Monica, Part Two: " It seems therefore that Neetlangw cannot be used and that there is a lot more to lose by adopting the foreign name for God – the Swahili Mungu– then using Looa. The great mother was also a well-known deity in Asia minor and Greece in New Testament times, but could not challenge the notion of God as father, and in particular as father of the son, Jesus Christ."  From Thor Strandenas, "Translation as Interpretation," in The New Testament as Reception, eds., Mogens Müller and Henrik Tronier (London: Sheffield, 2002). So I agree: we simply do not have a sacred image of a sexualized woman. Just mothers and celibates. Buddhist, on the other hand, have Kuan Yin, and the merciful Amida, although the same misogyny asserts itself -- The Goddess in the Lotus Sutra has to transform to her true male form to embody awakening. On the good side, there are so many women Buddhologists, esp. in the Tibetan lineages, that dakinis and female figures abound.