Feminist Spirituality and Goddess Religion
Thousands of years ago, the Goddess was viewed as an autonomous entity worthy of respect from men and women alike. Because of societal changes caused by Eastern influence, a patriarchial system conquered all aspects of life including religion. “Furthermore, most feminists interested in goddesses are women who strongly reject western patriarchal theology”(Culpepper 51). Thus, there was this very strong feminist idea of women being the prime in the early part of the 17th and the 18th century.
Today, the loss of a strong female presence in Judeo-Christian beliefs has prompted believers to look to other sources that celebrate the role of women. Men and women have increasingly embraced goddess religion and feminist spirituality as an alternative to the patriarchy found in traditional biblical religion of the past and the present. In this paper, I would like to discuss this whole issue of the uprising of women spirituality in the United States and also the formation of these so called Goddess Religions, and the ways in which these religions are changing the face of American societal believes. My argument will be supporting the central theme of the movie ‘Women & Spirituality: A Full Circle’, the one that was featured in the lecture. I would like to discuss the main ideas on which this religion is based, the way in which it has come back a full circle and also its adjusting to this modern American society full of many other religions having different ideologies.
Within a few thousand years the first recognizable human society developed worship of the ‘Great Goddess’ or ‘Great Mother’. For these people, deity was female. The importance of fertility in crops, domesticated animals, wild animals and in the tribe itself was of paramount importance to their survival. Thus, the Female life-giving principle was considered divine and an enigma. This culture lasted for tens of thousands of years, generally living in peace. Males and females were treated equally. Their society was matrilineal--children took their mothers' names, but not a matriarchy (Christ 58-59). Life and time was experienced as a repetitive cycle, not linearly as is accepted today. Even the movie we saw in the lecture reflected this basic idea of women being the soul of every living thing on this earth and the gist of life was women.
However, Eastern...
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...ind of religion that can save our mother nature and also our earth’s resources for our future generations and provide us all with a better and safer life ahead. Women in all cases should have equal respect and importance in society, or else this world and life on it would cease!
Bibliography
1. Culpepper, Emily E. “Contemporary Goddess Thealogy: A Sympathetic Critique”, ed. Clarissa W. Atkinson and Margaret R. Miles. Michigan: U.M.I. Research Press, 1987.
2. Christ, Carol P. “Why Women Need the Goddess: Phenomenal, Psychological, and Political Reflections” in Woman Spirit Rising, ed. Carol. P. Christ and Judith Plaskow. San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1979. Pp276-285
3. Miles R. Margaret. “Violence against Women in the Historical Christian West and in North American Secular Culture: The Visual and Textual Evidence”. ed. Clarissa W. Atkinson and Margaret R. Miles. Michigan: U.M.I. Research Press, 1987.
4. Christ, Carol P. “Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality”.
New York City: Routledge, 1997.
5. Corbett, Julia M. “Religion in America-4th edition”. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. Pp 290-295.
In both The Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicity and Appeal to the Christian Women of the South, the women in the stories are using scripture to explain and justify the claims they make about their faith and the faith of others. They do this by sharing stories about their life and events in their lives to show how the spirit has been moved into them. Both texts describe how these women see themselves as readers of the Bible, what religious authority each is claiming, and what new social reality each woman is arguing that is in keeping of God’s will for human beings.
Kubitschek, Missy Dehn. " Tuh de Horizon and Back: The Female Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Modern Critical Lyotard, Jean-Francois. " Excerpts from The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.
Judith Plaskow, a Jewish feminist, searches for ways to incorporate her mostly male-based and male-interpreted faith with her feminist’s ideals in her book of essays, The Coming of Lilith. Her essay covers a wide variety of topics concerning contemporary Judaism and its possibility for flexibility, especially concerning unfair gender roles. Plaskow also discusses how religious traditions can perpetuate a hatred of the “other” religions and how that negatively affects both parties. Judith Plaskow challenges her religious tradition and contemporary culture that is a product of all religions by using sources of Jewish ethics such as the Torah and the Talmud to back up her feminist criticism.
This paper will discuss the well published work of, Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken, 1975. Print. Sarah B. Pomerory uses this book to educate others about the role women have played throughout ancient history. Pomerory uses a timeline to go through each role, starting with mythological women, who were called Goddesses. She then talks about some common roles, the whores, wives, and slaves during this time. Pomerory enlightens the audience on the topic of women, who were seen as nothing at the time. Men were seen as the only crucial part in history; however, Pomerory’s focus on women portrays the era in a new light.
Meese, Elizabeth A. ?Ortality and Texuality in Their Eyes Were Watching God? Crossing the Double Cross: The Practice of Feminist Criticism. North Carolina Press, 1986. 59-70.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. “The Normalization of Goddess Religion.” Feminist Theology: The Journal of the Britain & Ireland School of Feminist Theology 13.2 (2005): 151-157. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.
Earth's Daughters: Stories of Women in Classical Mythology. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Resources, 1999. Print. The. Stebbins, Elinor. The "Athena".
In Women, Church, God: A Socio-Biblical Study, Caleb Rosado uses a socio-biblical approach to discuss the role of women in the church today and how they were treated in the Bible, during the patriarchal times. Rosado looks at the connection between what people believe now, their culture, and how they treat women in regards to how one perceives God. This book contains ten chapters in which several topics are discussed, including the nature of God, the treatment of women in the Bible, patrimonialism, servitude, and servanthood.
The issue of religion in women's horror is much like the issue of class. In most major organized religions there is a definite patriarchal structure of male dominance. The Father, the Son, the Pope, bishops and priests are all part of this structure that mostly lack woman influences. The religious structure reflects the male dominated society as a whole. As one would expect, women are frightful and perhaps horrified at this exclusionary system and in women's horror the idea of a woman Christ figure has been brought forth. Perhaps women are in touch with the idea of the Christ-like figure, one that is nurturing and motherly and by using a woman with Christ-like attributes, the structure of religion is commented on and destructured. Men's horror, however, works in the opposite direction by struggling to maintain the structure as it stands. While women battle to overthrow the ideas of a patriarchal religion, men battle to keep this disturbance in check and find comfort in the reassurance from male horror in the reassertion of male dominance.
Ancient Greek mythology has made its way into public conscience and knowledge. So much so that any person on the street would be able to name at least one deity from their pantheon. From this public knowledge, much is known about the religions including its stories and mythologies. But less is known about a person’s role in Ancient Greek religion and even less about a woman roles in their religion. What roles the Ancient Greek people did play can be gathered from the Greek stories and myths. But more specifically what roles did Ancient Greek women play in their religion. The Ancient Greek myths and stories tell of priestess and women who remained virgins as a way of worshipping their gods. But more questions come from these, why did these women become priestess and what rituals did they perform? Both the reasons behind these motives and the process one goes through to become a priestess must be explored to better a woman’s role in Ancient Greek religion.
Every culture has some form of higher being, to be a model for their behaviour, as well as to look up to. In Greek times, these were the gods and goddesses who made their home on Mount Olympus. Women identified with the goddesses because they shared some feminine attributes. Goddesses were a “symbol of motherhood and fertility, but also of strength, wisdom, caring, nuturing, temperance, chastity, cunning, trickery, jealousy, and lasciviousness” (Clarke, 1999). However, not all of the goddesses possessed all of these attributes. The goddess Aphrodite, for instance, was not nurturing, nor was she very caring.
Weisl, Angela Jane. ""Quiting" Eve: Violence Against Women in the Canterbury Tales." Violence Against Women in Medieval Texts. Ed. Anna Roberts. University of Florida Press, 1998. Print.
3. Dan A. Chekki also told that, “Divinity resides in families in which the women are respected; where they are not, there is ruin.” (Dan A. Chekki, page 75)
Despite the patriarchal society from the biblical days, God is taught as being just as much a Mother as God is a Father (102). The willful ignorance of religious scholars of the time just show that they were making a conscious effort of trying to keep women from retaining any power that they had. This relegation of religious roles in an effort to keep Men in power is a poor example of how Christianity is a religion which promotes for the love and care of all people, no matter their status. The interpretation of God from these times clash severely with my notions of what is now considered to be an all-loving entity. Women of these times were obviously not equal to their male counterparts. In modern days however, women are thought of as equals in society. The problem is that they are still not being treated as equals in a religious aspect as well as many other aspects.
The stories about women in the bible illustrate the importance of their role and contribution to society. Women were slaves, concubines, and child bearers; they were also wives, matriarchs, and prophets. Although, some women had less important titles than others each served a purpose. Even if the Bible does not explain God’s relationship with women as with Moses and other prophets, it illustrates the love and dedication women had for Him. The scriptures describe brave, nurturing, and God fearing women whose decisions impacted the existence of the Israelites.