Mandy Van Deven at Religion Dispatches interviews academic Chris Klassen about her new anthology “Feminist Spirituality: The Next Generation”, an exploration of  spiritual/religious expressions among feminism’s “third wave”. In the interview Klassen expresses some surprise at how the majority of submissions came not from within the traditional monotheisms, but from the spheres of Goddess spirituality, Wicca, and modern Paganism.

“Actually I did not intend this. It is simply how it turned out based on the response to my call for papers. In hindsight though I think it makes sense. The term ‘feminist spirituality’ does, for some, mean ‘alternatives’ to mainstream religion. Thus people working on third wave feminism within Christianity or Islam or Buddhism may not have initially thought the call relevant. (Well, assuming there are folks out there working on third wave feminism within traditional religions, and I really hope there are.) But, as I said before, much feminist spirituality in the new millennium tends toward blurry borders between religions, so it could be that those most interested in third wave feminist spirituality are not focusing on traditional religions.”

I find it hard to believe that feminist scholars working within a Jewish, Christian, or Muslim context wouldn’t jump at the chance of being published in an even faintly relevant academic anthology. Unless the old “publish or perish” truism has degraded greatly in recent times. Assuming that this anthology is a somewhat accurate mirror of religious expression among modern-day feminists, are we witnessing a triumph of the Goddess? Maybe, though Klassen is quick to point out that feminist spirituality in our current age is an increasingly syncretic and pluralistic phenomena.

“…there is also a lot more religious pluralism within the individual. You have Christian feminists participating in Wiccan rituals and Goddess worshipers honoring Jesus. Like much spirituality in general, in the new millennium, feminist spirituality is a bit of a smorgasbord, and it is important for the individual to create a spirituality which fits her own experience and needs.”

Perhaps these new-millenium feminists are the polar opposites of ultra-patriarchal Christian groups like The Family. Instead of “Jesus plus nothing”, it’s “The Goddess plus everything”. After all, doesn’t the old chant go “we all come from the Goddess and to Her we shall return”? In other words, maybe the Vatican is cracking down on American nuns for a particular reason. As for “Feminist Spirituality: The Next Generation”, you can find a list of chapters and contributors, here.

The Medusa Coils blog recently alerted me to the fact that the (in)famous feminist thealogy course “Cakes for the Queen of Heaven” (the title taken from a famous Bible verse) has released a new and updated version, now available through the Unitarian-Universalist Women & Religion non-profit group.

In the past 20 years it is estimated that 80% of UU congregations have offered the “Cakes” curriculum. Many congregations have offered the series repeatedly. Women who participated state that, “Cakes changed my life! . . . It connected me with my spirituality. . . . It made me aware that history often excludes herstory.” Even when the curriculum was out of print, some congregations continued to offer the series, using well worn, if not battered materials. Today there are many women who are young or new to UU or who have never experienced this series. The woman affirming message of “Cakes” is still just as relevant and necessary today as it was twenty years ago. With the newly revised and republished materials, we can begin anew.

It is safe to say that this course has had a large affect on the growth of feminist thealogy, Pagan religion, and recognition of the feminine divine in our culture. Over twenty years later, despite this growth in popularity of more female-focused or gender-balanced faiths, the mere idea of a female divinity (let alone the “Queen of Heaven”) is still enough to drive some monotheistic adherents to distraction. The vitality and endurance of  “Cakes for the Queen of Heaven” can perhaps be measured by the  scandals that erupt whenever the course, or one like it, dares to emerge outside the permissive boundaries of the UU church.

It should be interesting to see what the next twenty years of grass-roots feminist thealogy might do. Not only to Unitarian-Universalism, Goddess worshipers, and Pagans, but to the faiths with a vested interest in seeing women as subordinate. Check out the new “Cakes For The Queen of Heaven” blog, as well as samples from the course and a FAQ for more information.

Head over to the religion journalism blog Get Religion to check out Terry Mattingly’s examination of a recent New York Times write-up on the few enduring lesbian separatist communities. Mattingly rightly asks, where’s the examination of their religion?

But here is the mystery, to me. While the story is saturated with religious images — the sisters in this secret, hidden, gated community live on streets named after goddesses, like Diana Drive — there is no specific content about organized religion. Are the sisters agnostics, pagans, a mixture of various liberal mainline faiths? Are they feminist Catholics? Are any of the sisters ordained? We are not told. They are driven by very religious motivations and they are practicing strict, strict, strict doctrinal separatism. But we do not know if these beliefs link to organized religion — other than faith in radical feminism and to the vows that define their corner of the sexual revolution.

These women have “community full moon circles”, but do they have a Goddess? The article never makes it explicit. I encourage my readers to read both the NYT article, and Mattingly’s post, and leave your two cents.

Salon.com interviews gay Catholic author Richard Rodriguez about gay marriage, the “Desert religions”, and the power of women in religious life. What is striking about the piece, from my perspective, is how close he gets to endorsing a shift away from monotheism (or at least male-oriented monotheism) while discussing religion.

“The desert religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — are male religions. Their perception is that God is a male god and Allah is a male god. If the male is allowed to hold onto the power of God, then I think we are in terrible shape. I think what’s coming out of Colorado Springs right now, with people like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, is either the last or continuing gasp of a male hierarchy in religion. That’s what’s at stake. And women have a determining role to play. Are they going to go along with this, or are they going to challenge the order?”

While Rodriquez talks about how the traditional monotheisms feel “threatened by the rise of feminism”, he seems unable to look outside the “desert religions” and see that millions of women are indeed challenging the order by leaving it entirely for a variety of faiths that are more egalitarian in outlook. From Wicca and modern Pagan faiths, to various New Age spiritualities and heretical Christian off-shoots, to the post-creedal and post-Christian Unitarian-Universalists, more and more women are simply opting out of a system that they feel oppresses them. Rodriquez seems almost blind to these shifts, and believes that feminism will continue to produce incremental changes within institutional Catholicism and other male-dominated monotheistic religions.

“The Episcopal Church in America is now under the leadership of a woman. Feminism is going to change a great deal. The most radical people in the Roman Catholic Church are women. They’re challenging everything from the priesthood to the male God to what it means to be married. I don’t expect to see gay marriage enter these conservative institutions in my lifetime. But I do see change.”

The problem with these proposed incremental changes is that they aren’t really working as feminists and other activists intended. The Episcopal Church is slowly splintering, the Catholic leadership is maintaining a hard line against feminist reforms, and anti-gay religious coalitions are becoming more strident. In fact, one could argue that not much progress has been made since some initial breakthroughs in the tumultuous 1970s.

I may be biased, but perhaps the best way to challenge the notion of a solitary male-defined deity is to stop participating in the systems that perpetuate it. The dominant monotheisms know how to handle dissenters and heretics, indeed the very history of monotheism is a history of heretical behavior, but empty pews are another matter altogether. If you want to see change, you have to hit them where it hurts, at the collection plate. Reform comes only when the Vatican can’t afford Benedict’s designer clothes. In the meantime, I advise Richard Rodriguez to investigate the wonderful word of polytheism. We have all the women priests, female deities, and gay-friendly rites you could possibly hope for.

2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Venus of Willendorf, a 25,000 year old statue that some believe represents proof of widespread prehistoric goddess worship. Excavated on August 7th, 1908, the figurine has since become a true modern icon, and is being celebrated with a special exhibition at Vienna’s Natural History Museum.

Venus of Willendorf

Though we don’t know the true name for this goddess, the Venus of Willendorf’s image is venerated once again throughout the West. You have Venus of Willendorf-shaped soap, coffee mugs, jewelry, refrigerator magnets, wands, t-shirts, and chocolate treats. While the once-popular theory of a matriarchal golden age (which the various “Venus” figurines played an important role in) has come under scholarly fire since its hundred-year heyday (1870s through the 1970s), the Venus remains an important key to understanding the minds of our ancient ancestors. Not to mention the cultural and religious shifts that came in the wake of her, and similar finds, discovery.

So happy anniversary to the lost goddess, found once more. Oh, and if you happen to be in Austria anytime soon (you lucky devils), the special exhibition will run through February.

Paula Gunn Allen, an American Indian scholar, poet, and founding figure in the Women’s Spirituality movement, passed away on May 29th after a long illness. She is perhaps best known for her book “The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions”, which argued that women’s central role in Native culture and spirituality was removed or downplayed by European settlers and colonizers. Paula Gunn Allen’s work went on to inspire a new generation of feminist explorations within American Indian communities and beyond.

Paula Gunn Allen

Online tributes to Paula Gunn Allen have appeared at Women’s Space, Medusa Coils, and T. Thorn Coyle’s blog.

“I just found out that Paula Gunn Allen died a few days ago, on May 29th. A respected academic and poet, active in anti-nuclear and anti-war movements, she was an important voice in Native American and Lesbian literature and known as one of the founders of the Women’s Spirituality movement. Needless to say, Gunn Allen was important to me during my formation as a feminist, Pagan, queer, poet and writer.”

You can also read tributes from her son Suleiman Allen and others at a specially created guestbook. In addition, an online memorial site for Paula Gunn Allen has also been created. Her family and friends are asking that donations be made towards the establishment of a scholarship in Paula’s name in lieu of flowers. A public memorial is being scheduled for mid-July.

“We have for all too long loathed the shade–shadows, night, the darkness of the Moon. We have found the shadows so repugnant, the darkness so repulsive, that we have given the Goddess only three parts — maiden, mother and crone — thoroughly repressing the fourth, that of mystery…Chaos, the Grandmother of all that is, now comes among us, just as we discover that she is the source of all order and that she is infinitely generative, infinitely fecund. It is as the old ones have told: the name of the Female Principle is “Thought,” and she is more fundamental and varied than time and space….” – Paula Gunn Allen, from her introduction to Gossips, Gorgons & Crones, The Fates of the Earth, by Jane Caputi, 1993.

May she rest in the arms of her gods, and be reunited with her ancestors.

In a move that should surprise no one, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the organization formerly known as the Inquisition) has ruled that baptisms using gender-neutral formulas for the Trinity are invalid.

“The Vatican declared Friday that baptisms must be performed under a traditional formula – referring to the Trinity as the ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ – to be valid. Any baptisms conducted under new formulas that use inclusive nonmale language are not legitimate … The rejected formulas are: ‘I baptize you in the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier’ or ‘I baptize you in the name of the Creator, and of the Liberator and of the Sustainer.’”

The CDF further opined that “these variations arise from so-called feminist theology”, a movement much at odds with the current Pope’s thinking, who sees “radical” manifestations of feminist theology as entirely un-Christian.

“The Pope, who wrote the latest ruling, has been a strong opponent of feminism in the Catholic Church. In his book, The Ratzinger Report, he wrote: ‘I am, in fact, convinced that what feminism promotes in its radical form is no longer the Christianity that we know; it is another religion.’”

If Pope Benedict thinks that mere gender neutrality is too far, you can be sure that referring to the Christian God as “God/ess” or “Primal Matrix” (or “Mother”) is right out. Feminist theologians like Rosemary Radford Ruether may claim that the Pope “is not our Pope”, but the truth is that reformist-minded Catholics on the left have found themselves ever-more isolated and minimized within a Church turned towards maintaining and strengthening its boundaries.

For Benedict, the salvation of the Church isn’t in the reforms that have led to the near (and perhaps impending) break-up of the Anglican Communion, but in returning to a “purer” Church by rolling back what this Pope sees as the excesses that have followed in the wake of Vatican II. The truth of the matter may be that feminist reforms will never be allowed to make significant headway into the Catholic Church.

Perhaps it is time for feminist theologians like Ruether to give up trying to change Catholicism from within. It may be that feminist author Germaine Greer has the right idea. When asked about the baptism issue, Greer pointedly said that “if the Pope succeeds in turning Catholic women against the church, so much the better.” Perhaps all these scholars, theologians, and authors would be better served by leaving Christianity behind, and embracing those traditions unafraid of feminine power and authority. Certainly modern Paganism could always use more theologians, creative thinkers, and ritualists. Better still, we don’t have an Inquisition snooping about for heresy.