By
– January 3, 2012
Taking Back God describes the experiences of ninety-five American women, aged nineteen to ninety-five, as they strive for advancement in five different religious traditions. Leora Tanenbaum interviewed women from Catholic, Evangelical, and Mainline Protestant, Muslim, and Orthodox Jewish communities to reveal the common threads in their struggles for women’s religious inclusion, including Tanenbaum’s own experiences working for equality within a life of committed Orthodox Jewish observance.
Women’s voices come from the mainstream, and their beliefs and actions for change are based upon devoted study of original sacred texts. Across the board, they express similar concerns: a desire for enhanced women’s leadership, women’s representation in the language of liturgy, and clear recognition that the female body has also been made in the image of God.
Taking Back God describes the experiences of ninety-five American women, aged nineteen to ninety-five, as they strive for advancement in five different religious traditions. Leora Tanenbaum interviewed women from Catholic, Evangelical, and Mainline Protestant, Muslim, and Orthodox Jewish communities to reveal the common threads in their struggles for women’s religious inclusion, including Tanenbaum’s own experiences working for equality within a life of committed Orthodox Jewish observance.
Ellie Barbarash is a writer, musician, and disability activist living in Philadelphia. Her non-fiction has been published in Bridges. Ordained as a Kohenet, she is working on producing an anthology, Clearing the Spring, Sweetening the Waters: A Renewed Call to Torah.
