This was originally posted on Sept. 9, 2011 In my last blog I wrote that the image of God as a dominating other who enforces his will through violence–found in the Bible and in the Christian tradition up to the… Read More ›
Thealogy
Carol P. Christ’s Legacy: Why Don’t Feminists Express Anger At God? by Carol P. Christ
Moderator’s Note: We here at FAR have been so fortunate to work along side Carol Christ for many years. She died from cancer in July, 2021. Her work continues through her non-profit foundation, the Ariadne Institute for the Study of Myth and… Read More ›
Remembering Carol Christ – and going forward in her footsteps by Laura Shannon
When I was 17, I left the US to live and study in Europe for a year, with Womanspirit Rising crammed into my backpack. This book, edited by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, gave me the solid ground of… Read More ›
My Life with Goddess (Part Two) by Deanne Quarrie
Read Part One here. My way of honoring this Goddess is to be with Her. I feel Her as my hands when touch Her soil, when I sit on Her body, or when I am walking with Her trees. I… Read More ›
My Life with Goddess (Part One) by Deanne Quarrie
The Goddess is the “All of Creation.” She is the Creatress and the Created. She is the life force of all there is. She is one, whole, and complete. Before Her, nothing was. She arose from the Great Void, the… Read More ›
Why Is Pizza Round? The Black Goddess of Rome by Stuart Dean
The poem Moretum (discussed in my last post) narrates the preparation of a meal that can be characterized in modern English as ‘pizza.’ Round flatbread is baked; to go on it, a cheese spread is mixed. The details of the… Read More ›
Revolution Through Rituals by Jann Aldredge-Clanton
A revolution is happening through Divine Feminine rituals! More and more faith communities are reclaiming the power of the Divine Feminine in sacred rituals. Rituals move feminist theory and theology/thealogy from the head to the heart. Words and visual symbols… Read More ›
The Outraged Ancestral Mother by Molly
During the fifth week of the Rise Up and Call Her Name curriculum by Elizabeth Fisher, “We honor the Outraged Ancestral Mother and the belief that the sacred and secular are one.” When I priestessed this session for my women’s… Read More ›
Persephone by Barbara Ardinger
Here we are, creeping up on the vernal equinox (March 21), which astronomers and weathermen on TV tell us is the start of spring. I see Imbolc (as described by Deanne Quarrie) as the true beginning of spring, however. It’s when… Read More ›
Getting It Done: The Buffy-Blodeuwedd Connection by Kate Brunner
You guys, you’re just men—just the men who did this… to her. Whoever that girl was before she was the first Slayer. You violated that girl… made her kill for you because you’re weak… you’re pathetic and you obviously have… Read More ›
“THE DIVINE MYSTERY”? by Carol P. Christ
“The mystery of God in feminist theological discourse” is the subtitle of Elizabeth Johnson’s widely read She Who Is. The notion that God is “a mystery” is rarely questioned in feminist theologies. But maybe it should be. Although it is… Read More ›
Emergence and the Spirituality of the Sacred Feminine by Anne Kathleen McLaughlin
Kathleen and Marie are friends who met at the event in Canada that inspired this post. Marie has given her monthly spot on Feminism and Religion to Kathleen so she can share her reflection with you. Emergence: the universe flares… Read More ›
Birth as a Shamanic Experience by Molly
“Childbirth is a rite of passage so intense physically, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, that most other events in a woman’s life pale next to it. In our modern lives, there are few remaining rituals of initiation, few events that challenge a… Read More ›
God Doesn’t Live Here Anymore: Gay Bars and the Growing Divide Between Sexuality and Spirituality by John Erickson
oes God exist within the LGBTQ community anymore or has the community itself abandoned God for all-night raves, dance clubs, alcohol, and hypersexualized and over commoditized fetishized forms of femininity and masculinity? Oftentimes, I find myself answering yes to the above questions. After surviving hate crime after hate crime and endless batches of newly elected conservative politicians hell bent on ignoring medical and social epidemic plaguing the very country they were elected to serve and protect, why would a community, oftentimes linked to sin itself, believe in a holy entity?
Goddess Mother by Molly
Mamapriestess She who changes She who expands and contracts She who stretches her limits She who digs deep She who triumphs and fails Every day Sometimes both within a single hour She who tends her own hearth She who comforts… Read More ›
The Green Man By Barbara Ardinger
The Green Man’s message about rebirth is why he is so popular today. He’s come to symbolize the green movement. He’s a friend of the earth who is whispering to us to wake up and grow up, to march and… Read More ›
The Child of the Bog (continued) By Barbara Ardinger
The story so far. In the ancient land beside the river, the God-King lies in what appears to be death. No one can awaken him. In the house of a court Magician, the peasant girl Ubastet is dusting and conversing… Read More ›
Do Women’s Circles Actually Matter? By Molly
“We need rituals of memory…because a political movement, the public policy and tactics of our movement, does not come from our ideas, but from the bloody and joyful substance of our lives. We need to be conscious about what our… Read More ›
Imagine a Catholic Church that Loved as only a “Woman” Loves by Michele Stopera Freyhauf
I came across an abhorrent display of ignorance Saturday when reading an article quoting the Pope’s theologian, Dominican priest Wojciech Giertych, on why women cannot be ordained. This man is in charge of reviewing speeches and texts submitted to the Pope… Read More ›
Endarkenment By Molly
It is from this dark space that we emerge—whether from our own mothers or from the more mysterious cosmic “sea” of soul—and it is to darkness that we return when we close our eyes for the final time. I find… Read More ›
The Impact of Excommunication in the 21st Century (Part I) – Spiritual Redemption or Hegemonic Power by Michele Stopera Freyhauf
“The Lord loves everyone and died for everyone, and He wants all to be saved…the best lesson that can be learned from everything that has happened is that one finds happiness, joy and satisfaction in obedience to the Church.” –… Read More ›
Thank You, Goddess By Barbara Ardinger
Actually, it’s very hard to say what the Goddess is. She’s ineffable. She’s both abstract and concrete at the same time. She created the universe, but she also brings destruction to beings and things whose time has ended. Even as… Read More ›
WHAT DOES “GOD INTEND”? by Carol P. Christ
Indiana Republican candidate Richard Mourdock’s statement that pregnancies resulting from rape are “something God intended” not only shows an appalling lack of empathy and distain for the experiences of raped women, it also is bad theology. The controversy ignited by Mourdock… Read More ›
Reading Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as Matricide and Theacide by Carol P. Christ
When I read Plato’s allegory of the cave as an undergraduate, I was told it had something to do with the idea that the “form” of a table is more “real” than the table itself. I must confess that I… Read More ›
Who is She? The Existence of an Ontological Goddess By Molly
I do feel Her presence directly in my life—call it an energy, call it the sacred feminine, call it the divine, call it source, call it soul, call it spirit, call it the great mystery…I perceive a web of relatedness… Read More ›
Goddess as Love: From Experience To Thealogy by Carol P. Christ
If theology is rooted in experience, how do we move from experience to theology? In my life there have been a number of key moments of “revelation” that have shaped my thealogy. One of these was the moment of my… Read More ›
Theapoetics by Molly
I think there is a poet in me she’s been hiding I didn’t know she was there I didn’t see her I didn’t hear her I didn’t watch for her wait for her listen to her or know her and… Read More ›
WHY DON’T FEMINISTS EXPRESS ANGER AT GOD? by Carol P. Christ
My relationship to God changed when I accused “Him” of everything I thought “He” had done or let be done to women—from allowing us to be beaten and raped and sold into slavery, to not sending us female prophets and saviors,… Read More ›
Rien n’est parfait by Barbara Ardinger
What le renard teaches le petit prince is that when people tame each other, they spend time together and get to know each other. It’s not power-over, but power-with. We become important to each other…. The world is made more… Read More ›
Remembering My Grandmother: Not as a Suffering Servant but as a Devoted and Loving Mother By Michele Stopera Freyhauf
The last week-and-a-half has been probably the most heart wrenching time I remember having in my life. You see, my grandmother passed from this life June 19th and the void in my heart is huge. I have to admit that… Read More ›
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