When God Was a Woman

By: Merlin Stone

Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin

The landmark exploration of the ancient worship of the Great Goddess and the eventual supression of women's rites.

In the beginning, God was a woman…

How did the shift from matriarchy to patriarchy come about? In fascinating detail, Merlin Stone tells us the story of the Goddess who reigned supreme in the Near and Middle East. Under her reign, societal roles differed markedly from those in patriarchal Judeo-Christian cultures: women bought and sold property, traded in the marketplace, and inherited title and land from their mothers. Documenting the wholesale rewriting of myth and religious dogmas, Merlin Stone describes an ancient conspiracy in which the Goddess was reimagined as a wanton, depraved figure, a characterization confirmed and perpetuated by one of modern culture's best-known legends—that of the fall of Adam and Eve. Insightful and thought-provoking, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the origin of current gender roles and in rediscovering women's power.

This audiobook is expertly read by Jo Anna Perrin, and was produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont. Audio engineering by Matthew Kulewicz, MPSE.

Copyright (C) 1976 by Merlin Stone (P) (2024) EPBM.

©1976 Merlin Stone (P)2024 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

Must read to the end!

Excellently written and easy to follow. I will be re-reading. Every PERSON should read this. But especially every woman. It is healing and eye opening

Aye! Every Woman Should Read This Book.

Reading and studying along with this deep dive was part of my deconstruction journey. It’s enlightening, engaging, and easy to cross reference.

I went from being really angry to understanding how and why our society is so toxic.

An Education

This book benefits from the illustrations in the print version and those would have been helpful as PDF here. The scholarship had to have been tedious. The listening wasn't

at last in audio!

this has been on my reading list for years, and I'm thrilled it's finally in audio. <10 hours is a shorter audiobook for my normal listening habits, so i'm doubly saddened to say it went far too quickly!

I was not sure about the narrator while listening to the sample but am happy I took a chance on it, her voice suits the book quite well.

Every woman should read this! Now!

I read this book in my 20s when it was published. It changed my perspective entirely. I had no idea how dominated I was by the idea of a male deity. A God in the sky with a big penis and a pitchfork pointed at female genitalia that’s what it’s come down to. The religious right is trying to take us back to the Stone Age. When God Was a Woman needs to be read by every thinking, woman. Men won’t like it. It will threaten their entitlement.

Dissonant cadence was distracting

I read When God Was a Woman 20 years ago and it had changed my entire perspective. In light of everything going on in the U.S. now, I needed the boost that I thought rereading (listening to) the book might give me, based on my last experience. I'm only about 2 hours into the book and it's been a struggle every one of those 160 minutes. Even after slowing the playback speed down to .9, I just cannot follow the book due to the dissonant cadence of the narrator, Jo Anna Perrin.

My advice to all is to buy it on Kindle or a hard copy, as I will be doing. The information within Stone's book is fascinating and definitely worth reading.

Bad scholarship

The book presents itself as factual, but it based on broad assumptions and feeble generalizations. The audiobook performance is very dry and difficult to focus on. Overall a real disappointment, and I was unable to finish the book.