I love living in a second-story apartment. Having a view of Los Angeles, of the palm trees, the expansive sky, the distant mountains, and the city lights of downtown, makes life feel bigger, more full of possibilities. In the struggle… Read More ›
Xochitl Alvizo
Bringing About the Revolution by Xochitl Alvizo
Happy day friends. It’s Sunday – maybe you have a day off from your income-making labor, maybe you’re home with the kiddos working more than usual since they have no school, or maybe it’s a day you have all to… Read More ›
Mary Daly and Simone de Beauvoir: Sister Diagnosticians by Xochitl Alvizo
Mary Daly still causes me awe. I think about the way she was so keenly able to diagnose the Catholic Church’s collusion in creating, sustaining, the oppressive structures that directly impact women (and men, as she always affirmed). Mary Daly… Read More ›
…and The Pub Church, Boston was Born by Xochitl Alvizo
See Part I of Pub Church series here The question arising among a group of friends gathering for fish and chips on Fridays – why can’t church be more like this? – was the clarion call that sparked the birth… Read More ›
The Pub Church, Boston by Xochitl Alvizo
At times I am invited to speak about The Pub Church. When I lived in Boston, I was part of a church that met in a pub. A church in a pub is not a typical form of church, obviously;… Read More ›
A Grounded Spirituality, in Community by Xochitl Alvizo
It was Sunday, April 1, we grilled corn and veggie-dogs and spent the day gardening with friends and neighbors. Each household with their own raised bed. We started seeds and planted starter plants. We spent all day outside, various friends… Read More ›
The Power of Black Panther by Xochitl Alvizo
Note: Black Panther movie spoiler alert. I attended a friend’s dinner party recently in honor of her birthday. It was an intimate gathering of nine, mostly her immediate family, so I felt privileged to be included. At one point during… Read More ›
Women Religion Revolution and its Political Theological Orientation by Xochitl Alvizo
I introduced the volume Women Religion Revolution, the collected works that Gina Messina and I co-edited, in a previous post. I now write about the political theological orientation with which we entered the project of the book. The very first thing to note… Read More ›
The Making of Women Religion Revolution by Xochitl Alvizo
Last month in Boston during the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meeting I presented on Women Religion Revolution, a volume of collaborative work with fifteen other women that Gina Messina and I co-edited. The book is the third one… Read More ›
Listening Deeply to Yourself by Xochitl Alvizo
“You need to take a step back. You need to take a pause, relax, reassess. Two steps back, you can see more clearly, then you can move forward.” That’s what my brother first told me as I shared with him… Read More ›
Birthing a New World by Xochitl Alvizo
Yesterday I “paused” my post and left you with words from a dear friend Edyka Chilomé, a powerful “artivist” invested in the healing of our world. And our world is in need of healing indeed. Today was another tough day… Read More ›
Feminist Gutter Punk Freedom by Xochitl Alvizo
My brother is, in this own words, an “old school street, squatter, gutter punk.” Indeed, he lives outside the system. He is an anarchist atheist and has lived many nights of his life on the streets – by choice. He… Read More ›
On the Events of Charlottesville, VA by Xochitl Alvizo
It is in our hearts –one’s sense of superiority exists within. We are all and each capable of hate and bigotry. It is considered the appropriate and necessary response to say that there is no room for it “here” –… Read More ›
FAR Press Publishes A Serpentine Path: Mysteries of the Goddess by Carol P. Christ
This is a great day for me as I announce the publication of A Serpentine Path: Mysteries of the Goddess. It is the first —but certainly not the last—book from the new FAR Press, directed by Gina Messina and Xochitl… Read More ›
“You Look Trim” and Resisting the Tyranny of Thinness by Xochitl Alvizo
I caught myself reinforcing the norm. The ever present default of focusing on women’s body size and prioritizing their weight gain and loss. I did this with a colleague/friend of mine. After not seeing one another for most of the… Read More ›
Updates on Listening by Xochitl Alvizo
The pieces of my dissertation are beginning to float to the surface, piece by piece, released into the world as smaller parts of the whole. At some point this all may become a book, but for now, I have enjoyed… Read More ›
Painting Our Own Realities in the New Year by Xochitl Alvizo
A friend of mine once commented that my feminism is evident from the moment you step into my house. In reference to all the female images around my house, she noted that my space reflected a different way of being… Read More ›
My Terrible Transition Year and the Return of my Humanity by Xochitl Alvizo
I have called it, The Terrible Transition Year, this year of finishing dissertation, uprooting from home, moving cross-country, and starting a new full-time teaching job. Last year at this time I was in LA for a 7-8 week stay, away… Read More ›
From Mary Daly to the Emerging Church – An Unlikely Dissertation Trajectory by Xochitl Alvizo
It was 2004 during the first semester in one of my classes for the master’s program when my TA presented a lecture on feminist critiques of atonement and introduced me to the writings of Mary Daly. It was my first… Read More ›
Learning to Live by Xochitl Alvizo
The earliest memories of myself are as a student. I have distinct memories of myself in my kindergarten classroom. I even remember the location of my seat in the specific cluster of tables I was assigned. I also remember the… Read More ›
What “I Believe” and Found Worth Sharing by Xochitl Alvizo
The end of my Ph.D. program is in sight. Originally, in 2004, I came to Boston University School of Theology (BU STH) from Los Angeles for a two-year masters program. Along the way I switched to a three-year masters program,… Read More ›
The Case of Mary’s Decency by Xochitl Alvizo
This post builds on yesterday’s post on Marcella Althaus-Reid’s indecent theology. In her book, From Feminist Theology to Indecent Theology, Marcella Althaus-Reid states that liberation theology has two dominant characteristics: the familiar ‘preferential option for the poor,’ with its suspicion of… Read More ›
A Little Indecency with Marcella Althaus-Reid by Xochitl Alvizo
Inspired by the conversation following Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente’s post yesterday, I offer here a little synopsis of Marcella Althaus-Reid’s work in Indecent Theology: Theological Perversion in Sex, Gender, and Politics. This link to her website also offers a little synopsis. Marcella… Read More ›
The Work of Justice-Making by Xochitl Alvizo
Written two weeks ago on December 5, 2014, but offered still as some food for thought: I’m supposed to be writing my dissertation. Hand on the plow, no looking back. I have even left town for the whole month of… Read More ›
We are Worth the Time it Takes to Create a Practice by Xochitl Alvizo
Recently, in response to the excellent conversation following Nancy Vedder-Shults’ post on the goddess Kali, Carol Christ commented to Nancy, “I too love our conversations, wish there was more in depth talk on our blog [FAR], maybe there will be.”… Read More ›
Systemic Violence and the Killing of Michael Brown by Xochitl Alvizo
Oppression is systemic. Injustice is systemic. It pervades the whole – it seeps into everyday actions and becomes habits and patterns that function as default. As a result, the actions that fall within these patterns hardly need justifying. If… Read More ›
Using the Listening Guide to Leave Oneself Open to Discovery by Xochitl Alvizo
I am deep in the throes of writing my dissertation. Writing started in earnest, in its most recent stretch, in mid-July when I came out to write in isolation in my home city of Los Angeles.* If all goes as… Read More ›
Transforming the Church from Within or Without? by Xochitl Alvizo
“Power belongs to those who stay to write the report!” stated Jeanne Audrey Powers during her presentation at the Religion and the Feminist Movement conference at Harvard Divinity School back in 2002. Though the statement sounds a little funny, it does raise a good… Read More ›
Let Us Give Thanks for Feminism and Religion Dot Com by Carol P. Christ
Feminism and Religion was founded in the late spring of 2011. Throughout the summer Gina Messina-Dysert hounded me about submitting a blog while I ignored her emails because I didn’t think I wanted to take on a new project. Gina… Read More ›
Water, Activism, and Thirsting for Change by Xochitl Alvizo
Mike Wilson’s persistent replacement of water sources in the desert for those who may be dying of thirst is part of his affirmation that we are all inextricably connected…the affirmation that our individual well-being cannot be separated from our collective well-being. I carry two… Read More ›
