“Someone, I say, will remember us in the future,” she once wrote. To my knowledge, she was never dubbed a prophet. A muse, yes. A romantic, perhaps. But never a prophet, rarely holy, and nary an icon. Until now. Hailed… Read More ›
Foremothers
SACRED RHYTHMS OF THE OLIVE HARVEST by Carol P. Christ
Olives are being harvested in the fields outside my town these days. We have been having the first rains of the season. The roads are wet and muddy, and the trees are partially shrouded in mist. The fields are spread… Read More ›
Painting Dorothy Day by Angela Yarber
Radical Revolutionary. One with the workers. Daily works of mercy. One who challenged the status quo. She never wanted to be called a saint, though the Claretian Missionaries proposed that she be canonized in 1983. The Catholic Church calls her… Read More ›
Feeding the Dead by Deanne Quarrie
Most people really love this time of year and I share much of that. Living in South Central Texas we actually only have two seasons, with a perhaps two to three weeks in between what we laughingly call spring and… Read More ›
Longing for Hermitage by Elizabeth Cunningham
At least since the days of the Desert Mothers in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, there have been women in the Christian tradition (and doubtless other traditions) who have lived lives in religious solitude, whether by choice or circumstance. … Read More ›
Painting Holy Women By Angela Yarber
Each month, I focus on one of my Holy Woman Icons with a folk feminist twist, highlighting the often unsung stories of feminism’s heroines: Virginia Woolf , the Shulamite, Mary Daly, Baby Suggs, Pachamama and Gaia, Frida Kahlo, Salome, Guadalupe… Read More ›
Birth Song, Life Song, Death Song by Molly
“A woman can spin a primal umbilical rope within her womb through which she passes life-energy to the future.” –Melissa Raphael “In some indigenous cultures of the Americas there is the practice of finding one’s death song while alive. This… Read More ›
Painting Guanyin by Angela Yarber
As hundreds of thousands of people are dying in Syria and myriad individuals suffer from political unrest in Egypt, as we continue to debate the sexuality of young women (yes, we’re still talking about Miley Cyrus) in the face of… Read More ›
On Reading, Not Reading, and Disagreeing by Linn Marie Tonstad
The theology blogosphere in all its glory has been alive in recent days with furor sparked by a blog post from Janice Rees at Women In Theology, where she discusses not reading Karl Barth, the heavyweight German 20th-century Protestant theologian,… Read More ›
The Philadelphia Ordinations and Pope Francis in Rio by Alla Renée Bozarth
On July 29, 2013, I read the feminist theologian Mary Hunt’s fine account of Pope Francis’ visit to Brazil, with commentary on his informal conversation with press people on the way back to Rome. When asked for a statement about… Read More ›
Painting Georgia O’Keeffe by Angela Yarber
Hailed as the Mother of American Modernism, her seemingly vaginal flowers lauded by feminists and artists alike, Georgia O’Keeffe stands as a sentinel for strong, creative women who balk at tradition and embrace a faraway freedom. Though she adamantly denied… Read More ›
Women’s Christian Heritage by Elise M. Edwards
It is difficult to carve out time in a course that covers Christianity from the past 2000 years to address material beyond the standard textbooks. But yet, I must because the visual and material culture, the worship practices, and the… Read More ›
Painting Lilith, Leaving Church by Angela Yarber
Lilith has been a misunderstood, appropriated, and redeemed woman throughout the ages. Many feminists claim her as an empowering figure in Jewish mythology, her story reclaimed by contemporary artists such as Sarah McLachlan, who created the all-women music tour, “Lilith… Read More ›
Ancient Spirit Wisdom by Jassy Watson
On a recent journey within, guided by drumming and visualisation I encountered my Muse. Her Native American Indian appearance surprised, even bewildered me, as I know so little about North America’s indigenous cultures. As I painted her into being I… Read More ›
Painting Miriam by Angela Yarber
We are your subtlest instruments: no music branches to your breast that does not sound in us, no music dies away from you, that in us lives not, and even in your absence your cadence journeys… Allen Mandelbaum, Chelmaxioms The… Read More ›
It Was a Rainbow Graduation by Grace Yia-Hei Kao
I have the privilege of serving as Co-director of the Center for Sexuality, Gender, and Religion at Claremont School of Theology. I am ecstatic that we just hosted our version of a “rainbow graduation” at this year’s Commencement.
Painting Isadora Duncan By Angela Yarber
A dancing woman stands center stage, her arms outstretched in natural, free, and unbound movement, as her heart cries out to us… In May of 1877 a dancing, feminist, revolutionary was born. She was not constrained by the corsets, morals,… Read More ›
Painting Jarena Lee By Angela Yarber
When we gender the pulpit in the direction of justice, we ordain her spirit with gratitude for the many miles she walked and the countless sermons she preached. This month I celebrate the release of my second book, The Gendered… Read More ›
Painting Saraswati By Angela Yarber
Saraswati reminds me that the divisions between fields are our construction; that academics can be creative, art can be holy, and preaching can engage the mind. I was precariously perched atop a file cabinet tacking a giant cloth to the… Read More ›
Painting Sojourner Truth By Angela Yarber
This month, I am reminded of the importance of Jacquelyn Grant’s work on womanist Christology. In White Women’s Christ and Black Women’s Jesus, Grant reviews the white feminist discussion of the so-called problem of Jesus’ maleness, while beginning to construct a womanist… Read More ›
The Joy of Honoring Rosemary Radford Ruether by Dirk von der Horst
A cutting-edge voice in many theological conversations, Rosemary Radford Ruether has been an inspiration to many of us over the last few decades. The tremendous joy of my last couple of years was co-editing a volume of essays in her… Read More ›
Monthly Highlight: Emilie M. Townes
“In my teaching I want to get students excited about that notion of, you know, you’re not just here to get a Yale degree and have it on your diploma and be able to hang it on your wall…You should… Read More ›
Honoring the Older Women of December’s Darkness by Carolyn Lee Boyd
Winter’s hungry hand has taken another powerful and precious older woman. No one knew Ellen beyond her family and friends, her church and her neighbors. She was 90, a nurse, faithful to her church and of service to her community,… Read More ›
A Gift I hope I can give: A Thank you to Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz by Sara Frykenberg
At some point, I finally asked the mentor what her name was and with a smile and joy that I do remember, she said, “I’m Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz.” OH MY GOD/DESS. I was completely taken aback. I really couldn’t believe… Read More ›
Thinking About Thanksgiving by Carol P. Christ
Thanksgiving evokes deep memory and raises questions about what we are celebrating, now that we know the stories we were told about the Pilgrims and the Indians are not the whole truth about America’s early history. I thought about all of this as I… Read More ›
In Memoriam Patricia Monaghan: The Goddess Community Remembers and Mourns by Dawn Work-MaKinne
Patricia Monaghan, scholar, author, poet, activist, artist, visionary and vice-president of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology died early on November 11, 2012 after a two year journey with cancer. Patricia was one of the Founding Mothers… Read More ›
Sappho Chose Love Not War, What Will You Choose? by Carol P. Christ
* We have been taught to speak of war and the heroes of war in hushed tones. We have been told that evil Helen’s choice was the cause of the Trojan war. 2600 years ago Sappho, known as the greatest… Read More ›
Social Engagement as Feminist Praxis in the lives of Patricia A. Reif & Rita Nakashima Brock By Teresa A. Yugar
Today our country and global community need religious leaders to utilize their theological education and feminist principles to model the formation of ally ships across ecumenical and interfaith perspectives, laying the foundation for a more just and peaceful society. While… Read More ›
Visions of My Grandmother by John Erickson
“I never told my grandmother I was gay. I’ve often wanted to visit her grave, clench my hands together, and pray that she forgive me for betraying the trust she instilled upon me long ago. However, even today, I cannot bring myself to make that trek, up the hill into the countryside where her ashes lay below the ground.”
Lucy Burns, A Look at a Catholic American Suffragette by Michele Stopera Freyhauf
As we approach the election period infused with controversy, saturated by television commercials, as well as endless advertisements on the radio, Internet, and yes, even Facebook, we must remember the sacrifices made by our foremothers during the suffrage movement, which… Read More ›
