| Summary: | This article explores author Toni Morrison’s creation of female spiritual leaders in her 1977 novel, <i>Song of Solomon</i>, and her 1998 novel, <i>Paradise</i>. I argue that she deliberately distorts Biblical imagery and narrative to rewrite women into the roles of spiritual agents rather than subjects, using irony and inversion, in <i>Song of Solomon</i>. She builds on this in <i>Paradise</i> by exploring the limitations of patriarchal orthodox Christian systems of social order and control by casting them in light of alternative spiritual beliefs, most notably Gnosticism.
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