Editing Thealogy (section)

==History of the term==
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The term's origin and initial use is open to ongoing debate. Patricia 'Iolana traces the early use of the [[neologism]] to 1976, crediting both [[Valerie Saiving]] and [[Isaac Bonewits]] for its initial use.<ref>{{cite book|last= 'Iolana|first= Patricia|chapter=Radical Images of the Feminine Divine: Women's Spiritual Memoirs Disclose a Thealogical Shift|editor-last='Iolana|editor-first=Patricia|editor2-last=Tongue|editor2-first=Samuel|title= Testing the Boundaries: Self, Faith, Interpretation and Changing Trends in Religious Studies|year= 2011|publisher= Cambridge Scholars Publishing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8YJTYgEACAAJ|location= Newcastle upon Tyne|page=15|isbn=9781443826693|quote=According to my research ''Thealogy'' or ''Thealogian'' was first used in publications by both Isaac Bonewits ("The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)") and Valerie Saiving ("Androcentrism in Religious Studies") in 1976.  Naomi Goldenberg continued this new thread by using the term in ''The Changing of the Gods'' (Goldenberg 1979b, 96). Since then, many have attempted to define "thealogy".}}</ref> The coinage of ''thealogian'' on record by Bonewits in 1976 has been promoted.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bonewits|first=Isaac|title=Neopagan Rites: A Guide to Creating Public Rituals That Work|year=2007|publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide|isbn=9780738711997|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fDvU6ccKvkYC&pg=PT240|page=222|quote=86. In 1974 I wrote, and in 1976 published, the word ''thealogian'' in ''The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)'', a book about the Reformed Druids of North America and their offshoots.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Scharding|first=Philip Emmons Isaac|title=A Reformed Druid Anthology: Being an unofficial and unauthorized historical collection of some of the spiritual writings from the various Reformed Druid movements in North America; and being mostly a 20th anniversary reprint of ''The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)'' first published in August 1976 c.e., which was edited by Isaac Bonewits and Robert Larson; but prepared for reprinting with some new additions and historical commentary by the current associate editor, Michael Scharding, in August 1996 c.e.|url=https://archive.org/details/reformeddruidant00scha_609|url-access=limited|year=1996|publisher=The Drynemetum Press|location=Northfield, Minnesota, USA |page=[https://archive.org/details/reformeddruidant00scha_609/page/n67 67] |chapter=The Second Epistle of Isaac|quote=...C. Taliesin Edwards (the leading thealogian in the Neopagan movements) has called "The Da Mind" (in his Essays Towards a Metathealogy of the Goddess), and that others have called by a variety of names.}}{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In the 1979 book ''[[Changing of the Gods]]'', [[Naomi Goldenberg]] introduces the term as a future possibility with respect to a distinct discourse, highlighting the masculine nature of theology.<ref>{{cite book|last= Goldenberg|first= Naomi|title= Changing of the gods: Feminism and the end of traditional religions|year= 1979|publisher= Beacon Press|location= Boston |url=https://archive.org/details/changingofgodsfe00gold|url-access= registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/changingofgodsfe00gold/page/96 96]|quote=The word ''theology'' has also come to be used almost exclusively in regard to Christian god-talk.  The advent of witchcraft, with its colorful goddess-talk, requires a new term.  I hope witches and scholars of feminist religion will adopt my suggestion and name themselves the''a''logians.|isbn= 9780807011119}}</ref> Also in 1979, in the first revised edition of ''Real Magic'', Bonewits defined ''thealogy'' in his Glossary as "Intellectual speculations concerning the nature of the Goddess and Her relations to the world in general and humans in particular; rational explanations of religious doctrines, practices and beliefs, which may or may not bear any connection to any religion as actually conceived and practiced by the majority of its members". In the same glossary, he defined "theology" with nearly identical words, changing the feminine pronouns with masculine pronouns appropriately.<ref>{{cite book|last= Bonewits|first= Isaac|title= Real Magic: An Introductory Treatise on the Basic Principles of Yellow Magic|edition=Revised/reprint|year= 1989|publisher= Weiser Books|isbn=0877286884|location= York Beach, ME|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rghPxNPkLwUC}}</ref>

[[Carol P. Christ]] used the term in ''Laughter of Aphrodite'' (1987), claiming that those creating thealogy could not avoid being influenced by the categories and questions posed in Christian and Jewish theologies.<ref>{{cite book|last= Christ|first= Carol P|title= Laughter of Aphrodite: Reflections on a Journey to the Goddess |year= 1987|publisher= Harper & Row|location= San Francisco|page=xii|url=https://archive.org/details/laughterofaphrod00chri|url-access= registration|isbn=9780062501462}}</ref> She further defined thealogy in her 2002 essay, "Feminist theology as post-traditional thealogy", as "the reflection on the meaning of the Goddess".<ref>{{cite book |last=Christ|first= Carol P. |title= The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology|year= 2002|publisher= Cambridge University Press|location= Cambridge}}</ref>

In her 1989 essay "On Mirrors, Mists and Murmurs: Toward an Asian American Thealogy", Rita Nakashima Brock defined thealogy as "the work of women reflecting on their experiences of and beliefs about divine reality".<ref>{{cite book|last= Brock|first= Rita Nakashima|title= Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality|editor-last=Plaskow|editor-first=Judith|editor2-last=Christ|editor2-first=Carol P.|year= 1989|publisher= HarperCollins|location= San Francisco|page=[https://archive.org/details/weavingvisionsne00plasrich/page/236 236]|url=https://archive.org/details/weavingvisionsne00plasrich|url-access= registration| isbn=9780060613839}}</ref> And again in 1989, Ursula King notes thealogy's growing usage as a fundamental departure from traditional male-oriented theology, characterized by its privileging of symbols over rational explanation.<ref>{{cite book|last=King|first=Ursula|title=Women and spirituality: voices of protest and promise|year=1989|publisher=New Amsterdam|isbn=9780941533539|pages=126–127|quote=So far however, most writing on the Goddess, when not historical, is either inspirational or devotional, and a systematically ordered body of thought, even with reference to symbols, is only slowly coming into existence.}}</ref>

In 1993, Charlotte Caron's inclusive and clear definition of thealogy as a "reflection on the divine in feminine and feminist terms" appeared in ''To Make and Make Again''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Caron|first=Charlotte|title=To make and make again: feminist ritual thealogy|year=1993|publisher=Crossroad|isbn=9780824512491}}</ref> By this time, the concept had gained considerable status among Goddess adherents.