Religion remains a powerful reality for countless human beings across a range of cultures and systems of beliefs. This text is about the devotional subcultures created by women. Its authors draw their evidence and inspiration from Hindu,Buddhist, Islamist and Christian traditions. Here we find women as healers, goddesses, saints, gurus, nuns and heretics - all sharing a defiance of orthodoxy and fundamentalist oppressions of women. Instead they have created religious alternatives of profound appeal, in the face of often intolerant male religions, this book reflects the newly emerging spirituality of women as they experience and respond actively to the political and social injustices they confront. Its authors are all women from the third world who see themselves as religious, but who are at the same time competent scholars intheor different disciplines.