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Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality
An important new book provides the first critical evaluation by a qualified scholar of the theological, anthropological, and historical claims of the "Goddess" movement, the most influential form of radical feminist spirituality. As its acolytes both within and without traditional churches grow in number, Goddess spirituality is one of the striking religious success stories of our day. Yet few have examined its purported ancient pedigree or its promises of sexual justice and social harmony, claims now exposed as a ridiculous but dangerous sham. This book describes and analyzes the contemporary Goddess movement and outlines its broader significance in the current "culture wars." Davis challenges Goddess spirituality's claim to have been man's primordial religion, fostering peaceful, egalitarian civilizations until Indo-Europeans and Hebrews replaced it with patriarchal sky-gods and warlike social systems. He exposes the complete want of archaeological evidence for this claim, revealing the movement's true roots in the radical Romanticism of the nineteenth century-roots it shares with many a modern cultural pathology. Comparing it with genuine goddess religions of Asia and with other forms of Western neopaganism, Davis debunks Goddess spirituality's fraudulent promises of a new age of peace and justice. As the century closes, Goddess spirituality has spread far beyond the exotic confines of witchcraft and environmental cults. In particular, it has infiltrated traditional Western religious bodies, academia, and medicine. Goddess Unmasked provides a long-overdue critique of this potent and disturbing malignancy.
- GenresNonfiction
350 pages, Paperback
Published December 17, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 19, 2017
only real caveat is that the author is an evangelical christian. FANTASTIC book on the recent vintage of Goddess belief constructions and spirituality through the early Modern era (not much of 'history'...), to the date of publishing. Gimbutas is treated, but not much, mostly anecdotal.
December 17, 2020
The beginning section of this book has some notes that are useful for documenting how Goddess Spirituality developed in the late 20th century, but that is the only positive thing about it.
Davis is pushing an extreme agenda here, actively trying to denounce the legitimacy of Goddess Spirituality, without any attempt to get inside the community and to understand it properly. He repeats criticisms over matriarchal theory that we've all heard before and adds nothing new to the conversation. His lack of comprehension for the movement is evident in his oversimplifications and frequent errors, not to mention his frankly vicious statements that are enough to make readers physically cringe. If you read Davis's other articles, they are likewise ridiculous and his own androcentric, archaic, religious bias is painfully obvious.
This book is the product of poor scholarship, with distasteful intent. Don't bother spending money on it.
Davis is pushing an extreme agenda here, actively trying to denounce the legitimacy of Goddess Spirituality, without any attempt to get inside the community and to understand it properly. He repeats criticisms over matriarchal theory that we've all heard before and adds nothing new to the conversation. His lack of comprehension for the movement is evident in his oversimplifications and frequent errors, not to mention his frankly vicious statements that are enough to make readers physically cringe. If you read Davis's other articles, they are likewise ridiculous and his own androcentric, archaic, religious bias is painfully obvious.
This book is the product of poor scholarship, with distasteful intent. Don't bother spending money on it.
November 4, 2017
Superb history & analysis of neopagan goddess movement. Very readable.
March 1, 2020
Davis' book is over 20 years old now, so there may be research or newer books that are relevant but unfortunately not being a specialist in this study I don't know of them. So please read the following with that in mind.
The first thing I'd like to point out that even though this book is presented as a scholarly work, it comes from a publisher of polemics, and is most likely affiliated with some religious group. I regard it as less than completely honest that this isn't pointed out more clearly up front. That said, many of his conclusions can still be correct and honest.
I know the cliche "you can't tell a book by its cover" but in this case the dust jacket gives you an insight into the biases of the publisher and presumably the author. The cover illustration shows a mask of an placidly attractive woman's face being held up in front of the greenish face of a scowling crone. On the rear of the dust jacket, two books from this publisher are promoted: "Domestic Tranquility: A Brief Against Feminism" and "The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity."
The description of the first book reads in part: “[the author] shows that the cultural assault on marriage, motherhood and traditional sexuality, rooted in the pursuit of economic and political power, has robbed women of their surest source of fulfillment”. The second book “argues that Western churches have become 'woman's clubs' … and that a masculine presence can and must be restored.” This is because “the current preoccupation with the role of women in the church obscures the more serious problem of the perennial absence of men.” Clearly, these books are reactionary Christian anti-feminist works and at the very least would seem to be hostile to the beliefs of most neo-pagans.
So with that background let's look at the actual work by Mr Davis. His arguments can be summarized as follows:
1. starting in the mid 1900s, neo-pagan movements began to appear which claimed that they were developments of hidden or suppressed groups of practicing witches.
Most researchers have not identified any unquestionable examples of a “hereditary lineages of witches”. Of course that isn't the same as claiming that such lineages don't exist. For obvious reasons -- particularly if witches or wiccans are surrounded by hostile religious believers they would not want to advertise that.
2. early anthropological/sociological writers believed there were historical, but more likely prehistorical societies which were matriarchal, that were all supplanted over the centuries by the primarily patriarchal systems that are essentially the characteristic of all known societies.
As the title of the book indicates; Davis associates early neopagan/wiccan development with Goddess worship which was indeed the primary focus of early books and covens. The evolution of the neopagan movement quickly led to groups where men were considered if not equals, then crucial members of the circle. Other groups were either exclusively for gay men or women.
The part of the book where Davis traces the rise and progress of neopaganism of the last 100 years or so is mostly factual and seems to be well researched.
The first thing I'd like to point out that even though this book is presented as a scholarly work, it comes from a publisher of polemics, and is most likely affiliated with some religious group. I regard it as less than completely honest that this isn't pointed out more clearly up front. That said, many of his conclusions can still be correct and honest.
I know the cliche "you can't tell a book by its cover" but in this case the dust jacket gives you an insight into the biases of the publisher and presumably the author. The cover illustration shows a mask of an placidly attractive woman's face being held up in front of the greenish face of a scowling crone. On the rear of the dust jacket, two books from this publisher are promoted: "Domestic Tranquility: A Brief Against Feminism" and "The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity."
The description of the first book reads in part: “[the author] shows that the cultural assault on marriage, motherhood and traditional sexuality, rooted in the pursuit of economic and political power, has robbed women of their surest source of fulfillment”. The second book “argues that Western churches have become 'woman's clubs' … and that a masculine presence can and must be restored.” This is because “the current preoccupation with the role of women in the church obscures the more serious problem of the perennial absence of men.” Clearly, these books are reactionary Christian anti-feminist works and at the very least would seem to be hostile to the beliefs of most neo-pagans.
So with that background let's look at the actual work by Mr Davis. His arguments can be summarized as follows:
1. starting in the mid 1900s, neo-pagan movements began to appear which claimed that they were developments of hidden or suppressed groups of practicing witches.
Most researchers have not identified any unquestionable examples of a “hereditary lineages of witches”. Of course that isn't the same as claiming that such lineages don't exist. For obvious reasons -- particularly if witches or wiccans are surrounded by hostile religious believers they would not want to advertise that.
2. early anthropological/sociological writers believed there were historical, but more likely prehistorical societies which were matriarchal, that were all supplanted over the centuries by the primarily patriarchal systems that are essentially the characteristic of all known societies.
As the title of the book indicates; Davis associates early neopagan/wiccan development with Goddess worship which was indeed the primary focus of early books and covens. The evolution of the neopagan movement quickly led to groups where men were considered if not equals, then crucial members of the circle. Other groups were either exclusively for gay men or women.
The part of the book where Davis traces the rise and progress of neopaganism of the last 100 years or so is mostly factual and seems to be well researched.
September 5, 2011
Philip Davis writes with compassion and care. And when he concludes his work, it becomes clear to all that present-day Wicca cannot claim the deep ancient roots it longs to announce. Wicca may be able to claim something of a mystical connection to the ancient world, but nothing more. Davis reveals the true origins of present-day New Age spirituality.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews