The Virgin Mary has long been the object of both devotional and scholarly interest, and recent years have seen a proliferation of studies on Hindu goddess-worship traditions. Despite the parallels between the two, however, no one has yet undertaken a book-length comparison of these traditions. In Divine Mother, Blessed Mother, Francis Clooney offers the first extended comparative study of Hindu goddesses and the Virgin Mary. Clooney is almost unique in the field of Hindu studies as a Christian theologian with the linguistic and philosophical expertise necessary to produce sophisticated comparative analyses. Building on his previous work in comparative theology, he sheds new light not only on these individual traditions but also on the nature of gender and the divine.

Divine Mother, Blessed Mother is a groundbreaking study of comparative theology as well as a beautiful book to enjoy, a work that appears to be as much the fruit of devotion and meditation as of scholarship and philosophical reflection. * Theological Studies *

Francis X. Clooney, S.J., is a Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). He is Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology at Harvard Divinity School.