reading

An earlier edition of this book was published by
The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1981

ISBN 978-3-85630-982-4

Cover design from a drawing by Barry Ulanov

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Contents

Preface

1. Receiving Woman

1. Receiving Herself

2. Being Received

3. Receiving Others

2. Detours to Dead Ends

The First Detour

The Second Detour

Politicization: An Opiate for Rage

Faith and Analysis

Self-Other

The Third Detour

3. Relocating the Issue

Projection as Defense and Differentiation

Projection as Perception

Withdrawing and Integrating Projections

4. Receiving the Feminine Elements of Being

Why Feminine?

Feminine Elements of Being

Fear of the Female

Hatred of the Female

5. The Birth of Otherness: The Feminine Elements of Being and the Religious Life

Two Directions of Value

The Concept of Otherness

Conception

The Denial of Otherness

Conception and Religious Experience

Birth

Birth and Religious Experience

Early Development

6. The Authority of Women

What Is the Animus?

The Split Animus

Emotional Possession

The Anima and Women

Intellectual Identification

The Animus and Men

Split Authority

The Girl-Matron

Receiving the Animus: Humanizing Unconscious Energy

From Disconnection to Connection: Woman’s Presence

Attending to Ego Wounds

The Feminine Presence

7. Woman Receiving

Women and Pain: Ministry to the Outcast

Women and the Body

Women and the Life of Paradox

Judeo-Christian Religion and the Female Element of Being

A Different Kind of Knowing

Theology Changes

The Hiddenness of Revelation

About the Author

Preface

This book is composed of a series of studies on a common theme and set of concerns. The subject is woman’s psychology and special role in religion. It leads into a consideration of the feminine aspects of personality and their bearing on belief in God. The chapters come together around a central conviction: that a woman consenting to be all of herself brings into the world a quality of consciousness and spirit we all need very much. In these times of agitation concerning women’s rights, it is easy to forget the force of the quality of life of particular women, and the presence each brings in her own way to our shared life together. That is the focus of this book.

Many of the insights for these chapters came out of discussion in class and conference with my women students, and I thank them warmly for their contribution to my understanding. In addition, the women I have worked with in analysis have given me many insights into the rich differences among women and the necessity we hold – all of us – to receive all of ourselves, to come to know who we are in ourselves. To these women, too, I am most grateful. Women friends have been of great help in deepening my insight and enlarging my appreciation for how much women may give each other. My enthusiastic thanks go to Staley Hitchcock for his expert deciphering of my manuscripts, his excellent typing and his unfailing courtesy and helpfulness to me. The staff at Westminster also deserve warm thanks. Lastly my boundless thanks to my husband, Barry, who has been in so many ways my great receiver.

Ann Belford Ulanov

Union Theological Seminary New York, New York