Beyond Mother Goddesses

Mothers, Motherhood and Mothering at the Intersection with Religions

Florence Pasche Guignard, Pascale Engelmajer, Sucharita Sarkar, Giulia Pedrucci

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040650325
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion, Politics & State

Beyond Mother Goddesses: Mothers, Motherhood and Mothering at the Intersection with Religions introduces key scholars in the study of mothers, maternal figures, and motherhood at the intersection with religion and spirituality, as well as new paths for research.

It features interviews with significant authors in religious studies and closely related disciplines and offers a reflexive stance on theory and methodology. The scholars whose interviews are gathered in this volume study different traditions, including Greco-Roman religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, contemporary cultures, and time periods from Antiquity and Ancient India to contemporary cultures. Although they also represent different disciplines and draw on different methodologies, they all examine the intersection of mothers, motherhood, and mothering with religion and spirituality.

With its introduction and its conclusion, which together provide a description of the state of the field and new avenues for research, this volume offers a thorough examination of the emerging subfield of study on mothers, motherhood, mothering, and religion.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Biographies of the Authors
• Biographies of the Interviewees
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Beyond Mother Goddesses?
• 1 Interview with Karen Derris: About the Article “Interpreting Buddhist Representations of Motherhood and Mothering” (2014)
• 2 Interview with Reiko Ohnuma: About the Book Ties That Bind: Maternal Imagery and Discourse in Indian Buddhism (2012)
• 3 Interview with Amrita Nandy: About the Book Motherhood and Choice: Uncommon Mothers, Childfree Women (2017)
• 4 Interview with Maithreyi Krishnaraj: About the Book Motherhood in India: Glorification without Empowerment? (2010)
• 5 Interview with Anu Aneja and Shubhangi Vaidya: About the Book Embodying Motherhood: Perspectives from Contemporary India (2016)
• 6 Interview with Francis X. Clooney SJ: About the Book Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary (2005)
• 7 Interview with Philippe Borgeaud: About the Book La Mère des dieux. De Cybèle à la Vierge Marie [Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to the Virgin Mary] (1996)
• 8 Interview with Massimo Cultraro: About the Chapter “Ambivalenze materne: rappresentazioni e costruzione dell’identità della figura femminile nella Sicilia protostorica” [“Maternal Ambivalences: Representations and Construction of the Identity of the Female Figure in Protohistoric Sicily”] (2017)
• 9 Interview with Silvia Romani: About the Book Nascite speciali. Usi e abusi del modello biologico del parto e della gravidanza nel mondo antico [Special Births. Uses and Abuses of the Biological Model of Childbirth and of Pregnancy in the Ancient World] (2004)
• 10 Interview with Roberta Franchi: About the Book Dalla Grande Madre alla Madre. La maternità nel mondo classico e cristiano: miti e modelli [From the Great Mother to the Mother. Motherhood in the Classical and Christian World: Myths and Models] (2018–2019)
• 11 Interview with Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder: About the Book When Momma Speaks: The Bible and Motherhood from a Womanist Perspective (2016)
• Conclusion: Charting New Directions in the Study of Motherhood and Religions
• Works Discussed in the Interviews
• Index