Papers presented at a conference held June 1978 at Harvard University, sponsored by the Center for the Study of World Religions.

What is the status of the Goddess Laksmi in relation to her consort Vishnu in South Indian Vaisnavism? In some Hindu sub-traditions the Goddess is seen as a mediator between devotees and God. Other traditions put the Goddess on a par with her male counterpart. In yet other traditions she is worshiped as an independent deity in her own right. South Indian Vaisnavism views the Goddess in all of these ways, and theological debates on these issues have flourished. In clarifying these debates and the assumptions behind them the author contributes not only to the interpretive study of South Indian Vaisnavism, but also to an understanding of gender issues in the study of religion.

"Zheng Yuwen had traveled to ancient times without a reason and became the concubine of the ancient emperor."In order to bind the emperor, the empress of the palace gave birth to the Little Prince and frequently drugged his wine. What she didn't know was that the Emperor wouldn't allow her to give birth to a prince.A special woman like Zheng Yuwen had attracted the attention of the Ancient Emperor and was given the title of "Consort Degui".A smart modern woman was constantly inventing new things, leading people there to become rich. In ancient times, it was a very popular place.In the process of interacting with her, the Emperor had deeply loved this woman and admired her from the bottom of his heart. This woman had brought him far too many pleasant surprises, and he had her by his side. There was nothing else he could ask for. "

It is no secret that men are in trouble today. From war to ecological collapse, most of the world’s critical problems stem from a distorted masculinity out of control. Yet our culture rewards the very dysfunctions responsible for those problems. To Matthew Fox, our crucial task is to open our minds to a deeper understanding of the healthy masculine than we receive from our media, culture, and religions. Popular religion forces the punitive imagery of fundamentalism on us, pushing most men away from their natural yearning for spirituality and toward intolerance and domination. Meanwhile, many men, particularly young men, are looking for images of healthy masculinity to emulate and finding nothing. To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Grandfatherly Heart to the Spiritual Warrior. He explores archetypes of sacred marriage, showing how partnership becomes the ultimate expression of healthy masculinity. By stirring our natural yearning for healthy spirituality, Fox argues, these timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to reinvent the world.

The Virgin Mary has long been the object of both devotional and scholarly interest, and recent years have seen a proliferation of studies on Hindu goddess-worship traditions. Despite the parallels between the two, however, no one has yet undertaken a book-length comparison of these traditions. In Divine Mother, Blessed Mother, Francis Clooney offers the first extended comparative study of Hindu goddesses and the Virgin Mary. Clooney is almost unique in the field of Hindu studies as a Christian theologian with the linguistic and philosophical expertise necessary to produce sophisticated comparative analyses. Building on his previous work in comparative theology, he sheds new light not only on these individual traditions but also on the nature of gender and the divine.

The monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have severely limited the portrayal of the divine as feminine. But in Hinduism "God" very often means "Goddess." This extraordinary collection explores twelve different Hindu goddesses, all of whom are in some way related to Devi, the Great Goddess. They range from the liquid goddess-energy of the River Ganges to the possessing, entrancing heat of Bhagavati and Seranvali. They are local, like Vindhyavasini, and global, like Kali; ancient, like Saranyu, and modern, like "Mother India." The collection combines analysis of texts with intensive fieldwork, allowing the reader to see how goddesses are worshiped in everyday life. In these compelling essays, the divine feminine in Hinduism is revealed as never before--fascinating, contradictory, powerful.