"Jesus taught us to pray to the Father," Allred writes, "not to set up barriers between us and God, but to remove them. [God is also] our Mother, a Mother who knows our needs before we can express them, a Mother who is here before we called out to her." LDS church leaders forbid speculation about or praying to the Goddess, but they have stopped short of repudiating her outright, leaving open the possibility of a future relationship. Whether or not this happens, and whether or not one agrees with the author's views and the course she chose, one has to acknowledge her skill in stimulating thought-provoking possibilities that empower women—which is what she intended.

Janice Allred, a graduate of Brigham Young University, is president of the Mormon Women's Forum and co-editor of Case Reports of the Mormon Alliance. Her articles in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought have won two Theology and Scripture Awards. She is a mother of nine children and lives with her husband and family in Orem, Utah.