The S/HE peer-reviewed journal (S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies) is seeking a book reviewer for Firas Sawah’s Mysteries of Ishtar: The Divine Feminine and the Unity of Human Spirituality, English translated by Ilham Laassiba Mol (Inner Traditions/Bear, 2026).
Copyright © 1985 by Firas Sawah
English translation copyright © 2026 by Firas Sawah (author); Ilham Laassiba Mol (translator)
Description: In this timely, much-needed book, theologian, social psychologist, and activist Christena Cleveland recounts her personal journey to dismantle the cultural “whitemalegod” and uncover the Sacred Black Feminine, introducing a Black Female God who imbues us with hope, healing, and liberating presence.
For years, Christena Cleveland spoke about racial reconciliation to congregations, justice organizations, and colleges. But she increasingly felt she could no longer trust in the God she’d been implicitly taught to worship—a white male God who preferentially empowered white men despite his claim to love all people. A God who clearly did not relate to, advocate for, or affirm a Black woman like Christena.
Her crisis of faith sent her on an intellectual and spiritual journey through history and across France, on a 400-mile walking pilgrimage to the ancient shrines of Black Madonnas to find healing in the Sacred Black Feminine. God Is a Black Woman is the chronicle of her liberating transformation and a critique of a society shaped by white patriarchal Christianity and culture. Christena reveals how America’s collective idea of God as a white man has perpetuated hurt, hopelessness, and racial and gender oppression. Integrating her powerful personal story, womanist ideology, as well as theological, historical, and social science research, she invites us to take seriously the truth that God is not white nor male and gives us a new and hopeful path for connecting with the divine and honoring the sacredness of all Black people.
Contents
Translator’s Introduction by Ilham Laassiba Mol ix
Prologue: Fireside Chat xi
1 Civilization and the First Myth 1
2 Ishtar the Great Mother 19 For Review Only
3 Ishtar the Moon 52
4 The Green Ishtar 95
5 Ishtar the Virgin 150
6 Ishtar the Sacred Prostitute 175
7 The Dark Ishtar 194
8 Ishtar the Lady of Secrets 235
9 Tammuz al-Khidr 256
10 Ishtar the Redeemer 331
Notes 369
Bibliography 386
Index 391
Qualification: Ph.D. is not required but the book review article will have to abide by the Submission Instructions of S/HE Book Reviews.
If you are interested, email Dr. Francesca Tronetti (ftronetti@gmail.com).