Download When God Was A Woman Merlin Stone Pdf Creator
by Conor Friedersdorf
Download When God Was A Woman Merlin Stone Pdf Creator Pdf
'Oh god- something, someone- just- hold me?' Mordred swallowed hard and walked into the room. Merlin stripped down to his small clothes and curled up tight onto the nest he made. It wasn't a very good nest, but Mordred could try to work with it. He struggled for a moment, should he strip down like Merlin? Or should he keep his chainmail on? By Merlin Stone This page is about the most fascinating book I have ever read; a book that is a must-read for all women, as well as anyone who wants to know the truth. In the beginning, God was a woman.
A reader writes:
If I had to pick one book out of the thousands I have read, it would be When God Was a Woman, by Merlin Stone.
I was nearly 40, a single mom for ten years, holding a bachelors and a masters degree and yet working two jobs to make ends meet. I was a nominative, semi-engaged Christian, but for personal reasons I had become a seeker of more spirituality than churches seemed to offer. So one day I picked up this book at the local used bookstore.
It was a revelation to me, the idea that the Bible still contained the remnants of the goddess. I felt that cool water was rushing over me. For the first time in my life, I felt that there was an open door for me to approach a 'god' who looked like me, whose accessibility wasn't confined to the men in the congregation. But that was just the beginning. The opening of the door. I didn't become a pagan or a goddess-worshiping rabble-rouser or even an atheist. After reading this book, I went on to read other feminist theologians and Bible historians, but it didn't stop there, either. Within another year I had remarried and gained a new family, and I began to take college courses in history and religion, focusing on archaeology, the Biblical 'higher criticism,' and modern theological thought. I learned to separate fact from folklore and fundamentalism and to see the Bible in its original historical context. At first, the knowledge was devastating, as anyone who came from a 'church' perspective to an academic perspective can tell you. I was most angry, however, at the fact that my educated former clergy, those enthusiastic ministers, all knew the facts but continued to push the fiction on me anyway. Now, the continuing pursuit of knowledge of the historicity of the Bible and the distortions promulgated by Christianity are my pastime as well as my passion.
I re-read Stone's book once about ten years ago. I still find it interesting, although somewhat dated, and I'm not sure parts of it still hold up. Be that as it may, the path it sent me down has lasted for 20 years, and I haven't regretted a minute of it. Its effect on my perspective is ongoing. For example, here in Phoenix, the local Catholic bishop recently revoked the Catholic status of St. Joseph's Hospital for performing a life-saving termination of pregnancy on a near-death mother of four. The hospital's decision saved her life and returned her to her family and young children. It was a devastating life decision for the family, as you can imagine. Bishop Olmsted, however, decided he was not only a priest but also a doctor and God, to boot. He declared the life-saving procedure to be an abortion that was illegal under Catholic doctrine. The hospital official who made the decision was a nun, whom Bishop Olmsted declared 'had excommunicated herself' by saving the mother's life. I see this religion v. ethics flap for what it is, an example of the Catholic Church's historical war against women that goes back to the very day that Paul of Tarsus began his preaching to the Roman elite rather than to the Jews from which Jesus sprung. Roman contempt for women permeates the historical as well as the modern Catholic Church. This bishop, had he been in charge, would have sentenced the mother to death, and her newborn as well as her other four children and their dad to a life without their mother. Recognition of the Goddess and her role in our spiritual life would help to shed value on the life of women and ameliorate these situations, difficult as they are.
As for me, I still live within the Judeo-Christian environment, but I try to bring feminine Goddess-consciousness to all of my spiritual decisions, and I continue to add dozens of books every year to my collection of factual insight into the folklore collection that is the Bible. The facts are much more compelling than the fundamentalist fantasy. Thanks, Merlin Stone, for breaking me out of my American Christian blinders, and thanks, Conor, for asking.
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We live in an interesting time. Materially, everything is the best it’s ever been—we are freer, healthier and wealthier than any people in human history. Yet, somehow everything seems to be irreparably and horribly f*cked—the planet is warming, governments are failing, economies are collapsing, and everyone is perpetually offended on Twitter. At this moment in history, when we have access to technology, education and communication our ancestors couldn’t even dream of, so many of us come back to an overriding feeling of hopelessness. What’s going on? If anyone can put a name to our current malaise and help fix it, it’s Mark Manson. In 2016, Manson published The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck, a book that brilliantly gave shape to the ever-present, low-level hum of anxiety that permeates modern living. He showed us that technology had made it too easy to care about the wrong things, that our culture had convinced us that the world owed us something when it didn’t—and worst of all, that our modern and maddening urge to always find happiness only served to make us unhappier. Instead, the “subtle art” of that title turned out to be a bold challenge: to choose your struggle; to narrow and focus and find the pain you want to sustain. The result was a book that became an international phenomenon, selling millions of copies worldwide while becoming the #1 bestseller in 13 different countries.
Now, in Everthing Is F*cked, Manson turns his gaze from the inevitable flaws within each individual self to the endless calamities taking place in the world around us. Drawing from the pool of psychological research on these topics, as well as the timeless wisdom of philosophers such as Plato, Nietzsche, and Tom Waits, he dissects religion and politics and the uncomfortable ways they have come to resemble one another. He looks at our relationships with money, entertainment and the internet, and how too much of a good thing can psychologically eat us alive. He openly defies our definitions of faith, happiness, freedom—and even of hope itself.
With his usual mix of erudition and where-the-f*ck-did-that-come-from humor, Manson takes us by the collar and challenges us to be more honest with ourselves and connected with the world in ways we probably haven’t considered before. It’s another counterintuitive romp through the pain in our hearts and the stress of our soul. One of the great modern writers has produced another book that will set the agenda for years to come.