This article explores contrasting strategies in feminist critical theory in order to interrogate divergent fictional representations of women's spiri tual power. The first critical strategy uses the resources of gynocriticism to present a positive view of women's authorship, agency and ability to revi sion religious forms. The second demonstrates poststructuralist concerns with the repressed other/ s of dominant cultural forms and the power these possess to provoke political change and new visions of the divine. It is argued that both strategies (...) offer positive contributions to religious femi nists as they wrestle with male-centred spiritual traditions. (shrink)