holy Scriptures of Jews and Christians, are passionate, powerful calls to live in harmony, love with integrity and act joyously. Through the Hebrew books of Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes and Job, and the Wisdom literature books of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon, the Divine Femininespeaks to you directly, and Her only desire is to teach you to become wise. Rami Shapiro’s contemporary translations and powerful commentaries clarify who Wisdom is, what She teaches, and how Her words can help you live justly, wisely and with compassion. This is not a book about Wisdom but the voice of Wisdom Herself, liberating, uplifting and compelling. Now you can experience the Divine Feminine and understand Her teachings with no previous knowledge of Wisdom literature. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents insightful commentary that explains Sophia’s way of wisdom and illustrates the countless opportunities to experience Her creative energy through which God fashions all things.

The Divine Feminine

The Divine Feminine
Author: Virginia Ramey Mollenkott
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2014-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1625646054

Endorsements: "A calm, well-balanced, carefully prepared book. . . . Excellent for adult Bible discussion groups, for occasional sermons, for suggesting ways of inclusive language. This book teaches and directs without antagonizing." --The Bible Today "A persuasive book, useful for personal reflection and group discussion, and ideal for gift-giving." --Daughters of Sarah "This is no dry erudite volume. It rubs salve in personal wounds inflicted by centuries of biblical misreading." --Sojourners "The book reflects careful research; it is written in a style that will appeal to those interested in the implications of biblical research but without the time or inclination to follow the involved discussions of biblical scholarship." --National Catholic Reporter

Wisdom Ways

Wisdom Ways
Author: Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza
Publisher: Orbis Books
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2015-02-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1608332527

Goddesses for Every Day

Goddesses for Every Day
Author: Julie Loar
Publisher: New World Library
Total Pages: 442
Release: 2011
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1577319508

Throughout time, people have turned to goddesses as symbols of what they seek -- from abundance to healing, from protection to passion. Building on the resurgence of interest in the Divine Feminine, Julie Loar presents the qualities and origins of an international array of these deities, along with powerful suggestions for putting their attributes to practical use. In a daily-reflection format, she gracefully aligns the goddesses with the cycles of nature and the signs of the zodiac. If you are struggling to attain a goal, call on the Nepalese goddess Chomolungma, as the sherpas climbing Mount Everest have done for generations. Or, for good luck, invoke the Roman goddess Fortuna, the inspiration behind gambling's wheel of fortune. With 366 goddesses to choose from, you will find a deity to call upon for every aspiration and need.

Feminine Mysteries in the Bible

Feminine Mysteries in the Bible
Author: Ruth Rusca
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2008-09-17
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1591439221

An exploration of the repressed, esoteric feminine mysteries in the Bible through the lives of four women, all archetypes of the sacred prostitute • Shows how these four archetypal women represent the four stages of development of soul consciousness • Reveals how the fear of the power of the sacred prostitute led to a rejection of female sexuality and a destructive dualistic notion of men and women • Explains how the dogma of the Immaculate Conception represents the repression of the divine feminine in Christianity In Feminine Mysteries in the Bible, Ruth Rusca unveils sacred mysteries of the feminine and the alchemical relationship of the male and female forces at the heart of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Drawing on over 30 years of research, she explores four archetypal women in the Bible: Tamar, the sacred prostitute; Rahab, the meretrix; Ruth, who redeems the soul; and Bathsheba, the daughter of the Goddess. These women--sacred prostitutes one and all--represent the indestructible feminine life force, the wisdom of the Goddess, and the transformative power of the soul, and they symbolize the four stages of the development of soul consciousness. Mary, mother of Jesus, is the quintessence of these four women, but Rusca shows that the dogma of the Immaculate Conception has repressed the significance of Mary and subverted the divine feminine in Christianity due to the church’s fear of women and their life-giving energy. These women pass an imperishable feminine life force from generation to generation, and understanding their lives creates a path to overcoming the destructive tendencies of dualistic “male-female” thinking--a duality that profanes feminine sexuality and mysteries rather than revering and celebrating them.

Mirror of His Beauty

Mirror of His Beauty
Author: Peter Schäfer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2002
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 0691119805

In this beautifully realized study, Peter Schäfer investigates the origins of a female manifestation of God in Jewish mysticism. The search itself is a fascinating exploration of the idea of a feminine divinity. And Schäfer's surprising but persuasive conclusions yield deeper understanding of the complex but frequently intimate relationship between Christianity and Judaism--and of the development of religious concepts more generally. Toward the end of the twelfth century, a small book titled the Bahir (Light) appeared in Provence. The first document of Judaism's emerging kabbalistic movement, it introduced a completely new view of God, one that included a divine potency that was essentially female. This female divinity was portrayed both as a mediator between Jews and God and as part of the Godhead itself. Examining Judaic history from the biblical Wisdom tradition to the Middle Ages, Schäfer finds some precedents for the Kabbalah's feminine divinity. But he cannot account for her forceful appearance in twelfth-century southern France without reference to the immediate Christian environment, particularly the flourishing veneration of the Virgin Mary. Indeed, twelfth-century Jews and Christians were simultaneously rediscovering the feminine as an aspect of the Godhead after having abandoned it in favor of either an abstract, disembodied God or an exclusively male one. In proposing that the medieval cult of Mary--rather than eastern Gnosticism--is the appropriate framework for understanding the feminine elements in Jewish mysticism, Mirror of His Beauty represents a sea change in Kabbalah and Jewish-Christian cultural studies. It shifts our attention from the Byzantine East to the Latin Christian West. And in contrast to histories that treat the development of Judaism and Christianity in isolation, it leads us to a fuller understanding of Jews and Christians living in proximity, aware of each other.

Wisdom Has Built Her House

Wisdom Has Built Her House
Author: Silvia Schroer
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2000
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780814659342

"Silvia Schroer's stunning work on Wisdom breaks new ground, with its challenge to move beyond traditional and Western ways of hearing, reading, and interpreting the biblical text. The work calls all people to ethical responsibility for the sake of all creation. Written with grace, illumined by insight, and meticulously researched, this text is thoroughly engaging. It takes into account the images of personified wisdom as they appear in both the First and Second Testaments. "Schroer's work offers both the scholarly community and the general public a new and bold sense of great hope in the midst of the ongoing global struggle for solidarity: human beings with one another, and human beings with creation. Distinctly refreshing in its approach, depth, and breadth, this work needs to be a part of every scholarly conversation on Wisdom. It must be taken seriously by readers in general if transformation at its deepest level is to continue, and the reign of God celebrated." -- Carol J. Dempsey, University of Portland

God is Not Alone

God is Not Alone
Author: Marianne Widmalm
Publisher:
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2015-03-27
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 9781905297559

God is Not Alone will challenge your views of what you thought you knew about the Bible and Christianity. It is a wide-ranging scholarly exposition of the divine feminine, drawing on numerous ancient Christian and pre-Christian texts to deliver its central message: that throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, God is not alone, but is accompanied by a Mother-Goddess, the Holy Spirit, personified as Wisdom. While examining the roots of the divine feminine, this book tackles many aspects of femininity throughout the Bible, beginning with a new interpretation of the creation story where men are made in the image of God and women of His Wife. It is who She is that this book is ultimately about. The author, Marianne Widmalm, clearly illustrates the original feminine nature of the Holy Spirit, lost in translation from the Hebrew texts. By demonstrating the influence of the early Canaanites, Mary Magdalene, the Shekinah, the Holy Spirit and the role of women in the development of the Church in the first centuries, the author weaves together disparate texts that point us back to the goddess Asherah, and how She is one and the same as the Holy Spirit and Wisdom personified. The survival of the divine feminine is also shown through the Kabbalah and Apocryphal texts that drew from the Wisdom texts in the Hebrew Scriptures. Most significantly, according to numerous early church fathers, Jesus himself called the Holy Spirit as his "Mother" in, what the author argues, could be the first written Gospel. Additionally, the author explores key doctrinal issues faced by the early Church Fathers such as baptism with oil representing the Holy Spirit; the original role of women as deaconesses; as well as the development of the concept of the Trinity. This idea that God is three-in-one provides a key framework for understanding the marginalisation of the divine feminine. Step-by-step, assertions of sexism in the Bible are stripped away and the reader is returned to the original divine balance of the feminine and masculine that was lost through centuries of church doctrine and translations from Hebrew and Aramaic, to Greek and English. This provocative work is essential reading for anyone interested in first century Christianity as well as Judaism, the early Hebrews, Biblical research, Goddess Spirituality, the origins of Gnosticism, and the theological role and true nature of the Holy Spirit.