Thealogy

Thealogy, a neologism coined by Isaac Bonewits in 1974, is a discourse that reflects upon the meaning of Goddess and Her relationship to life forms. It is a discourse that critically engages the beliefs, wisdom, practices, questions, and values of the Goddess community, both past and present. The term suggests a feminist approach to theism and the context of God and gender within Neopaganism. "Thealogy" increasingly appeared in feminist literature associated with the Neopagan Goddess movement during the 1980s to 1990s, perhaps coined independently of Bonewits, as Naomi Goldenberg is often credited with first using the term in 1979 in her book Changing of the Gods.

Thealogy could be described as religiously pluralistic, as thealogians come from various religious backgrounds that are often hybrid in nature. In addition to Neopagans, 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 describe in more detail the feminine aspect of a monotheistic deity or trinity, such as God/dess Herself, Sophia of Eastern Orthodoxy or the Heavenly Mother of the Latter Day Saint movement.

Terminology

Main article: Feminist theology

In "The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)", privately published in 1976, Isaac Bonewits used "thealogian" to refer to Wiccan author Aidan Kelly, aka "C. Taliesin Edwards". "The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)" represented 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" appears in 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. Kelley himself had related to Bonewits that he couldn't remember which of the two of them said "thealogy" to the other first. In the 1979 "The 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." Also in the same glossary, he defined "theology" with nearly identical words, changing the feminine pronouns with masculine pronouns appropriately.

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. She chronicles 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(King 1989, pp. 126-127).

Carol Christ used the term more substantially in "Laughter of Aphrodite" (1987), acknowledging that those who create thealogy cannot avoid being influenced by the categories and questions posed in Christian and Jewish theologies (Christ 1987, p. xii). In "Rebirth of the Goddess", Christ establishes some guidelines for method, suggesting that thealogy begins rooted in women's experience (Christ 1997, pp. 31-49). She then sets out to develop a systematic thealogy of the Goddess, the first to do so.

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" (Russell & Clarkson 1996). By this time, the concept had gained considerable status among Goddess adherents. Mainstream religious studies scholars and theologians have contested the legitimacy of such a discourse.

In 2000, Melissa Raphael wrote the text "Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on the Goddess". 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 (Melissa Raphael 2000, p. 16)

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 2010, Angela Hope formed the "Institute for Thealogy & Deasophy"

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.

Interpretations

• Bonewits implies that thealogy is the Goddess-focused variant of a thealogy/polytheology cluster viewable as subsets of the broader field of the philosophy of religion.
• Christ and Reid-Bowen focus thealogy specifically on post-Christian Goddess spirituality and as a discourse systematically conceivable with specific thealogical methods.
• Caron defines a broader field of a female worldview of the sacred that also incorporates non-feminist approaches to thealogy.
• Raphael focuses on thealogy as an embodied discourse that may or may not be approached systematically; she situates thealogy closely with the views and beliefs held by Goddess feminists.
• Goldenberg's neologism as a political stance that marks the androcentrism of historical theology that summons her reader to think about the possibilities of a discourse about the Divine that is post-patriarchal.
• Hope's rendering situates thealogy as rooted in feminist epistemology and ontology. Similar to Raphael, she locates thealogy as a discourse involving more than just Neopagans, and including those who have not left their established religion. Thealogy is referred to as its own unique discourse separate from theology, rather than a sub-field within theology. In line with Christ and Reid-Bowen, thealogy can be conceived of in a systematic fashion with specific methods, while deasophy, a concept coined by Max Dashu, which addresses the wisdom of the Goddess tradition, may not necessarily be systematically ordered.

Further reading

• Introducing thealogy: discourse on the goddess, Melissa Raphael
• 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
• Naomi Goldenberg "The Changing of the Gods" 1979. Beacon Press, ISBN 0-8070-1111-8
• 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.
• Angela Hope, "What is Goddess Thealogy & Deasophy: Toward a Definition" www.I4TD.org
• D'vorah Grenn, "Connecting with Deity through a Metaformic Thealogy" Metaformia: A Journal of Menstruation and Culture, 2005
• Patricia 'Iolana, "Divine Immanence: Deepening Our Understanding of Women's Experience of God through Literature, Thealogy, and Analytical Psychology" Psychoanalysis, Society, and Culture: A Post Graduate Conference, Middlesex University, 2010.

See also

• God and gender
• Goddess movement
• Goddess worship
• Matriarchal religion
• Matriarchy
• Mother goddess
• When God Was a Woman