In these days when so many are afraid and aching for the people of Ukraine, and concerned about the lasting impacts of this war around the world, I cannot help thinking of the wise women of ancient Israel. These wise… Read More ›
feminist theology
Carol P. Christ’s Legacy: Women Are Not Sluts, Rush, Douch-Bag Is Not Funny, Jon, And Sexism Is More Than “Inappropriate,” Mr. Whitehouse Spokesperson! 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 ›
Honoring My Academic Mothers: Carol Christ and bell hooks by Anjeanette LeBoeuf
I started writing this post a day after news broke that beloved activist, poet, feminist, and academic, bell hooks had passed away. This news comes months after our FAR community lost Carol Christ; another academic, feminist, writer, and maker of… Read More ›
Why It Matters That Simone Biles Won Times Athlete of the Year Award by Janet Maika’i Rudolph
I remember my first feeling’s of disappointment when Simone Biles pulled out of so many events at the 2021 Olympics. But then I quickly realized that here I was falling for the patriarchal lines that are so much a part… Read More ›
In Memoriam: bell hooks by Elizabeth Ann Bartlett
In a world where the words of black women writers, even our very names are often soon forgotten, it is essential and necessary that we live through writing and teaching the words of our great and good writers, whose voices… Read More ›
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 ›
Moving to Ursula: Dream Wisdom and the Sacred Feminine by Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD
For the last seven years, I have been conducting research for my book Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreams, which is about to appear courtesy of Ayin Press. On this writing journey, I’ve interviewed seventy dreamers, and have studied pre-modern… Read More ›
The Celtic Cross and the Compassing of the Divine Womb, Part 1 by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
No one knows why Celtic Crosses have a circle. Guesses include pragmatic utilitarianism (to hold the arms up),1 the sun, Greek laurel wreath, Egyptian ankh, circle of creation,2 the Chi-Ro Greek monogram for Christ,3 the divine light that imbues all… Read More ›
100 Years After Women’s Right to Vote, Our Feminist Struggle Continues by Gina Messina
The first time I called myself a feminist, I think I was twelve years old. Growing up in a traditional Sicilian Catholic household, misogyny was ever-present. There were clear expectations of me and my brother based on our gender and… Read More ›
Quaker Ancestor Buys 6 Year-Old Indian Captive by Carol P. Christ
When I wrote about Anne Hutchinson as America’s first feminist theologian a few years ago, I mentioned that I had a Sackett ancestor living in Boston at the time, who might well have been a follower of Hutchinson. That branch… Read More ›
Challenging Christian Feminists to Re-Imagine the Goddess by Carol P. Christ
From the 1993 Re-Imagining Conference: Our mother Sophia, we are women in your image: With the hot blood of our wombs we give form to new life. With the courage of our convictions we pour out our life blood for… Read More ›
Religions and the Abuse of Women and Girls by Carol P. Christ
At the 2009 meeting of the Parliament of World Religions, former US President Jimmy Carter called the worldwide abuse of girls and women the greatest unaddressed human rights crisis of our time. He stated that this problem is “largely caused… Read More ›
EcoJustice and Our Relationship with God by Gina Messina
This semester I am teaching the course EcoJustice and chose Sallie McFague’s A New Climate for Theology as our foundational text. Something I greatly appreciate about McFague is that she continually calls us to radically redefine our understanding of the Divine… Read More ›
Sophia, Goddess, and Feminist Spirituality: Imagining the Future by Carol P. Christ
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… Read More ›
Another One Bites the Dust: Orthodox Priest Defrocked for Declaring God Our Mother and Father Is Love by Carol P. Christ
While trying to find a topic for today’s blog, I came across a facebook post from July 10 by former Orthodox priest Christoforos Schuff in which he announced: After reaffirming my beliefs on gender, sexuality, faith and the Church…and sharing… Read More ›
Beginning with Death on the Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete by Carol P. Christ
Our first ritual on the Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete is a death ritual in which we honor the memory of those who have gone before us. Like so many things on the pilgrimage, the death ritual evolved. I did not… Read More ›
“He Owes Us Nothing”: A Very Bad and Very Sad Theology by Carol P. Christ
While waiting to get off a plane last week, I overheard a serious young woman explaining a recent theological insight to her half-asleep and equally young husband. “You see,” she began, “what I just learned is that though He owes… Read More ›
The Social Structures of Religious Identity and the Decision to Leave or Stay by Carol P. Christ
Reflecting on our different choices to “stay or leave” the religions of our upbringings while writing Goddess and God in the World with Judith Plaskow, I was prompted to think again about the social and ethnic structures of denominationalism. One… Read More ›
A Serpentine Path: The Dance Is About To Begin by Carol P. Christ
Entering the archaeological site of Kato Zakros, which includes a Sacred Center and part of a town on a small hill above it, I felt too tired to continue with the others. As we passed a stone bench to the… Read More ›
“And God Said It Was So”: Donald Trump Is the Spittin’ Image of Bad Theology by Carol P. Christ
I try very hard this election season to avoid reading about, watching, or listening to Donald Trump: the man is a liar, a cheat, a bully, a narcissist, a racist, a sexist, the list goes on. Yet even progressive commentators… Read More ›
Can Good Theology Change the World? Part 3: Embodied Theology by Carol P. Christ
In an earlier blog I asserted that one of the hallmarks of good theology is understanding that the only valid source of authority is to be found in individuals and communities that continually interpret and reinterpret texts and traditions in… Read More ›
Can Good Theology Change the World? Part 1 by Carol P. Christ
Theology is often viewed as abstract and removed from the problems of the real world. Yet many of the problems of the real world are caused by bad theologies. If bad theologies shape the world, might the same not be… Read More ›
Thinking about Goddess and God by Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ
Talking about our deepest beliefs and feelings can be surprisingly intimate. In our new book Goddess and God in the World, we discuss our different theologies and challenge each other’s views. In the conclusion, we consider whether there is any… Read More ›
Maiden, Mother, Crone: Ancient Tradition or New Creative Synthesis? by Carol P. Christ
The image of the Goddess as Maiden, Mother, Crone is widespread in contemporary Goddess Spirituality. The Triple Goddess honors three ages of women, in contrast to the wider culture that: affirms young women as sex objects while shaming them as… Read More ›
Embodied Theology: Goddess and God in the World by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow
Today is the official release date for Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology. It just so happens that August 1 is also a day for celebrating the harvest. An excerpt from the Introduction introduces the embodied… Read More ›
The Emergence of Feminist Theology: Remembering our Roots by Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ
This blog is an excerpt from our new book Goddess and God in the World which will be published by Fortress Press in just one week — on August 1. As we look forward to its release, we remember the… Read More ›
Feministing Sarah and Hagar by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente
One story that has marked my life as a feminist is that of Sarah and Hagar. This is a story of pain and enmity among women under patriarchy that despite its age, is still relevant to illustrate the negative effects of the… Read More ›
A Tale of Two Sisters by Carol P. Christ
When I first returned from my ancestor quest in Germany, I fell ill with a bad cold and cough and had little physical energy. For two weeks I lived in the dreamtime, communicating with the ancestors and trying to make… Read More ›
Islamic Feminism and Heterosexual Dogma by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente
Reza Aslan says in his book “No God But God” that religions are myths. He explains that “religion” is a set of stories fluctuating between truth and fantasy that serve to explain and answer questions about human fate. Taking this idea… Read More ›
“God is Not a Man, God Is Not a White Man” by Carol P. Christ
“The pictures that line the halls speak volumes about the history of racism and sexism and they shape the future in powerful ways.”–Simon Timm The author of these words recently posted a short video on Youtube entitled “Mirror Mirror on… Read More ›