The Implied Spider

An entertaining and highly accessible look at how myths reveal what is common to all humanity. Parabola A racy, enjoyable book... Wendy Doniger brings to her study a wealth of story and folklore from many different traditions, exploring creatively the enduring role of myth through time and across cultures. Theological Book Review A timely meditation on what comparative studies might mean... a cross-cultural comparison of different stories from different areas of the world, different tribes, different languages. London Review of Books A book that is particularly worthy of the attention of readers in religious studies beyond the history of religions. Since it is Wendy Doniger's most methodological book, The Implied Spider is important, not for its analysis of myths, but for the arguments that it makes in support of the comparative study of myths. Religious Studies Review By analyzing the political, theological, and psychological structures of the sacred stories of various cultures through time, from the Hebrew Bible to Star Trek, Doniger shows how myths create a shared interdisciplinary narrative of all human creatures... Ranging widely, she offers a detailed, scholarly account. Library Journal Sparkling with erudite and often entertaining intertextual references, The Implied Spider is an impressive web delicately constructed of deft analysis together with a sustained argument about the myth's ability to convey and conjure the theological and the political. With its challenges to literary theorists, historians, and ethnographers, it takes various bulls by their respective horns. It will doubtless delight and surely provoke readers, whatever their ilk. Church History