In Memoriam: A Collective Tribute to Carol Patrice Christ 1945-2021

Our sister friend, Laura Shannon, emailed us early in the morning to share the news that “Carol passed peacefully in her sleep last night at 12.11 am on July 14th. Alexis (Masters) was with her.” Carol died in the company of friends.

The community of Feminism and Religion (FAR) grieves the death of Carol P. Christ.

Our sister friend, Laura Shannon, emailed us early in the morning to share the news that “Carol passed peacefully in her sleep last night at 12.11 am on July 14th. Alexis (Masters) was with her.” Carol died in the company of friends.

Her writings here on FAR have been a gift to countless many of us for years. She recently emailed me to let me know that she would need to step back from writing her weekly FAR post for the foreseeable future, and, that if she could pull it off, she would send in her swan song soon. That moment didn’t come and that’s ok. There is no finale for a person such as Carol. We are changed and blessed because of her presence in our lives. Her legacy will be long and enduring.

I invite you all who would like to share a short tribute in honor of Carol Christ to send it here to FAR so it can be published as part of this post. This will serve as a running tribute that we can keep adding to. It will be a space to share, to grieve, and to celebrate her life. Send in your reflections to feminismandreligionblog@gmail.com. You may also share in comments below as well.

No single one of us can capture all that Carol has meant to us and to the world –– it is only right to hear from the many voices as we celebrate this most brilliant friend and teacher of ours.

“In Goddess religion death is not feared, but is understood to be a part of life, followed by birth and renewal.”  — Carol P. Christ 

Carol married intellect with heart centering –– she had a formidable intellect but always spoke from her heart.

In view of learning of Carol’s death I find these words from Janet’s post today inspiring:

“Who is she that shines through like the morning star,
beautiful as the moon,
radiant as the sun
awe-inspiring as a cascade of starlight?”

Why, Carol Christ, of course.

I am heartbroken – I will miss her so much.

–– Sara Wright

Remembering Carol Christ

On a personal level, Carol’s words were essential on my journey away from god by way of the Goddess. Her courage required me to dig deep to embrace my own version of the “hubris” exhibited by male “god makers” and “system builders.” Carol’s quote below inspired many us to take on the two-fold task of unearthing the patriarchal symbol system woven into the fabric of our socialization and of replacing it with words of truth, communities of support, ceremonies of meaning, and images of the goddess, all inspired by stories of the very beginning when the divine was imagined as female.

The reason for the continuing effects of religious symbols is that the mind is uncomfortable with a vacuum. Symbol systems cannot simply be rejected, they must be replaced. Where there is no replacement, the mind will revert to familiar structures at times of crisis, bafflement, or defeat. (Carol Christ, Womanspirit Rising)

–– Patricia Lynn Reilly, Author of A God Who Looks Like Me

Carol was a wonderful friend and colleague. She loved to read my work in progress (brilliantly, often several times in a row before she wrote back to me) and I hers.

Her essay on patriarchy was the best I have ever read. I asked her to contribute it to the anthology, Foremothers of the Women’s Spirituality Movement: Elders and Visionaries. The day after she sent it to me, I found that the essays fir the book had to be personal. I felt terrible. I emailed her to tell her, and she said it wasn’t a problem. The next day she had a new, wonderful, perfect essay for me.

Although I knew she didn’t have many months to live, I am still stunned by this loss.

–– Miriam Robbins Dexter

Carol was and will remain one of the foremothers and most brilliant voices of the Women’s Spirituality movement.  At the conference on “The Great Goddess Re-Emerging” at the University of California at Santa Cruz in the spring of 1978, Carol delivered the keynote address, “Why Women Need the Goddess: Phenomenological, Psychological, and Political Reflections.” Christ proposed four compelling reasons why women might turn to the Goddess: the affirmation and legitimation of female power as beneficent; affirmation of the female body and its life cycles; affirmation of women’s will; and affirmation of women’s bonds with one another and their positive female heritage (Christ 1979). 

In her most recent article, for the Encyclopedia of Women in World Religion: Faith and Culture, Christ wrote about the Goddess religion and culture of her beloved island of Crete, and the roles women played in that “egalitarian matriarchal” civilization. Her eloquent words speak not only to the Goddess religion of ancient Crete, but also to the spirituality and ethical values she also cherished, which are much needed in our own culture today.

As discerners and guardians of the mysteries, women created rituals to celebrate the Source of Life and to pass the secrets of agriculture, pottery, and weaving down through the generations. The major rituals of the agricultural cycle involved blessing the seeds before planting, offering the first fruits of the harvest to the Goddess, and sharing the bounty of the harvest in communal feasts. These rituals establish that life is a gift of the Goddess and institute gift-giving as a cultural practice. As women controlled the secrets of agriculture, it makes sense that land was held by maternal clans, that kinship and inheritance passed through the maternal line, and that governance and decision-making for the group were in the hands of the elders of the maternal clan. In this context, the intelligence, love, and generosity of mothers and clan mothers would have been understood to reflect the intelligence, love, and generosity of the Goddess.*

*Carol P. Christ, “Crete, Religion and Culture” Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions: Faith and Culture across History [2 volumes] edited by Susan de-Gaia  | Nov 16, 2018   ABC-Clio Santa Barbara 2019.

–– Ellen Boneparth and Mara Keller

Honor, blessing, and gratitude to you for your life, Carol. You told us many times you did not fear death. You did not speculate on what comes after. Whatever goddess is, surely you reman in her embrace.

–– Elizabeth
http://elizabethcunninghamwrites.com

Inna-Lillahi-Wa-Inna-Ilaihi Rajiun

A wise woman committed to the spiritual freedom of women and a teacher of life and struggle has set out to meet the infinite. I thank life for giving me the joy of walking part of the way in this world, in the company and wisdom of women like her.

Thanks for everything my dear Carol.
For the ideas and enthusiasm with which you always supported my work.
For creating community and safe spaces
For lovingly and intensely vindicating the transcendence of the humanity of women

Blessed journey our woman, teacher and guide. May the divine that you found in all women receive you today in her loving arms.

Tupananchiskama (Until our paths meet again)

–– Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

“yessssss”

That was Karolina’s last message to me, on June 18th, 2021. I like to think it was also her last message to the universe, as she climbed back into the lap of the Goddess early on the morning of July 14th. 

I’d sent her a selfie of me with a new haircut, a few inches shorter, as she’d suggested some time earlier. “Yessssss” was her immediate, characteristic reply. Two days later I forwarded an even better photo. It was surprising not to hear back from her, and I should have been concerned. Instead, I let two weeks go by before reaching out again. And then it was too late. 

“Yessssss” was Karolina’s full-hearted response to life, and part of how she nurtured her friends and acquaintances. I will carry that “yessssss” with me till the end of my days, always grateful to have known and been nurtured so generously, so unfailingly by her. Her soft voice, her gentle laugh, her quiet glamor, her deep engagement with all the details of life … I could talk with her about my cats, my husband, my writing, my childhood, my haircut. Nothing was too small or too large, nothing too complex or too simple. 

“Intelligent embodied love” is how Karolina described the ground of being, and intelligent embodied love was what she herself embodied and radiated, even as she suffered through her cancer and its treatment.  For this past year, she devoted herself to making her new home as beautiful as possible. The last room she finished was the “guest room study,” and how I would have liked to have joined her there. Instead I will simply carry her “yessssss” in my heart.

Rabena yer’hamou – Que Dieu la berce dans sa matrice – “May she be cradled in the womb of the Goddess.” Blessed be.

–– Joyce Zonana

Carol was my second cousin.  In 2016, we spent about 10 days in France and Germany tracking down places where our ancestors lived.  Like her Feminism and Religion research and writings she was a meticulous in her ancestry research and fearless about meeting strangers and asking questions.  One of the places where are relatives came from was Saarland St Nikolaus-Rosbruk.  We were having lunch by the river when she saw this tree that she wanted to embrace.  Here is a picture of her by the tree.  I love her expression.

Best to all,
Bill Christ

I’ve been so honored to blog with Carol here at FAR over the last seven or so years and doubly honored that she wrote an endorsement for my new book just last month.

Carol was a tremendous role model and influence for me and she will be deeply missed. She impacted so many lives with her work and her depth of purpose and strength of character were so palaple, even across many miles. When I first read “Why Women Need the Goddess” it touched a chord within me that continues to reverberate through this day. Her work and writing shaped my own thealogy profoundly. In her honor, I chose one of her books off my shelf—She Who Changes—and randomly opened to a page, which, fittingly, was about how death is a part of life:

“For process philosophy, the whole universe is alive and changing, continually co-creating new possibilities of life. Every living individual is born, grows, and then dies. The world is a web of changing individuals interacting with, affecting, and changing each other. The body is the locus of changing life. Not to be embodied, not to change, is not to be alive…”
–Carol P. Christ. (She Who Changes: Re-imagining the Divine in the World, p. 45)

I read this quote aloud during a small women’s circle the same day Carol died, a circle that, in some way, may not have existed without the gift of her presence in this world.

–– Molly Remer

Remembering Carol P. Christ

I am so grateful and glad that a circle of Carol’s friends and colleagues champion her accomplishments and celebrate her life.

I might be her oldest friend in this group, definitely more a personal friend than a professional colleague.  We were in the same freshman dormitory on the same dorm corridor that was made into a social group at Stanford.  Both of us felt a bit out of place, she—at the time–a political conservative from Orange County California, and I one of 17 Asians in a class of 1,200 from the small town of Gilroy, California.

Never her academic peer, we still spent time together studying, finding our way, and hanging on to our independent thinking.  And we stayed in touch when we both relocated to the East Coast, she to Yale and I to New York City.  I have attached a photo of Carol at her wedding in 1979 when she was living in northern California.  Much later I met her family when her mother died and I knew of the family static that she worked to understand and make peace with.  We stayed in touch through all these decades.  I visited twice in Lesbos with my mother, sister and best friend, and she visited here in Oakland.  

I saw Carol not through her scholarly achievements but from what I saw as her kind of priestess bearing. Always her forthright sense of what would make the world a better place, calling out the wrongs but being understanding, always with her oar in the water.  I also saw her as a warm friend who could laugh about the foibles, not worry about binging on good television, enjoy a good meal with friends, and tend to her garden and pets.

Carol should not have suffered the pain of conflicts, even if those experiences sharpened her mind. She should not have suffered from debilitating illness. . .and she died too young.  She told me once that she stayed in Greece because it was the most beautiful place she had ever been.  Though I never liked having good friends so far away, it seemed that gave her joy and solace.  

We will miss her.

–– Gail Kong

I was profoundly influenced by the keynote address Carol gave in 1978 at the Great Goddess Re-Emerging Conference in Santa Cruz, CA. I was one of the 500 women listening to her words “Why Women Need the Goddess”.  The impact of her observation about the power of symbol systems on each of us individually and the influence symbol systems have on all of us collectively, helped guide my own life.

We met in the fall of 2017 when I was one of ten women on the Goddess Pilgrimage. Carol described herself as a “feminist and ecofeminist writer, activist, and educator”. Please view this eighteen minute video of Carol speaking at the Harvard Divinity School where she spoke about her life. This was the 2014 Religion and the Feminist Movement Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwYygffNCAg.

I’m always moved by women speaking on their own behalf about their lives with no intermediary to interpret their life from afar. You will certainly gain a sense of who Carol was in her world.

My lesbian partner, Jeanne Neath, and I had reservations to join the 2021 Pilgrimage. To ease my grief at Carol’s death, I’ve gathered ten more candid photos of Karolina on some of the earlier Pilgrimages. You can see those photos on my blog http://paulamariedaughter.com/.  Carol put incredible energy into each day of those two weeks she escorted us around the various sites that linked us to the ancestors.

Carol dared to examine the deeply embedded beliefs of our patriarchal institutions including academia and religion. She invented a new life for herself. She ‘shed the skin’ of an academic. Karolina was determined to reach other women like herself willing to look beyond the familiar goddesses of the patriarchy to discover the much more ancient Earth Goddess of our Neolithic and Paleolithic ancestors.

Many of us now acknowledge Carol/Karolina as a beloved ancestor.

Blessed Be, Paula Mariedaughter

One of Carol Christ’s books early on, in 1980, that impressed me deeply was Diving Deep and Surfacing – Women Writers on Spiritual Quest, published by Beacon Press. It helped me rediscover my spiritual path. I actually incorporated the phrase “diving deep and surfacing” in a process of self-understanding and awareness. — feeling grateful.

~Bob Fisher, Co-producer, Rise Up & Call Her Name: A Woman-honoring Journey into Global Earth-based Spiritualities

When I first learnt how patriarchy plotted and schemed to write the Goddess out of existence and by extension, the history of all women; not stopping at the written word, using violence and the threat of violence too; I was furious. This was the first time I experienced rage. Not fully knowing our history means we exist in a world of numb. To discover is to feel. To feel is to be alive. This is why Carol’s work is so important – because it links women to their collective past and to their collective future. The anger has subsided and now I ride a wave of certainty, connected to an international movement of powerful women. Understanding our story is empowering. Empowerment is Carol’s legacy.” – Claire Dorey

I met Karolina in 2018, when I was in Lesvos working as a volunteer with refugee organisations, so ours was a very short friendship by comparison with most of her other friends. We kept in touch when I went back to Sydney, and then picked up again where we had left off when I returned to Lesvos in early 2020 for another few months of volunteer work, before the Covid pandemic intervened. After that we kept in touch via Skype. 

I was a bit younger than Karolina, but we shared the same feminist background and had a broadly similar outlook on life. In the short time that we spent together we shared a lot of long lunches with copious amounts of red wine. It was great for me, because Karolina could order meals in Greek, so we always ate interesting local food. She loved to dance, so if there was music she would be on the dance floor!
Karolina knew a lot about Greek Orthodoxy and local customs. I spent a memorable “Clean Monday” with her in 2018, when she donned a tutu as part of a dance troupe, and then danced the afternoon away in Maria’s Taverna… (Clean Monday is the start of the 40 days of Lent in the Greek Orthodox Church).

Even though we didn’t know each other for very long, I think that we both valued our friendship, perhaps for different reasons. From my perspective, I loved staying in Karolina’s beautiful old house in Molyvos at weekends, bird watching in the salt marshes at Kalloni, and going to out-of-the-way places to eat. As well as intellectual stimulation she also provided some relief from the intensity of my refugee work, which was very welcome!

I thought it was incredibly brave of Karolina to leave Lesvos and move to Crete, and I’m glad that she got to enjoy her new apartment in Heraklion, however briefly. I would love to have visited her there, but Covid and her illness meant that was not to be. I will miss her. 

Cheers, Lindsey Paget-Cooke

Author: Xochitl Alvizo

Feminist theologian, Christian identified. Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the area of Women and Religion and the Philosophy of Sex Gender and Sexuality at California State University, Northridge. Her research is focused in Congregational Studies, Feminist and Quuer Theologies, and Ecclesiology specifically. Often finding herself on the boundary of different social and cultural contexts, she works hard to develop her voice and to hear and encourage the voice of others. Her work is inspired by the conviction that all people are inextricably connected and the good one can do in any one area inevitably and positively impacts all others.

51 thoughts on “In Memoriam: A Collective Tribute to Carol Patrice Christ 1945-2021”

  1. I’m so disappointed I will never have the chance to do one of her famous Goddess Tours of Greece. I was really hoping to hang out with her one day and learn at her feet. Carol Christ: Gone far too soon. She broke a lot of ground and was an icon in the feminism and religion community. Rest in power, goddess!

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    2. The Goddess Tours to Crete, which Carol led for over twenty years, will resume in Fall 2022, and will be led at Carol’s request by Laura Shannon with support from Tina Nevans and Mika Scott, following the template which Carol created. Donations to the Ariadne Scholarship Fund in Carol’s memory will be gratefully accepted by the Ariadne Institute for the Study of Myth and Ritual, the 501c3 non-profit educational and charitable organization which Carol founded. Donations are tax deductible in the US. Ariadne Institute, P.O. Box 5053, Eugene, Oregon 97405. http://www.goddessariadne.org

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      1. Thank you, Trista. Your words underscore what Carol expressed daily during her final weeks. The very best way we can honor this woman we so dearly love is to help keep her work alive going into our future. In the name of Carol’s beloved Goddess and Mountain Mother of us all, blessed be.

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  2. Carol was a way shower. I did not know her personally and yet could feel the ripples coming from the impact she made for so many women and for the Earth. I am grateful to be sharing in the celebration of her life.

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  3. Here is what I posted earlier on FaceBook. Still in my heart:
    Honor, blessing, and gratitude to you for your life, Carol. You told us many times you did not fear death. You did not speculate on what comes after. Whatever goddess is, surely you remain in her embrace.

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  4. Please post this on your memorial page.

    Carol was a wonderful friend and colleague. She loved to read my work in progress (brilliantly, often several times in a row before she wrote back to me) and I hers.

    Her essay on patriarchy was the best I have ever read. I asked her to contribute it to the anthology, Foremothers of the Women’s Spirituality Movement: Elders and Visionaries. The day after she sent it to me, I found that the essays fir the book had to be personal. I felt terrible. I emailed her to tell her, and she said it wasn’t a problem. The next day she had a new, wonderful, perfect essay for me.

    Although I knew she didn’t have many months to live, I am still stunned by this loss.

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    1. Miriam, I was glad to be reminded of Carol’s essay in the anthology. I just re-read it. There is so much of her early academic experience that I resonated with, smile in recognition. I lived with young men in a community in the early 70’s who were “Divinity” students; I used to have to explain Paul Tillich to them. It took me ages to realise that I might actually study theology myself, that I could. Then when I had the M.A. in Theology and Systematic Theology (GTU Berkeley 1982), I always commented that it was an”eminently useless degree for a woman to have”: couldn’t get a job with it at any seminary, and actually didn’t want one as I couldn’t teach what they wanted – until late 1990’s when I entered Ph.D at University of Western Sydney, graduating in 2003. Then things changed … as they have for so many. There is a lot more just catching on now, and Carol’s message will be going out there anew.

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    2. Miriam, I had a similar experience. When we were doing additional peer reviews for the encyclopedia, one of those that was reviewed needed more work than we had time for. So instead, she wrote a replacement – in one day!

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  5. Oh Carol, I should say the world is dimmer without you in it, but you and I know that’s not the case. Your light shines bright and clear, as always and continues.
    You introduced me to Goddess. You were my first teacher and guide. Thank you.
    Sherry Landrum Ridgeway

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  6. Back in the 1980s, when I was first learning about Women’s Spirituality & Goddess religion, Carol P. Christ was one of the very first writers I read & I loved what she wrote. I collected her books & books that had her writings in them. I consider her one of my spiritual mothers. Although I never had the joy of meeting her in person, I felt like I knew her through her sparkling prose & keen insight. May she live in the light & the love of the Goddess forevermore.

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  7. Carol’s scholarship and philosophy gave a foundation to the yearning for Goddess I felt but did not truly understand as a young woman. Later, witnessing how she lived her life showed me how thealogy could bring meaning and focus to everyday 20th and 21st century experience. She will be deeply missed but her contributions will live on in all those she touched and will touch, now and far into the future. Most heartfelt blessings to you on your journey, Carol. Thank you for all you have brought to my life.

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  8. She was the one who pointed me at the goddess path at a small gathering in Austin TX many moons past. I honor the humor and courage of her vision and her willingness to give a guy a break!

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  9. I was not among the lucky ones who knew Carol personally, but I have read her work since long ago when I was in graduate school. I’m so saddened by this news. A light has gone out in our world. New lights will burn bright, but Carol is gone. Gaia has reclaimed her daughter.

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  10. I first “met” Carol in the documentary film, “Goddess Remembered.”

    “This documentary is a salute to 35,000 years of the goddess-worshipping religions of the ancient past. The film features Merlin Stone, Carol Christ, Luisah Teish and Jean Bolen, all of whom link the loss of goddess-centric societies with today’s environmental crisis. This is the first part of a 3-part series that includes The Burning Times and Full Circle.”

    This film is available on YouTube and other platforms. I’ve shown it to my students over the years. Many of those students told me the documentary changed their perspective on the world.

    I, personally, will miss Carol’s posts. She dug deeply, wrote persuasively, and loved fiercely. May she rest in power.

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  11. I traveled with Carol on one of her Goddess pilgrimages of Crete. Her remarkable knowledge of many things and in particular ancient and traditional Crete brought the experience of what it would have been like to live in a woman-centred, Goddess worshipping world forward vividly. We have sometimes corresponded over the years and especially about the book I am currently finishing. She made the link with our foremothers very clear and present. Her deep intelligence and commitment to replacing the androcentric heresy with the truth about women, and Goddess, in the world has been a wonderful influence for me. My heart is heavy to think of the loss – I had so hoped she would overcome the cancer challenge. Hopefully she is in a better place now. Blessed Be.

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  12. I first met Carol in 1996 when I and my partner Sarah went on a Goddess tour in Crete with Carol. Carol taught us so much in those few short weeks. What we learned from her changed the course of our lives in many ways. Over the years we met many like minded people who followed the Goddess and we ended up moving to Canada to be with our sisters whom we met as a result of Carol’s influence. In 2004 we joined Carol in Lesvos with a small group of like minded women, and she tutored us on the Goddess traditions in that place. Finally in 2014 we once again travelled to Crete to repeat the Goddess pilgrimage. We never lost contact with Carol, and recently she helped me in my genealogical work. Sarah and I counted her as a dear friend, and she will be greatly missed by us.

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  14. Carol was a path-finder… she had such a deep and comprehensive influence on spiritual feminist thinking and being… her presence in our world will be sorely missed as we mourn her passing… yet, her legacy will live on in the hearts and minds and bodies and worlds of those who were the recipients of her wisdom and teachings… rest in peace GREAT LADY…you opened the path to goddess for me…

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  16. I awakened in the pre-dawn hour on July 14th – I remember looking out the window into a sea of verdant green as the words came “write a poem about the birth of the goddess”. Although I had another deadline to make I listened to that voice and wrote a little poem. Later that day I learned of Carol’s death on FB – That evening when I returned to my poem I realized that the little voice had helped me write about who Carol had become…

    I came to feminism through the back door as an eco -feminist. Carol’s impeccable scholarship and her compassionate heart centered approach to women issues deeply influenced my own ideas and feelings – validating the “both and” approach that I was struggling to embody. Carol was a woman I most admired as a truth teller. Her own life challenges created a level of authenticity that I was able to trust. It is time now for me to return to her books… to re -read her words, to re-engage with her ideas, to feel close to a woman that will remain a Beacon of Hope during this time of patriarchal breakdown. Carol’s Light will never be extinguished because she has created a path we can all choose to follow. Her spirituality embraced “All That Is” – one of the qualities I loved most about her. I will miss her physical presence all the rest of the days of my life.

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    2. Sara, I too am heartbroken by the loss of Carol. Thank you for your words and vision. Carol will be with us in soul, spirit and in our work. Hard to imagine this world without her…

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      1. Words from my heart – the vision was more a thought I had less than 6 hours after her death – I just wrote my little poem and went on – it wasn’t until that night that I was struck by the belief that this amazing woman was with us still in every tree and fern….In death She birthed a goddess.

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  17. Xochitl, thank you so much for creating this sacred space – and it is sacred – for here once again we can share our thoughts and feelings at a time when we are grieving a deep loss… I am struck by how naturally you emulate Carol’s approach, always creating space for others….You have my heart.

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  18. Sisters, I am still feeling stunned. To think that Carol is no longer in this world brings tears to my eyes. Although I never had the great privilege of meeting her, I have long admired her work and sought inspiration in her teachings. She will be remembered as one of the guiding lights of feminist religion.

    Like everyone here, I mourn the loss of this beautiful soul. She will stay in my heart forever. What is remembered, lives. Blessed be.

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  20. I didn’t know her personally but only as a FAR sister. May she always be remembered in the beauty in which she lived her life and how deeply she affected so many. I treasure the books of hers I have read and the blogposts here on FAR. There is so much wisdom she has left here on Earth and I feel lucky to be touched by it.

    Carol, you will be missed on so many levels.

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  21. I feel as though I’ve lost a friend. Although I never met her in person, Carol has been a voice of comfort and healing for me. I’m so grateful I was able to connect with her through the FAR community the past several years. She will be missed. Thank you, Carol.

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  23. Carol P. Christ reinforced my belief in the Divine and encouraged my environmental activism. Her words never failed to inspire. In her book, Rebirth of the Goddess, she speaks of the Goddess rising through her feet and surrounding her in the air she breathed. “I don’t have to create her,” she wrote. “She is.” Blessed be now and always, Carol.

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    1. Thank you, Nan, for pulling this quote, “I don’t have to create Her. She is.” from Carol’s book, Rebirth of the Goddess. You provided us with a vivid image of female energy rising from the earth into our woman’s body and then extending to all that is! You helped translate Carol’s concept into a powerful vision. I found the vision comforting–a gift.

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  25. Blessings to Carol and everyone who cared for her during her final year on earth. I met her just after she published She Who Changes. We had a long conversation about why I think process philosophy is very much like neopaganism. Our conversation continued via email after she moved away from Southern California. In 2012 she invited me to post regularly on this site. That has certainly been fun! And I thank her again.

    Brightest blessings also to Alexis for giving Carol so much. She’s an angel among us.

    Let’s keep Carol in our hearts and minds.

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  27. I was so saddened to learn of Carol’s death. Carol was one of the women whose writings I based my master’s thesis on. I first learned of her when I read Sue Monk Kidd’s “Dance of the Dissident Daughter.” I then read all of her books and many of her articles. She led me to the Goddess and I’ll be forever grateful. I especially appreciated her honesty and the fact that she did not write as a detached scholar, instead she put her story, her heart and soul, into her writing. She was such an inspiration to me, and to so many!

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  28. I am saddened to hear of the passing of ecofeminist Goddess scholar Carol P. Christ. Her co-edited books with Jewish feminist scholar Judith Plaskow, “Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion” and “Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality” were formative texts on my feminist perspectives of women’s contributions within Christianity and diverse religious traditions. While I was teaching at Sacred Heart High School, a Catholic girls preparatory school in Lincoln Heights; the latter text “Weaving the Visions” was the primary book for a Feminist Theology class I created for seniors. Today, I am grateful for her life and scholarship which reframed theological discourse to privilege egalitarian images of the divine.

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  29. Carol’s book “Diving Deep and Surfacing” was so very important to me as a young feminist woman in the ‘80s. Foundational, even. I’m grateful to have had a chance to tell her a few years back thanks to the far reach of social media. So very sorry to hear the earth has lost such a brilliant, visionary mind. How lucky we are to have had her here.

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  30. I was lucky enough to go on one of her goddess tours in Crete in 1997. This tour and her books where a vital part of my learning about and understanding both the history of goddess thealogy and of myself. That tour changed my life. I will forever be grateful to her.

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  31. I am so saddened at the loss of Carol Christ and grieving yet also celebrating and sharing the enormity of her blessed legacy that enriched my life and so many others. A few hours before I heard of her passing a new Goddess figure emerged on a painting I am creating… it seems somehow connected with her passing…I never knew her personally but her books inspired me over the years and influenced my decision to pursue a Masters in Women’s Spirituality. Blessings to Carol on her journey and my deepest condolences to all who loved her.

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  32. Our Beloved Carol remains in Goddess time, space, and light, from where she continues entering our dream actions or embodied designs for performing better worlds right here. Carol´s works stay in our hearts as uninterrupted harvest. Though I did not meet her in person, that allows me to meet her in full Goddess presence through Shakti time/space.

    May She, the Goddess, embrace her as endless Divine Shakti!

    With endless gratitude,
    Your student

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  33. I am saddened by the loss of one of the great bright ones, a mentor, friend, foremother, Carol P. Christ. When Carol agreed to write some articles for the Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions that I was editing, I literally jumped up and down and shouted with joy. And when I had the opportunity to join her for dinner at the 2018 Parliament of World Religions in Toronto, I was thrilled right out of my boots.

    This brilliant woman gave so much to women’s movements and to me. She gave voice to so much that women needed to say, explored and extended knowledge that was and still is so important, and listened/heard our voices, our woes, our hopes and dreams, and our power, and so much more. I followed her work with amazement from the 1980s through 2021. And when she chose to edit some of my articles in 2018, a dream come true for me, I learned close up how brilliant she really was.
    .
    With her passing, I am sad and I am joyful and I am grateful. I am reminded of the power of memory. Today I may be troubled by the threat of wildfires, of losing my home, the loss of so many trees including ancient redwoods to fires from climate change, the threat of losing the American democracy now under threat, of so much that is wrong in the world right now, but remembering my encounters with this brilliant woman’s work over the past 40 plus years lifts me up.

    Remembering her journey in her writing and her life story reminds me of my own journey through this life. It’s like, where were you when you first read a book by Carol P. Christ, and how did that impact your life? . . .

    I am so very glad I got to meet Carol and work with her. I will treasure her work and her memory forever.

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  34. I was very saddened to hear of Carol’s death.. She was my introduction to the Goddess religion and I spent an absolutely wonderful few weeks with her in Crete in the 1990’s. I was able to introduce the teaching to a group of women when I returned and to this day still revere and celebrate the Goddess. The world has lost a beautiful soul and I will honor and treasure her memory forever. She is a light that will never be extinguished.

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  35. My heart has been too full to comment here, but I have greatly appreciated reading others’ comments. I am still searching for the right words to say to honor this mighty woman who had such a gift with words. Maybe I will just steal from Shakespeare: “So long as women can breathe or eyes can see, so long live thy words, and thy words give life to thee.” Rise in power, Goddess. <3

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  36. Lyn, Colchester, England
    7th August 2021

    Remembering Carol from my holidays in Lesbos where we went swimming together in the sea. Also the great days out bird watching and then eating in the taverna’s in the evening. She loved all things to do with wild life and played a large part in saving the wetlands in Lesbos. She was such an interesting person and such a bright light for women everywhere. Although we only kept in touch a few times a year, I shall really miss her. She was taken far too soon.

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  37. I think I remember most vividly a post Carol wrote here several years ago in which she said she was washing children’s clothes for refugee families who were arriving at Lesbos. She was doing a “small part” of helping those nearly helpless people. Today, she might be doing what she could to help Afghan people escaping from the Taliban.

    Yes, Carol was a brilliant scholar and author. I have her books on my shelves and have read some of them more than once. It was she who invited me to post on this site. That was in 2012, and I’ve been posting ever since, always inspired by her friendship and her work.

    She was and still is blessed by the Goddess, Whom she served so willingly. Brightest blessings now, our friend, wherever you are. What work are you doing there?

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  38. Carol and I first met in 1982 when she was teaching in the Women’s Studies Institute in Molyvos and I was on my first solo tour of Greece. For a while we reconnected each summer in Greece and took a couple of trips together to other isles and once to Rome.

    But then life got in the way and my travels to Greece ended; eventually our correspondence dropped off. But I never forgot Carol and her courageous forging of her own feminist spirituality and path in life. Just recently, I had decided I would make a concerted effort to get back in touch with her through the internet, only to see the word “obituary” flash on my computer screen. It was a shock to realize that such a vibrant life as Karolina’s was now no more and that I had lost my chance to ever converse with her again.

    I am grateful that I can see here all the lives that Karolina has touched so profoundly and be able to view her more recent photos. Even though I haven’t seen her in many years, I feel her absence very deeply now.

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  39. I will be forever grateful for the WSR program at CGU and for FAR for allowing me to be personally introduced to Carol. I will treasure the years not just were I called her my colleague but in all of her wisdom that she shared with us.

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  40. The news of Carol’s death has saddened me and I have been thinking about her influence in my life.

    I did the Odyssey with the Goddess tour in 1996. I was originally scheduled for this tour in 1994 but those plans were interrupted by emergency surgery and a surprise diagnosis of ovarian cancer. So when I came to Crete in 1996, I had completed treatment but was still very aware of being under a possible sentence of death. The trip was the most profound two weeks of my life. Climbing the mountain and going deep into the cave was a deep spiritual experience. But the most powerful time was walking through the valley where the Minoans buried their dead – literally walking “in the valley of the shadow of death” and I had the powerful, unmistakable sense that the Goddess was with me. I am alive now 25 years later and that memory in still clear and strong.

    Two years later in 1998, I spent two weeks on Lesbos with another group of wonderful women. I also took a course with Carol in San Francisco. And I had dinner with her and other alumnae in Toronto at the Parliament of World Religions before the pandemic.

    Karolina’s writings particularly “Why Women Need the Goddess” and her presence in my life had a strong influence in my thinking and in the workshops and teachings I have done with other women. She was a strong woman who made a difference in the lives of many women and men and she will be missed.

    Susan Hill, OWTG 1996, Lesbos 1998

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