ABSTRACT
Just as our history books deal largely in tales of the struggles of powerful men, their rise and fall, so books describing the development of religions do the same. Such works are concerned generally with religious institutions and with the men who organize them, and those whose religious ideas are their foundation. There are, of course, some well-known religious women whose contributions have not gone unnoticed, but they are small in number. Julian of Norwich is such an example in Christian religious history. Similarly, there are issues relating to women, such as the persecution of witches, which have been given some attention by historians of religion. However, even the recent impact of the women’s movement and feminism on academic institutions, courses, research, writing and publishing cannot make up for the centuries of scholarship by and about men’s religious activity which fill our libraries and pervade our general knowledge.
