In my recent post ‘Forty Days After Childbirth, Mary Returns to the World,’ I wrote that ‘the woman’s power to bless and protect, as well as to create, is shown in the symbol of her hand.’ We see expressions of… Read More ›
Carol P. Christ
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Speak the Truth about Conflict, Pain, and Suffering: It Is Not All Love and Light
This was originally posted on July 23, 2018 Nurture life. Walk in love and beauty. Trust the knowledge that comes through the body. Speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering. Take only what you need. Think about the consequences… Read More ›
From the Archives: Forty Days After Childbirth, Mary Returns to the World by Laura Shannon
This was originally posted on Feb 6, 2021 All week we have been warming our spirits at the sacred fire of Candlemas / Imbolc, the Celtic holiday in honour of Brighde, Irish saint and Goddess of poetry, smithcraft and healing…. Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: “What Would Happen If One Woman Told the Truth about Her Life?”
This was originally posted on September 24, 2018 According to poet Muriel Rukeyser, “the world would split open.” This poem accurately describes what many women experienced in consciousness raising in the 1970s and what many women experience today in the… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: The Mountain Mother: Reading the Language of the Goddess in the Symbols of Ancient Crete
The blog was originally posted on May 22, 2017 Before he told the story of how his people received the sacred pipe, Black Elk said: So I know that it is a good thing I am going to do; and… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Mountain Mother, I Hear You Calling
This was originally posted on July 7, 2014 The mountaintop shrines of Mount Juctas in Archanes, Crete are situated on twin peaks, which may have symbolized breasts. Ancient shrines on the northern peak date from 2200 BCE until at least… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Think About the Consequences of Your Actions for Seven Generation
This was originally post on Aug 6, 2018 Nurture life. Walk in love and beauty. Trust the knowledge that comes through the body. Speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering. Take only what you need. Think about the consequences… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: ERA—Equal Rights for Women—in the US: Has Our Time Finally Come?
This was originally posted on Nov 18, 2019 On August 26, 1970, I borrowed an old VW bug from my mentor and summer employer Michael Novak to drive from Oyster Bay, Long Island to New York City to take part… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: What I Celebrate at Christmas
This was originally posted December 28, 2020 Though I have not been Christian for many years, I love to decorate my house for the holidays. I have many decorations that I have collected over the years, including a Hummel angel… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: On Believing Things That Are Not True
This was originally posted on August 19, 2019 (when the former guy was President. Although former guy isn’t in power now, Carol’s points are still operative in our world.) Anyone who is following American politics these days knows that the… Read More ›
The Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Meeting the Windigo
Towards the end of Braiding Sweetgrass, mother, biologist, and member of the Citizen Potawami Nation Robin Wall Kimmerer sets out at the end of winter to visit a forest area near her home that she considers hers not in name… Read More ›
Vayeishev: A Feminist Reflection on the Women in Joseph’s life and Dreams by Ivy Helman.
This week’s Torah portion is Vayeishev, Genesis 37:1-40:23. The portion covers too much information to address it adequately in one post. Therefore, in this post, I will examine, from a feminist perspective, Joseph, the women in his life, and… Read More ›
Carol P. Christ: Weaver of Visions by Beth Bartlett
Author’s Note: Today’s post is the 4000th FAR blog post! I first became aware of the Feminism and Religion blog when participating in a symposium honoring the life and work of Carol P. Christ in October 2021. I was inspired… Read More ›
Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete – Reborn! by Laura Shannon
Thirty years ago, Carol P. Christ founded her Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete, which she wrote about in her book A Serpentine Path: Mysteries of the Goddess (original 1995 title Odyssey with the Goddess) and in numerous posts on this site over the years. She… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ:“Ursula Niebuhr, Ursula Niebuhr”: Unacknowledged Co-author of Great Works of Theology?
This was originally posted on August 26, 2019. It fits in with our new project of Unsung Heroines. A few days ago while watching the movie The Wife, I kept hearing the words “Ursula Niebuhr, Ursula Niebuhr,” in my mind…. Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: His Terror
Moderator’s Note: This was originally posted on March 25, 2019. AND the issues are still with us and as vivid as ever. The first two parts of Susan Griffin’s Woman and Nature, “MATTER” and “SEPARATION,” are written in the authoritative… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Can We Celebrate the Dark? Can We Sleep?
This was originally posted on December 19, 2019 According to Marija Gimbutas, the religion of Old Europe celebrated the Goddess as the power of birth, death, and regeneration in all of life. Agricultural peoples understand that seeds must be kept… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: It’s Time to Thank Stacey Abrams Again
This was originally posted on January 18, 2021 The insurrection in the Capitol on January 6 has dominated the news ever since. Coverage of the Democrats’ victories in the two Senate runoffs in Georgia has been virtually nil. Now that… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Practice Great Generosity
This was originally posted on August 20, 2018 Nurture life. Walk in love and beauty. Trust the knowledge that comes through the body. Speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering. Take only what you need. Think about the consequences… Read More ›
Remembering “The Burning Times,” Part 2: Healing by Beth Bartlett
You can read part 1 here. The effects of “the burning times” are still with us. I can feel this in my own body. As Starhawk put it so vividly, “the smoke of the burned witches still hangs in our… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Restored in Beauty
This was originally posted on May 11, 2015 The path leading to the Klapados Waterfall begins at the edge of an open meadow in the pine and oak woodlands of a mountain in the island of Lesbos. After driving several… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Tree-Hugging Is About Trees and So Much More Than Trees
This was originally posted March 11, 2019 Not too long ago I heard someone deride members of a seminar who were building labyrinths in the olive groves of Greece as “a bunch of tree-huggers.” I bristled! I probably first heard… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: The Devil’s Bargain: “If You Can Convince a White Woman”
This was originally posted on August 12, 2019 This week’s news from America. Where to begin? When will it end? The President of the United States is a racist who incites racist violence. Republicans have been slow to condemn the… Read More ›
Authenticity by Beth Bartlett
The leaves have finally begun to turn. I’ve been longing for the trees to reveal their true beauty in all their colorful array, and am glad for this beginning. Soon the woods will be filled with the golden, amber, scarlet, and… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: “Fertility” and the Regeneration of Life
This was originally posted on October 12, 2020 Prehistoric and indigenous religious traditions are often disparagingly mischaracterized as primitive fertility religions, concerned not with higher morality, but rather with the processes of reproduction of humans, animals, and plants. When these… Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: “Calling All Women” to Save the Earth, signed and shared by Carol P. Christ
This was originally posted on April 1, 2019 We are calling all women and our allies to come together to save the earth that sustains us all. Is it any wonder that from Rachel Carson to Wangari Maathai to the… Read More ›
Sky Woman comes to Earth by Sara Wright
Every twig is singing a song of thanksgiving to Sky Woman who gifts steady rain nourishing earth’s parched body. Cracked ground softens soaks in minerals and scent sensing wonder.
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Goddess as Love: From Experience To Thealogy
This was originally posted on September 24, 2012 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…. Read More ›
Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Let Us Proclaim the God Who Bleeds Now
This was originally posted November 19, 2018 we need a god who bleeds now we need a god who bleeds nowa god whose wounds are notsome small male vengeancesome pitiful concession to humilitya desert swept with dryin marrow in honor… Read More ›
The Legacy of Carol P. Christ: “We Say the Silence Has Been Broken”
We treat the physical assault and the silencing after as two separate things, but they are the same, both bent on annihilation. Rebecca Solnit When I was in my twenties and in therapy I had a recurrent dream in which… Read More ›