Thealogy
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- For the common term, see Theology
Thealogy is a neologism coined by Isaac Bonewits in 1974. The term echoes theology "discourse on the gods" and Greek θεά thea "goddess" and is intended to suggest a feminist approach to theism and the context of God and gender within the context of Neopaganism.
The "Goddess movement" formed in the 1970s within the context of second wave feminism, led by authors like Shekhinah Mountainwater and Zsuzsanna Budapest. "Thealogy" also came to be used in the feminist literature associated with the Goddess movement during the 1980s to 1990s, perhaps coined independently of Bonewits. In 1993, Charlotte Caron defined thealogy as "reflection on the divine in feminine and feminist terms".
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[edit] Terminology
In "The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)," privately published in 1976, Isaac Bonewits used "thealogian" to refer to a Wiccan author (Aidan Kelly, aka "C. Taliesin Edwards," who may have given him the term or vice versa) and "theilogy" (defined as "the study of more than one God"). Bonewits also used "theilogy" (and possibly "thealogy," since he thinks he coined them at the same time) in the pages of the widely-distributed "Gnostica" magazine he edited in 1974 and 1975.
"The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)" were a three-year project starting in 1974 and finished (published) in 1976. The article referred to within "The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)" is dated to the summer of 1976. Moreover, this is almost certainly not the first usage; the context of "thealogian" is in citing a work by C. Taliesin Edwards, "Essays towards a Metathealogy of the Goddess." [stress added] There is, however, a possibility that Bonewits altered the name of the work to fit with his terminology. He is attempting to track this down. Kelley himself has said to Bonewits that he can't remember which of the two of them said "thealogy" to the other first.
In 1976, Valerie Saiving, ending her "Androcentrism in Religious Studies" made a much quoted invocation that yearns towards something as yet undefined-
- it is just possible that the unheard testimony of that half of the human species which has for so long been rendered inarticulate may have something to tell us about the holy which we have not known - something which can finally make us whole.
- (Saiving 1976:197)
In "The Changing of the Gods" 1979:96, Naomi Goldenberg self-consciously introduces the term as a half whimsical possibility, an inspirational comment, not a prelude to exegesis. She does not go on to define what thealogy might be, other than the implicit femininity of the coinage. This lack was perhaps because at that time the very assertion of a serious feminist analysis of religion was virtually unheard of, and the introduction of the concept was an excitingly powerful, but vague, possibility.
Also in 1979, in the first revised edition of "Real Magic," Bonewits defined "thealogy" in his Glossary this way: "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." While the last clause was his editorializing, the majority of the definition was adapted by removing sexist assumptions from a dictionary then in his library. Also in the same glossary, he defined "theology" and "theoilogy" (spelled correctly this time) with nearly identical words, changing the pronouns appropriately. He has since dropped the use of "theoilogy" in favor of "polytheology," also first published by him in the 1976 "Druid Chronicles."
In 2003 he pointed out that "thealogy" is an obvious coinage that may have been invented many times, and that feminist scholars are unlikely to have been familiar with his writings.
Carol Christ used the term more substantially in "Laughter of Aphrodite" 1987.
[edit] Interpretations
- Bonewits implies that thealogy is the Goddess-focused variant of a thealogy/thealogy/polytheology cluster that could be seen as subsets of the broader field of the philosophy of religion.
- Christ, King and Raphael focus thealogy specifically on Goddess spirituality.
- Caron defines a broader field of a female worldview of the sacred.
- Goldenberg's neologism as a political stance that marks the androcentrism of historical theology permeates the other two and raises its own issues.
- The Goddess Movement: modern Priestesses of the Goddess define it as a reference to an all-encompassing "Monotheasm", or study of the one divine, living entity.[citation needed]
- I don't make those kind of distinctions that you hear about, they don't make any sense to me. You can say it's the Great Goddess, and that's the one Goddess, but she's also all of the many goddesses, and that's true. And she's everywhere. She's immanent in everything, in the sparkle of the sun on the sea, and even in an animistic concept. I think certain objects can embody that force and power. So I worship the Great Goddess, and I'm polytheistic and pantheistic and monotheistic too. And I also have a feeling for nature spirits...
- (Cynthia Eller 1993 :132-133)
This broader view has most recently been labeled by Michael York as "polymorphic thealogy." He also raises the issue of whether thealogy venerates one Goddess or many, which some thealogicians consider a non-question since it arises from a monotheist worldview that they do not hold.
In 1993 Charlotte Caron's definition of thealogy as "reflection on the divine in feminine and feminist terms" appeared in "To Make and Make Again" (quoted from Russell & Clarkson 1996). By this time the concept had gained considerable (though conventionally marginal) status, broadly analogous to Ruether's view of radical feminist theology as opposed to reformist feminist theology.
In 1989 Ursula King notes its growing usage as a fundamental departure from traditional male-oriented theology, characterized by its privileging of symbols over rational explanation. She chronicles sympathetically that-
- most writing on the Goddess, when not historical, is either inspirational or devotional, and a systematically ordered body of thought, even with reference to symbols, is only slowly coming into existence.
- (1989:126-127)
In 1997 Melissa Raphael wrote "Thealogy & Embodiment". Together with Carol Christ's "Rebirth of the Goddess" 1997 Raphael's work provides a start for the "systematically ordered body of thought" King found lacking in 1989.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Isaac Bonewits "The Second Epistle of Isaac" in "the Druid Chronicles (Evolved)" Berkeley Drunemeton Press, 1976.
- Isaac Bonewits "Real Magic" Creative Arts Book Co., 1979
- Charlotte Caron "To Make and Make Again: Feminist Ritual Thealogy" NY Crossroad 1993
- Carol Christ "Rebirth of the Goddess:Finding meaning in feminist spirituality" Routledge 1997
- Cynthia Eller "Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America" Crossroad 1993
- Naomi Goldenberg "The Changing of the Gods" 1979
- Ursula King "Women and Spirituality" Macmillan 1989
- Melissa Raphael "Thealogy & Embodiment" 1997 Sheffield Academic Press
- Melissa Raphael "Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on the Goddess" 1999 Sheffield Academic Press
- Letty M. Russell & J Shannon Clarkson "Dictionary of Feminist Theologies" Mowbray 1996.
- Valerie Saiving "Androcentrism in Religious Studies" in Journal of Religion 56:1976:177-97
- Shekhinah Mountainwater, "Ariadne's Thread: A Workbook of Goddess Magic" Crossing Press September 1991
- Z. Budapest, "The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries: Feminist Witchcraft, Goddess Rituals, Spellcasting and Other Womanly Arts " Wingbow Press; 1st Wingbow ed edition September 1989
- Paul Reid-Bowen(2007) Goddess as Nature: Towards a Philosophical Thealogy. Aldershot. Ashgate publishing
