Thealogy

History of the term

The term's origin and initial use is open to ongoing debate. Patricia 'Iolana traces the early use of the neologism to 1976, crediting both Valerie Saiving and Isaac Bonewits for its initial use. The coinage of thealogian on record by Bonewits in 1976 has been promoted.

In the 1979 book Changing of the Gods, Naomi Goldenberg introduces the term as a future possibility with respect to a distinct discourse, highlighting the masculine nature of theology. Also in 1979, in the first revised edition of Real Magic, Bonewits defined thealogy in his Glossary as "Intellectual speculations concerning the nature of the Goddess and Her relations to the world in general and humans in particular; rational explanations of religious doctrines, practices and beliefs, which may or may not bear any connection to any religion as actually conceived and practiced by the majority of its members". In the same glossary, he defined "theology" with nearly identical words, changing the feminine pronouns with masculine pronouns appropriately.

Carol P. Christ used the term in Laughter of Aphrodite (1987), claiming that those creating thealogy could not avoid being influenced by the categories and questions posed in Christian and Jewish theologies. She further defined thealogy in her 2002 essay, "Feminist theology as post-traditional thealogy", as "the reflection on the meaning of the Goddess".

In her 1989 essay "On Mirrors, Mists and Murmurs: Toward an Asian American Thealogy", Rita Nakashima Brock defined thealogy as "the work of women reflecting on their experiences of and beliefs about divine reality". And again in 1989, Ursula King notes thealogy's growing usage as a fundamental departure from traditional male-oriented theology, characterized by its privileging of symbols over rational explanation.

In 1993, Charlotte Caron's inclusive and clear definition of thealogy as a "reflection on the divine in feminine and feminist terms" appeared in To Make and Make Again. By this time, the concept had gained considerable status among Goddess adherents.

As academic discipline

Situated in relationship to the fields of theology and religious studies, thealogy is a discourse that critically engages the beliefs, wisdom, practices, questions, and values of the Goddess community, both past and present. Similar to theology, thealogy grapples with questions of meaning, include reflecting on the nature of the divine, the relationship of humanity to the environment, the relationship between the spiritual and sexual self, and the nature of belief. However, in contrast to theology, which often focuses on an exclusively logical and empirical discourse, thealogy embraces a postmodern discourse of personal experience and complexity.

The term suggests a feminist approach to theism and the context of God and gender within Paganism, Neopaganism, Goddess Spirituality and various nature-based religions. However, thealogy can be described as religiously pluralistic, as thealogians come from various religious backgrounds that are often hybrid in nature. In addition to Pagans, Neopagans, and Goddess-centred faith traditions, they are also Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Quakers, etc. or define themselves as Spiritual Feminists. As such, the term thealogy has also been used by feminists within mainstream monotheistic religions to describe in more detail the feminine aspect of a monotheistic deity or trinity, such as God/dess Herself, or the Heavenly Mother of the Latter Day Saint movement.

In 2000, Melissa Raphael wrote the text Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on the Goddess for the series Introductions in Feminist Theology. Written for an academic audience, it purports to introduce the main elements of thealogy within the context of Goddess feminism. She situates thealogy as a discourse that can be engaged with by Goddess feminists—those who are feminist adherents of the Goddess who may have left their church, synagogue, or mosque—or those who may still belong to their originally established religion. In the book, Raphael compares and contrasts thealogy with the Goddess movement. In 2007, Paul Reid-Bowen wrote the text "Goddess as Nature: Towards a Philosophical Thealogy", which can be regarded as another systematic approach to thealogy, but which integrates philosophical discourse.

In the past decade, other thealogians like Patricia 'Iolana and D'vorah Grenn have generated discourses that bridge thealogy with other academic disciplines. 'Iolana's Jungian thealogy bridges analytical psychology with thealogy, and Grenn's metaformic thealogy is a bridge between matriarchal studies and thealogy.

Contemporary thealogians include Carol P. Christ, Melissa Raphael, Asphodel Long, Beverly Clack, Charlotte Caron, Naomi Goldenberg, Paul Reid-Bowen, Rita Nakashima Brock, and Patricia 'Iolana.

Criticisms

At least one Christian theologian dismisses thealogy as the creation of a new deity made up by radical feminists. Paul Reid-Bowen and Chaone Mallory point out that essentialism is a problematic slippery slope when Goddess feminists argue that women are inherently better than men or inherently closer to the Goddess. In his book Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality, Philip G. Davis levies a number of criticisms against the Goddess movement, including logical fallacies, hypocrisies, and essentialism.

Thealogy has also been criticized for its objection to empiricism and reason. In this critique, thealogy is seen as flawed by rejecting a purely empirical worldview for a purely relativistic one. Meanwhile, scholars like Harding and Haraway seek a middle ground of feminist empiricism.

Art and culture

Artist Edwina Sandys' 250 lb bronze statue of a bare-breasted female Crucifixion statue, Christa, was removed from the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine at the order of the Jesus Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York during Holy Week in 1984. The bishop accused the Cathedral Dean of "descrating our symbols" even though viewer reaction had been "overwhelmingly positive." In 2016, Sandy's Christa was reinstalled at the cathedral, on the altar, as the centerpiece of the "groundbreaking" The Christa Project: Manifesting Divine Bodies. The Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York wrote an article for the cathedral's booklet stating, "In an evolving, growing, learning church, we may be ready to see 'Christa' not only as a work of art but as an object of devotion, over our altar, with all of the challenges that may come with that for many visitors to the cathedral, or indeed, perhaps for all of us." This exhibition of more than 50 contemporary works that "interpret – or reinterpret – the symbolism associated with the image of Jesus", in order to provide "an excellent vehicle for thinking about sacred incarnation, and one that reaches out to humans of all genders, races, religions and sexual orientations" included work by Fredericka Foster, Kiki Smith, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Eiko Otake.

References

References

1. Saiving had been developing feminist views of theology since the 1950s. Bonewits referred to "thealogian" 1976. Goldenberg used "thealogy" to mean "goddess-talk" expressing the hope that the word would come into use. For full references on all three see under 'History of the Term.
2. Charlotte Caron, ''To Make and Make Again: Feminist Ritual Thealogy'' (Crossroad, 1993) p. 281.
3. Melissa Raphael, ''Thealogy and Embodiment: The Post-Patriarchal Reconstruction of Female Sacrality'' (Sheffield Academic Press:1996)
4. Online Etymology https://www.etymonline.com/word/thea
5. Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/logos
6. Raphael, Melissa. (2005). "Encyclopedia of Religion". Macmillan Reference USA.
7. Raphael, Melissa. (2000). "Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on The Goddess". Pilgrim Press.
8. 'Iolana, Patricia. (January 2012). "Divine Immanence: A Psychodynamic Study in Women's Experience of Goddess". Claremont Journal of Religion.
9. Clack, Beverly. (May 1999). "Thealogy and Theology: Mutually Exclusive or Creatively Interdependent?". Feminist Theology.
10. 'Iolana, Patricia. (2011). "Testing the Boundaries: Self, Faith, Interpretation and Changing Trends in Religious Studies". Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
11. Bonewits, Isaac. (2007). "Neopagan Rites: A Guide to Creating Public Rituals That Work". Llewellyn Worldwide.
12. Scharding, Philip Emmons Isaac. (March 2018). "A Reformed Druid Anthology: Being an unofficial and unauthorized historical collection of some of the spiritual writings from the various Reformed Druid movements in North America; and being mostly a 20th anniversary reprint of ''The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)'' first published in August 1976 c.e., which was edited by Isaac Bonewits and Robert Larson; but prepared for reprinting with some new additions and historical commentary by the current associate editor, Michael Scharding, in August 1996 c.e.". The Drynemetum Press.
13. Goldenberg, Naomi. (1979). "Changing of the gods: Feminism and the end of traditional religions". Beacon Press.
14. Bonewits, Isaac. (1989). "Real Magic: An Introductory Treatise on the Basic Principles of Yellow Magic". Weiser Books.
15. Christ, Carol P. (1987). "Laughter of Aphrodite: Reflections on a Journey to the Goddess". Harper & Row.
16. Christ, Carol P.. (2002). "The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology". Cambridge University Press.
17. Brock, Rita Nakashima. (1989). "Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality". HarperCollins.
18. King, Ursula. (1989). "Women and spirituality: voices of protest and promise". New Amsterdam.
19. Caron, Charlotte. (1993). "To make and make again: feminist ritual thealogy". Crossroad.
20. "What Is Goddess Thealogy & Deasophy?". Institute for Thealogy and Deasophy.
21. Christ, Carol P.. (2003). "She Who Changes: Re-imagining the Divine in the World". Palgrave Macmillan.
22. Crist, Carol P.. (2012). "Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality". Psychology Press.
23. Clack, Beverly. (September 1995). "The Denial of Dualism: Thealogical Reflections on the Sexual and the Spiritual". Feminist Theology.
24. Eller, Cynthia. (1995). "Living In The Lap of Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America". Beacon Press.
25. Raphael, Melissa. (1996). "Thealogy and Embodiment: The Post-Patriarchal Reconstruction of Female Sacrality". Continuum International Publishing Group.
26. Raphael, Melissa. "[http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3424503088&v=2.1&u=atla29738&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w Thealogy]". ''Encyclopedia of Religion''. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 13. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. pp. 9098–9101. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Dec. 2012. "There are those on the gynocentric or woman-centered left of Jewish and Christian feminism who would want to term themselves ''theo/alogians'' because they find the vestiges of the Goddess or 'God-She' within their own traditions as Hochmah, Shekhinah, Sophia, and other 'female faces' of the divine."
27. Raphael, Melissa. (2000). "Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on The Goddess". Pilgrim Press.
28. Raphael, Melissa. (2000). "Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on The Goddess". Pilgrim Press.
29. Reid-Bowen, Paul. (2007). "Goddess as Nature: Towards a Philosophical Thealogy". Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..
30. Grenn, Deborah J.. (n.d.). "Connecting With Deity Through a Feminist Metaformic Thealogy". Metaformia: A Journal of Menstruation and Culture.
31. Damian, Constantin-Iulian. (January 2009). "Radical Feminist Theology: From Protest to the Goddess". Scientific Annals of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi – Orthodox Theology.
32. Reid-Bowen, Paul. (2007). "Goddess As Nature: Towards a Philosophical Thealogy". Ashgate Publishing.
33. Mallory, Chaone. (2010). "The Spiritual is Political: Gender, Spirituality, and Essentialism in Forest Defense". [[Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture]].
34. Davis, Philip G.. (1998). "Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality". Spence Publishing Company.
35. Graham, Elaine L.. (2002). "Representations of the Post/Human: Monsters, Aliens and Others in Popular Culture". Rutgers University Press.
36. Fang-Long, Shih. (2010). "The New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion". John Wiley & Sons.
37. Harding, Sandra G.. (1991). "Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?: Thinking from Women's Lives". Cornell University Press.
38. Haraway, Donna J.. (1991). "Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature". Routledge.
39. (April 25, 1984). "Bishop Attacks Display Of Female Christ Figure". The New York Times.
40. "5 Wounds by artist Bettina WitteVeen at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York". Art & Artworks.
41. (October 4, 2016). "An 'Evolving' Episcopal Church Invites Back a Controversial Sculpture". The New York Times.
42. (December 29, 2016). "What to See in New York City Galleries This Week". The New York Times.
43. "The Value of Sanctuary". Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.
44. "The Christa Project: About the Artists". The Catherdral of Saint John The Divine.