Feminism and Religion

Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Gender, Friendship, Collaboration, and Unacknowledged Authorship

This was originally posted on April 20, 2015 and was updated by Carol on August 23, 2019

In recent weeks Judith Plaskow and I have been revising the manuscript of our new book Goddess and God in the World in preparation for sending it to the publisher. Yes, we have a publisher. We signed a contract with Fortress Press a short time ago. The book should be out in 2016.

We have been hard—and I mean very hard—at work revising the four chapters in the book that are jointly written. The versions have been going back and forth and forth and back as we revision what we want to say and revise each other’s revisions of the drafts we have. We both want the final manuscript to say things just right and it is very hard not to make one more set of (alleged) improvements.

In the process we have realized that while we often disagree on words and wording, we have come to think alike on a wide variety of issues to the point that it becomes hard to say who had the ideas first. In addition we have both become so familiar with each other’s positions that we can each easily articulate both sides of our dialogue on the issues on which we disagree.

Archives from the FAR Founders: A Time for Organized Rage by Gina Messina

This was originally posted on October 20, 2018. This is part of a project to highlight the work of the four women who founded FAR: Xochitl Alivizo, Caroline Kline, Gina Messina, and Cynthia Garrity-Bond

With the recent confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh and the torturous treatment of Christine Blasey Ford, we are reminded that we continue to live in a rape culture and very often, Christianity — and religion in general — is used as means to perpetrate misogyny and control the lives of women.

While there were many moments of the Kavanaugh hearing that made me gasp, one in particular was when Senator Kennedy asked the now Supreme Court Justice if he believes in God. Kennedy used Kavanaugh’s Catholic faith as the basis to vote in his favor. Rather than using his time to explore critical information revealed through testimony and investigative reports, Kennedy decided that God should be the focus of his questions and that Kavanaugh’s affirmative response meant that he did not assault Ford.

Future of Mifepristone by Winifred Nathan

Today is the one year anniversary of the Dobbs decision.

The alarm grows louder. How far will the antiabortion lobby restrict women’s reproductive health care before they are satisfied? If they successfully secure a complete abortion ban, will they stop? Or will they go on to control women’s dress, education, travel, etc.?

Reportedly, Dobbs v Jackson overturned Roe v Wade so the states could set the legal boundaries of abortion through the democratic process. But on November 18, 2022, the US District Court of Northern Texas delivered Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine et al. v US Fodd and Drug Administration et al., a decision that stops medical abortion in all fifty states by ending FDA approval of mifepristone. The Supreme Court has stayed (paused) the Texas order as the appeal works its way to their docket. Mifepristone continues to be available, but for how long? Will the Supreme Court eventually side with the plaintiffs?

The Legacy of the Goddess: Heroines, Warriors and Witches from World Mythology to Folktales and Fairy Tales by Rachel McCoppin

Part 2, Part 1 was posted yesterday

Chapter 4, “Monstrous Females and Ghost Women,” “traces the many female characters within folktales and fairy tales who appear as monstrous, materializing in the forms of giantesses, succubi, mermaids, rusalki, etc. Just as in many ancient myths, even though these monstrous women appear in folktales and fairy tales as hindrances to the quest of the hero, they ultimately serve to educate male heroes about the true meaning of their quest, which again often aligns with concepts associated with mythic goddesses. The many ghost women who appear in folktales and fairy tales around the world are also discussed in this chapter, as they often serve as agents to teach male heroes about how they, particularly as females, have been wronged by males or by patriarchal systems, and thus have been thwarted from completing their own heroic quests” (McCoppin, p. 9).

Though most myths around the world display male heroes partaking on heroic quests, and seldom focus on heroines who participate in their own heroic journeys, this is not at all the case with folktales and fairy tales, as hundreds of folktales and fairy tales portray strong, independent female heroines who indeed partake on their own heroic quests. Therefore, the second half of Legacy of the Goddess focuses on the formidable heroines found in many folktales and fairy tales from around the globe.

The Legacy of the Goddess: Heroines, Warriors and Witches from World Mythology to Folktales and Fairy Tales by Rachel McCoppin

This is part 1 of a two part posing. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow.

In this blog post, I would like to take the opportunity to discuss my new book, entitled: The Legacy of the Goddess: Heroines, Warriors and Witches from World Mythology to Folktales and Fairy Tales. This book argues that hundreds of folktales and fairy tales from around the world have preserved elements related to goddess worship from the sacred myths of many ancient civilizations.

Powerful goddesses were worshipped in most global cultures for centuries, until, in many regions, episodes of diffusion, conquest, colonialism, etc. caused the worship of these goddesses to be revised, lessened, or in some cases eliminated. To “preserve at least part of the reverence of goddesses, as well as the memory of the powerful religious and social roles women once held as representatives of goddesses”, hundreds of folktales and fairy tales were created, “told, and retold, most often by women storytellers” to impart goddess ideology (McCoppin, 2023, p. 5). Thus, many folktales and fairy tales portray myriad examples of powerful female characters who portray important messages connected to the goddesses and sacred women of ancient mythology.

Once Upon a Time Women Storytellers Spun the World by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Cinderella-Magic on Parade: By HumMelissa_Glee – Cinderella – Magic On Parade, CC BY 2.0

Cinderella helped make me a pint-sized feminist. Well, of course my strong and rebellious mother and grandmothers were my primary influences, but at age five, Cinderella was definitely up there. I learned in my own little girl way from Disney’s Cinderella that women could forge their own destiny (of sorts), older women can be powerful for good and evil, magic pervades the universe, and whether other women support you is key to success. I completely missed the message about marrying Prince Charming. How did this story get from its origins millennia ago to a little suburban American girl in the 1960s?

Once upon a time, all over the globe, women practiced the inspiring, transformative art of storytelling. In Europe, as their world was overtaken by more patriarchal cultures, they kept alive fairy tales that spoke of their traditional world infused with magical energy and spirit beings and shared with each other new tales of their lives and troubles. In many western cultures from ancient times till very recently, however, storytelling was strictly segregated by gender, with men gathering in taverns or homes to hear epic hero tales while women gathered to sing or tell stories to each other of supernatural beings, local events, and their lives while doing tasks like spinning (hence, “spinning a yarn”) and weaving. Not surprisingly, male folklore scholars have for decades overlooked women storytellers who were also often devalued and denigrated in their own communities. More recently, largely female folklore scholars have brought to light a rich and important tradition of European women storytellers.

The Gift of Breathable Air – Fire and Air – Before the Turning by Sara Wright

In the last two hours the air has finally cleared – clouds, light drizzle (the blessing of even a few drops of rain) and sweetly scented air allows my nose to pick up the intoxicating fragrance of the lemon lilies on my porch – For the last 40 hours we have been breathing dead air – or death air as I call it. Headaches for me, and sneezing coughing dogs force me to keep the windows closed, the porch door shut, and unless it is necessary, we stay inside.

All of us are so sensitive to atmospheric changes…

This time the pollution comes from Canadian wildfires – nine million acres of forests are still burning. When I emailed a friend about the air in Montreal she quipped how the air had cleared and the US had exaggerated the problem (not one word about the fate of the trees – this well-known feminist woman considers herself an environmentalist). I wondered just how accurate her assessment was because here in Maine the air was not breathable, and the blue skies were only softened by haze. I didn’t need the clean air index to tell me that we were all breathing poison. Just the thought of more burning forests ANYWHERE chills me leaving me in a state of profound despair.

Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Sophia, Goddess, and Feminist Spirituality: Imagining the Future

This was originally posted on September 17, 2018

Though represented by its detractors as an incursion of paganism into

Christianity, and presented as an integrally and intrinsically Christian phenomenon by its supporters, the truth about the Re-Imagining Conference and movement is that it was a product of a wider feminist awakening. The critique of patriarchal religions that emerged in the academy and in churches and synagogues in the late 1960s and early 1970s was part of the emerging feminist uprising. The feminist movement placed a question mark over all patriarchal texts and traditions, secular and religious, and as such was beholden to none.

In the spring of 1971, Roman Catholic Christian Mary Daly published “After the Death of God the Father” in the liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal. She asserted that the God whose death was touted in the “Death of God” movement was an idol fashioned in the image of male power and authority. She called for “the becoming of new symbols” to express the new becoming of women. In the summer of 1971, a group of nuns from Alverno College convened the first Conference of Women Theologians. Besides sparking dialogue about the role of women in religions, the conference endorsed my call to form a women’s group at the fall meetings of the American Academy of Religion, up until then a gathering of several thousand male scholars of religion, with only a handful of women scholars in attendance. At winter solstice, Z Budapest launched the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 in Los Angeles publishing a Manifesto calling on women to return to the ancient religion of the Goddess.

From the Archives: (((Israel))) by Ivy Helman

Author’s note: I first published this piece on June 12, 2016. Last week, I returned from a three-week stay in Isreal. After everything I saw and experienced there, I agree with this piece even more; Israel needs to exist. As does peace and safety for all the inhabitants of the land. I will write more about my experiences there and in Jordan soon. Until then, I hope you find this piece thought-provoking.

The BBC just ran a story about white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups targeting Jews by signaling each other to their presence on various social media sites through the use of (((this symbol))). Of course, this is all based on the assumption that a “typically” Jewish last name signifies the bearer is also Jewish. Through a Google app (since removed) that could recognize patterns such as ((())), these Jewish people began to receive anti-Semitic comments. There has been a general outcry of disgust among Jews and other minority groups as to the problematic targeting of Jews in this fashion.

The same cannot be said about the BDS movement and people’s willingness to call it out for what it is. This to me is hypocritical! According to its website, the BDS movement, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, seeks to end what it understands to be the colonialism, apartheid and oppression of Palestinians in Israel through various financial, commercial and international means. It accuses Israel of human rights violations, genocide, ethnic cleansing and other war crimes as well as illegal occupation (of the Palestinian lands, not just the occupied territories).

Bathsheba: From Survivor of Sexual Abuse to Queen Mother by Linda Cooper Costelloe

Bathsheba by Artemisia Gentileschi, wikimedia commons, public domain

The image we have of Bathsheba is that of a scheming temptress. That’s the way she’s been portrayed in media, such as the 1951 movie, David and Bathsheba, and Leonard Cohen’s song, Hallelujah. She deliberately bathed on a rooftop in sight of King David. She caught his eye and he was helpless to withstand her charms. The Bible does not support that image of Bathsheba, however. It says that Bathsheba was used and abused by David, and God was displeased.

The Bible says that David was on his rooftop. It does not say where Bathsheba was, only that she was bathing to purify herself after her period (2 Samuel 11:2-4). She was probably in an inner courtyard. In their book, Flawed Families of the Bible. How God’s Grace Works Through Imperfect Relationships, David E. Garland and Diana R. Garland write: “The laws required ritual washing at the conclusion of her menstrual period. A woman would be highly unlikely to conduct such a cleansing from her menstrual period as a come-on. If she were in public view, she would have washed without disrobing. There is no reason even to assume that she was naked. Public nudity was not acceptable in this ancient Jewish culture but instead was considered shameful. There is no foundation for assuming she was some kind of exhibitionist.”ⁱ