ABSTRACT
From among many developments and transformations in Western religious ideas
and practices to have taken place during the late twentieth century, one of the
most significant has been the growth of feminist religions and the re-emergence
of a reverence for female deities. In the wake of a period of history in which the
relations between the sexes have undergone an unprecedented re-assessment and
re-organization, the intervention of feminist criticism and activism in religious
thought and practice has had a profound impact upon the ways in which divinity
and sacrality are conceived and related to in the West. Many established religions
have found it necessary to begin to question their activities, concepts and narratives,
with regard to the meaning and valuation of sexual difference. New religions have
taken shape that directly address the dramatic shift in cultural, political and social
understandings of sexual difference, often by placing women in a more central role.
