"Offering multilayered explorations of Hindu understandings of the Feminine, both human and divine, this book emphasizes theological and activist methods and aims over historical, anthropological, and literary ones. The contributors approach the Feminine in Hindu traditions from the standpoint of intersubjective construction via a method that can be termed dialexis. Here, dialexis refers to a form of intellectual engagement "across styles" that takes as its starting point an adequate accounting of contextualized signification. The diverse ways that cultures articulate themselves are rooted in lexical choices made in historical, geographical, and cultural contexts"--

"The essays in this volume offer multiple interpretations of Hindu understandings of the Feminine, both human and divine, that self-consciously encourage theological revision and gender activism. All of the contributors are faithful to traditional Hindu categories, texts, and ways of thinking, but they creatively appropriate the materials they examine in ways that are affirming of the feminine and, in many cases, explicitly empowering to women. In offering multiple constructive explorations of the Hindu Feminine--some with, and others without the framework of a confessional stance--this book challenges normative conceptions of the emic/etic chasm and its expected impact on scholarship"--