This book is a collection of talks given at an academic conference on women in Gnosticism (organized by a prominent female scholar). (The number of female contributors to this book and conference nearly equals the number of male (in a field where men continue to outnumber women) and includes several male and female translators of the Gnostic Nag Hammadi Library texts.) Anyone interested in the question of the status of women in that ancient religion, on its beliefs about female figures (including Wisdom or Sophia), its mythology or theology, and in its thinking about gender and androgyny should read this volume.

(Anyone interested in gender in the ancient world will also find helpful sources on what the ancient world thought of women from (not limited to Gnosticism) medical, philosophical, and theological points of view. This sounds very dry, but what educated men and governors thought women were had a great impact on what women could be.)

Although these papers are technical essays for fellow specialists they have the advantage of being very specific: they hew closely to the texts under discussion, keep in mind which Gnostic school produced those texts (and when), and are not given to the casual generalizations which mar too many discussions of women in ancient religions.

An important and too-little read contribution to the history of women in Religion and the study of women in Gnosticism, in general. (In texts densely populated with female characters and figures, obsessed with Sophia and Eve, the topic comes up far more seldom in the study of Gnosticism than one might hope.)

Recommended, if regrettably heavy reading for interested non-specialists.

-Kushana ( )