Editing Thealogy

{{Short description|Study and reflection upon the feminine divine from a feminist perspective}}
{{for|a complementary study of religion|Theology}}
{{Feminism sidebar|theory}}
[[File:Ceres statue.jpg|thumb|[[Statue]] of [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]], the Roman goddess of [[agriculture]]]]
'''Thealogy''' views divine matters through feminine perspectives including but not limited to feminism. [[Valerie Saiving]], [[Isaac Bonewits]] (1976) and [[Naomi Goldenberg]] (1979) introduced the concept as a [[neologism]] (new word).<ref>Saiving had been developing feminist views of theology since the 1950s. Bonewits referred to "thealogian" 1976. Goldenberg used "thealogy" to mean "goddess-talk" expressing the hope that the word would come into use. For full references on all three see under 'History of the Term.</ref>  Its use then widened to mean all feminine ideas of the sacred, which Charlotte Caron usefully explained in 1993: "reflection on the divine in feminine or feminist terms".<ref>Charlotte Caron, ''To Make and Make Again: Feminist Ritual Thealogy'' (Crossroad, 1993) p. 281.</ref> By 1996, when Melissa Raphael published ''Thealogy and Embodiment'', the term was well established.<ref>Melissa Raphael, ''Thealogy and Embodiment: The Post-Patriarchal Reconstruction of Female Sacrality'' (Sheffield Academic Press:1996)</ref>

As a neologism, the term derives from two [[Greek language|Greek]] words: {{Lang|grc-latn|thea}}, {{lang|grc|θεά}}, meaning 'goddess', the feminine equivalent of {{Lang|grc-latn|theos}}, 'god' (from PIE root {{PIE|*dhes-}});<ref>Online Etymology <https://www.etymonline.com/word/thea></ref> and {{Lang|grc-latn|logos}}, {{lang|grc|λόγος}}, plural {{Lang|grc-latn|logoi}}, often found in English as the suffix ''[[-logy]]'', meaning 'word, reason, plan'; and in Greek philosophy and theology, the divine reason implicit in the cosmos.<ref>Britannica <https://www.britannica.com/topic/logos></ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Raphael |first=Melissa |chapter=Thealogy |title=Encyclopedia of Religion |editor-first=Lindsay |editor-last=Jones |edition=2nd |volume=13 |location=Detroit |publisher=Macmillan Reference USA |year=2005 |isbn=0028659821 }}</ref>

Thealogy has areas in common with [[feminist theology]] – the study of God from a feminist perspective, often emphasizing monotheism. The relation is an overlap, as thealogy is not limited to one deity (in spite of its etymology);<ref>{{cite book|last=Raphael|first=Melissa|title=Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on The Goddess|year=2000|publisher=Pilgrim Press |location=Cleveland, Ohio|isbn=0829813799|access-date=7 December 2012|page=10|series=Introductions in Feminist Theology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1gbXAAAAMAAJ|quote=Although the boundary between feminist theology and thealogy can be a permeable one, the basic division between radical/Pagan and reformist/biblical feminism is a historical product and a microcosm of this internal dissension in the feminist community.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last='Iolana|first=Patricia|title=Divine Immanence: A Psychodynamic Study in Women's Experience of Goddess|journal=Claremont Journal of Religion|date=January 2012|volume=1|issue=1|pages=86–107 [90]|url=http://claremontjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Divine-Immanence-A-Psychodynamic-Study-of-Womens-Experience-of-Goddess-by-Patricia-Iolana2.pdf|quote=While seemingly inclusive in scope, theology often has a focal handicap – it is monotheistic in its thinking, examining God from a narrow and often monocular lens often concretised by its own dogma, and often exclusivist and hampered by truth claims. Thealogy, on the other hand, is pluralistic, syncretistic and inclusive.  It is fluid and comprehensive, able to contain many different belief systems and ways of being.  Thealogy does not stand in opposition to, but as a complement to, Theology as a branch of religious study. |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130905080601/http://claremontjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Divine-Immanence-A-Psychodynamic-Study-of-Womens-Experience-of-Goddess-by-Patricia-Iolana2.pdf|archive-date=2013-09-05}}</ref> the two fields have been described as both related and interdependent.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Clack|first=Beverly|title=Thealogy and Theology: Mutually Exclusive or Creatively Interdependent?|journal=Feminist Theology|date=May 1999|volume=7|issue=21|pages=21–38|doi=10.1177/096673509900002103|s2cid=143523339}}</ref>

==History of the term==
{{wiktionary}}
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.

==As academic discipline==
Situated in relationship to the fields of [[theology]] and [[religious studies]], thealogy is a discourse that critically engages the beliefs, wisdom, practices, questions, and values of the Goddess community, both past and present.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hope|first1=Angela|last2=Morgain|first2=Shan|title=What Is Goddess Thealogy & Deasophy?|work=Institute for Thealogy and Deasophy|access-date=10 December 2012|url=http://thealogy.org/defining.html|quote=Goddess thealogy and deasophy are reflections on both past and contemporary Goddess communities' beliefs, wisdom, embodied practices, questions, and values.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508072734/http://www.thealogy.org/defining.html|archive-date=8 May 2013}}</ref> Similar to theology, thealogy grapples with questions of meaning, include reflecting on the nature of the divine,<ref>{{cite book|last=Christ|first=Carol P.|title=She Who Changes: Re-imagining the Divine in the World|year=2003|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=9781403960832 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kfiMP5nS3GEC|access-date=10 December 2012|pages=11–12|quote=The common thread in all of these examples is that feminist spiritual practice raises philosophical questions about the nature of divine power and its relation to our lives.  Feminist theology and thealogy began as radical challenges to traditional ways of thinking about God and the world.}}</ref> the relationship of humanity to the environment,<ref>{{cite book|last=Crist|first=Carol P.|title=Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality|year=2012|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=9780415921862|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wYcTok_Xmo8C|access-date=10 December 2012|page=153|quote=Goddess thealogy affirms that we all come from one course while stating that diversity is the great principle of the earth body.... We are both different and related in the web of life.}}</ref> the relationship between the spiritual and sexual self,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Clack|first=Beverly|title=The Denial of Dualism: Thealogical Reflections on the Sexual and the Spiritual|journal=Feminist Theology|date=September 1995|volume=4|issue=10|pages=102–115|doi=10.1177/096673509500001009|s2cid=143348693}}</ref> and the nature of belief.<ref>{{cite book|last=Eller|first=Cynthia|title=Living In The Lap of Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America|year=1995|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=9780807065075 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCCbVtnXUsEC|access-date=10 December 2012|pages=140–141|quote="Believing" in goddess is more a matter of adopting a new term for an old experience to call attention to its sacredness and its femininity.  This is the closest thing one gets to a consensus thealogy in feminist spirituality, but it does not truly do justice to the thealogies that grow up all around it.}}</ref>  However, in contrast to theology, which often focuses on an exclusively logical and empirical discourse, thealogy embraces a postmodern discourse of personal experience and complexity.<ref>{{cite book|last=Raphael|first=Melissa|title=Thealogy and Embodiment: The Post-Patriarchal Reconstruction of Female Sacrality|year=1996|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=9781850757573 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xWtpfrWbzoC|access-date=10 December 2012|pages=228–229|quote=The postmodern theological/thealogical shift from a God of law presiding over a cosmic machine to a divinity holding creation in a nexus of complex relations has -- like one of its forerunners, process theology -- brought the divine into the very heart of change: the Goddess does not sit and watch the cosmos but is dancing at its very centre.}}</ref>

The term suggests a [[feminist]] approach to [[theism]] and the context of [[Gender of God|God and gender]] within [[Paganism]], [[Neopaganism]], [[Goddess]] Spirituality and various nature-based religions.  However, thealogy can be described as religiously [[Religious pluralism|pluralistic]], as thealogians come from various religious backgrounds that are often hybrid in nature. In addition to Pagans, Neopagans, and Goddess-centred faith traditions, they are also [[Christianity|Christian]], [[Judaism|Jewish]], [[Buddhism|Buddhist]], [[Muslim]], [[Quakers]], etc. or define themselves as Spiritual Feminists.<ref>Raphael, Melissa. "[http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3424503088&v=2.1&u=atla29738&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w Thealogy]". ''Encyclopedia of Religion''. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 13. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. pp. 9098–9101. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Dec. 2012. "There are those on the gynocentric or woman-centered left of Jewish and Christian feminism who would want to term themselves ''theo/alogians'' because they find the vestiges of the Goddess or 'God-She' within their own traditions as Hochmah, Shekhinah, Sophia, and other 'female faces' of the divine."</ref> As such, the term ''thealogy'' has also been used by feminists within mainstream [[Monotheism|monotheistic]] religions to describe in more detail the feminine aspect of a monotheistic deity or trinity, such as God/dess Herself, or the [[Heavenly Mother (Latter Day Saints)|Heavenly Mother]] of the [[Latter Day Saint movement]].

In 2000, Melissa Raphael wrote the text ''Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on the Goddess'' for the series Introductions in Feminist Theology. Written for an academic audience, it purports to introduce the main elements of thealogy within the context of Goddess feminism. She situates thealogy as a discourse that can be engaged with by Goddess feminists—those who are feminist adherents of the Goddess who may have left their church, synagogue, or mosque—or those who may still belong to their originally established religion.<ref>{{cite book|last=Raphael|first=Melissa|title=Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on The Goddess|year=2000|publisher=Pilgrim Press|location=Cleveland, Ohio|isbn=0829813799|access-date=7 December 2012|page=16|series=Introductions in Feminist Theology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1gbXAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> In the book, Raphael compares and contrasts thealogy with the Goddess movement.<ref>{{cite book|last=Raphael|first=Melissa|title=Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on The Goddess|year=2000|publisher=Pilgrim Press|location=Cleveland, Ohio|isbn=0829813799|access-date=7 December 2012|page=10|series=Introductions in Feminist Theology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1gbXAAAAMAAJ|quote=[T]his book is not an empirical study of the feminist wing of the Goddess movement.  Rather, it is an exposition of a body of thought—thealogy—that derives from Goddess women's experience and from a broader history of emancipatory ideas and which can be defined as feminist reflection on the femaleness of the divine and the divinity of femaleness, and, more generally, spiritual, eithical and political reflection on the meaning(s) of both.}}</ref> In 2007, Paul Reid-Bowen wrote the text "Goddess as Nature: Towards a Philosophical Thealogy", which can be regarded as another systematic approach to thealogy, but which integrates philosophical discourse.<ref>{{cite book|last= Reid-Bowen|first= Paul|title= Goddess as Nature: Towards a Philosophical Thealogy |year= 2007|publisher= Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|location= Aldershot |isbn=9780754656272|pages=200 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0MOmj9WpwI0C}}</ref>

In the past decade, other thealogians like Patricia 'Iolana and D'vorah Grenn have generated discourses that bridge thealogy with other academic disciplines. 'Iolana's [[Carl Jung|Jungian]] thealogy bridges analytical psychology with thealogy, and Grenn's metaformic thealogy is a bridge between matriarchal studies and thealogy.<ref>{{cite web|last=Grenn|first=Deborah J.|title=Connecting With Deity Through a Feminist Metaformic Thealogy|url=http://www.metaformia.org/assets/Articles/Connecting.pdf|work=Metaformia: A Journal of Menstruation and Culture|access-date=10 December 2012|year=n.d.}}</ref>

Contemporary thealogians include [[Carol P. Christ]], Melissa Raphael, Asphodel Long, Beverly Clack, Charlotte Caron, Naomi Goldenberg, Paul Reid-Bowen, Rita Nakashima Brock, and Patricia 'Iolana.

==Criticisms==
At least one Christian theologian dismisses thealogy as the creation of a new deity made up by radical feminists.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Damian|first=Constantin-Iulian|title=Radical Feminist Theology: From Protest to the Goddess|journal=Scientific Annals of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi – Orthodox Theology|date=January 2009|issue=1|pages=171–186|url=http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/issuedetails.aspx?issueid=19bbe2f0-b402-4b52-b9f3-fe640d2301dd&articleId=ec765e94-330b-4ed5-a828-5399736c8b53|access-date=11 December 2012|quote=Finally, we point out the antichristian character that animates the construction of this new deity, created "after the image and likeness of man".}}</ref> Paul Reid-Bowen and Chaone Mallory point out that [[essentialism]] is a problematic [[slippery slope]] when Goddess feminists argue that women are inherently better than men or inherently closer to the Goddess.<ref>{{cite book|last=Reid-Bowen|first=Paul|title=Goddess As Nature: Towards a Philosophical Thealogy|year=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|isbn=9780754656272|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0MOmj9WpwI0C&pg=PA156|access-date=10 December 2012|page=156|quote=First, there are those feminist thealogical claims that suggest that women are essentially caring, nurturing and biophilic, while men are essential violent, destructive and necrophilic.... Second, there are those claims that suggest that women are somehow closer to the Goddess and/or nature than men.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Mallory |first=Chaone |title=The Spiritual is Political: Gender, Spirituality, and Essentialism in Forest Defense |journal=[[Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture]] |year=2010 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=48–71 |doi= 10.1558/jsrnc.v4i1.48|url=http://www.equinoxpub.com/JSRNC/article/view/5203 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130122153332/http://www.equinoxpub.com/JSRNC/article/view/5203 |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 January 2013 |access-date=11 December 2012 |issn=1363-7320 |quote=The deployment of such textual imagery in the service of a woman-centered environmentalism that strongly suggested—at times even explicitly asserted and celebrated—that women have an inherent, likely biological connection with nature that men do not generated the typical criticisms of ecofeminism already noted.}}</ref>  In his book ''Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality'', Philip G. Davis levies a number of criticisms against the Goddess movement, including [[fallacy|logical fallacies]], [[hypocrisy|hypocrisies]], and essentialism.<ref>{{cite book|last=Davis|first=Philip G.|title=Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality|year=1998|publisher=Spence Publishing Company|location=Dallas|isbn=0965320898|pages=86–100|chapter=The Foundations of "Theology"}}</ref>

Thealogy has also been criticized for its objection to [[empiricism]] and [[reason]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Graham|first=Elaine L.|title=Representations of the Post/Human: Monsters, Aliens and Others in Popular Culture|year=2002|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=9780813530598|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NDX1J9wb8r8C&pg=PA215|access-date=10 December 2012|page=215|quote=While this valorization of experience and suspicion of reason is a valuable corrective, the danger comes when as a result women deny themselves a stake in rational thought.  Critics of thealogy have pointed out its lack of rigour, as for example over the issue of valid historical evidence.}}</ref> In this critique, thealogy is seen as flawed by rejecting a purely empirical worldview for a purely relativistic one.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fang-Long|first=Shih|title=The New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion|year=2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9781444320794|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RheC7rG9u6gC|editor=Bryan S. Turner|page=234|chapter=Women, Religions, and Feminism|quote=One the one hand, there are social constructivists, postmodernists and relativists for whom there are no facts, only rhetoric and power, and on the other, there are positivists and empiricists for whom facts are value-free and given directly to experience, waiting patiently to be discovered.}}</ref>  Meanwhile, scholars like [[Sandra Harding|Harding]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Harding|first=Sandra G.|author-link=Sandra Harding|title=Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?: Thinking from Women's Lives|year=1991|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9780801497469|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eSmPEH7-u2oC|access-date=10 December 2012|page=142|quote=A feminist standpoint epistemology requires strengthened standards of objectivity.... They call for the acknowledgement that all human beliefs – including our best scientific beliefs - are socially situated, but they also require a critical evaluation to determine which social situations tend to generate the most objective knowledge claims.}}</ref> and [[Donna Haraway|Haraway]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Haraway|first=Donna J.|author-link=Donna Haraway|title=Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature|year=1991|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=9780415903875|pages=[https://archive.org/details/simianscyborgswo0000hara/page/312 312]|chapter-url=http://science.consumercide.com/haraway_sit-knowl.html|access-date=10 December 2012|chapter=Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective|quote=So, I think my problem and 'our' problem is how to have simultaneously an account of radical historical contingency for all knowledge claims and knowing subjects, a critical practice for recognizing our own 'semiotic technologies' for making meanings, and a no-nonsense commitment to faithful accounts of a 'real' world|url=https://archive.org/details/simianscyborgswo0000hara/page/312}}</ref> seek a middle ground of feminist empiricism.

==Art and culture==
Artist [[Edwina Sandys]]' {{convert|250|lb|adj=on}} bronze statue of a bare-breasted female Crucifixion statue, ''Crista'', was removed from the [[Cathedral of Saint John the Divine]] at the order of the Jesus Suffragan Bishop of the [[Episcopal Diocese of New York]] during [[Holy Week]] in 1984. The bishop accused the Cathedral Dean of "descrating our symbols" even though viewer reaction had been "overwhelmingly positive."<ref>{{cite news |title=Bishop Attacks Display Of Female Christ Figure |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/25/nyregion/bishop-attacks-display-of-female-christ-figure.html |access-date=16 December 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=April 25, 1984}}</ref> In 2016, Sandy's ''Crista'' was reinstalled at the cathedral, on the altar, as the centerpiece of the "groundbreaking" ''The Christa Project: Manifesting Divine Bodies.''<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schwartz |title=5 Wounds by artist Bettina WitteVeen at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York |url=https://www.artartworks.com/exhibitions/5-wounds-by-artist-bettina-witteveen-at-the-cathedral-church-of-st-john-the-divine-in-new-york-24520/ |access-date=16 December 2020 |publisher=Art & Artworks}}</ref> The Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York wrote an article for the cathedral's booklet stating, "In an evolving, growing, learning church, we may be ready to see 'Christa' not only as a work of art but as an object of devotion, over our altar, with all of the challenges that may come with that for many visitors to the cathedral, or indeed, perhaps for all of us."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Barron |first1=James |title=An 'Evolving' Episcopal Church Invites Back a Controversial Sculpture |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/nyregion/an-evolving-episcopal-church-invites-back-a-controversial-sculpture.html |access-date=16 December 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=October 4, 2016}}</ref> This exhibition of more than 50 contemporary works that "interpret – or reinterpret – the symbolism associated with the image of Jesus", in order to provide "an excellent vehicle for thinking about sacred incarnation, and one that reaches out to humans of all genders, races, religions and sexual orientations" included work by [[Fredericka Foster]], [[Kiki Smith]], [[Genesis Breyer P-Orridge]] and [[Eiko Otake]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schwendener |first1=Martha |title=What to See in New York City Galleries This Week |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/arts/design/what-to-see-in-new-york-city-galleries-this-week.html |access-date=16 December 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=December 29, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Value of Sanctuary |url=https://www.stjohndivine.org/art/the-value-of-sanctuary/ |website=stjohndivine.org |publisher=Cathedral of Saint John the Divine |access-date=9 September 2019 |archive-date=7 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707101357/https://www.stjohndivine.org/art/the-value-of-sanctuary/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Crista Project: About the Artists |url=http://www.stjohndivine.org/programs/christa/artists |website=stjohndivine.org |publisher=The Catherdral of Saint John The Divine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170622204752/http://www.stjohndivine.org/programs/christa/artists |access-date=14 January 2021|archive-date=2017-06-22 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Devi]] (Hindu goddess)
*[[Gender and religion|God and gender]]
*[[Goddess movement]]
*[[Goddess movement|Goddess worship]]
*[[Matriarchal religion]]
*[[Matriarchy]]
*[[Mother goddess]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
*Goldenberg, Naomi (1990) Returning Words to Flesh: Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and the Resurrection of the Body. Boston: Beacon Press.
*Miller, David L. (1974) The New Polytheism: Rebirth of the Gods and Goddesses. New York: Harper & Row.
*Raphael, Melissa (1997) ‘Thealogy, Redemption and the Call of the Wild’ from Feminist Theology: The Journal of the Britain and Ireland School of Feminist Theology No. 15, May 1997 Lisa Isherwood, et al. (eds) (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press) p.&nbsp;55-72.

{{Feminist theory}}
{{Religion and politics}}

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[[Category:1970s neologisms]]
[[Category:Feminist theology]]
[[Category:Feminist spirituality]]
[[Category:Postmodern theory]]
[[Category:Post-structuralism]]