{"id":12320,"date":"2021-07-19T20:34:18","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T02:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12320"},"modified":"2021-07-19T20:34:18","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T02:34:18","slug":"why-women-need-the-goddess-the-passing-of-carol-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12320","title":{"rendered":"“Why Women Need the Goddess:” The Passing of Carol Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Carol

Carol Christ (Unitarian Universalist Women and Religion).<\/p><\/div>\n

Carol P. Christ, PhD, a foremost figure in women’s spirituality and Goddess religion, passed away five days ago (14 July 2021). She was born in 1945.((Most people said her surname as “Krist.”\u00a0 Not to be confused with Carol T. Christ, former president of Smith College and chancellor of the University of California-Berkeley<\/a>.))<\/p>\n

Via HecateDemeter<\/em><\/a>, here is an obituary for her from The Girl God<\/em> blog.<\/a><\/p>\n

Christ\u2019s first book, about women writers on spiritual quest, is a book of spiritual feminist literary criticism that focused on feminist authors Kate Chopin, Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, Adriene Rich, and Ntozake Shange. She discovers four key aspects to women\u2019s spiritual quest: the experience of nothingness; awakening (to the powers that are greater than oneself, often found in nature); insight (into the meaning of one\u2019s life); and a new naming (in one\u2019s own terms). She emphasizes the importance of telling women\u2019s stories in order to move beyond the stories told about women by the male-centered patriarchy. Her concluding chapter speaks of a \u201cCulture of Wholeness,\u201d that encompasses women\u2019s quest for wholeness, and she adds that, for this wholeness to be realized, the personal spiritual quest needs to be combined with the quest for social justice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She published an influential list of books (see link above) and was also known for leading group pilgrimages to Goddess sites in the Mediterranean region. There are also links to other tributes to her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carol P. Christ, PhD, a foremost figure in women’s spirituality and Goddess religion, passed away five days ago (14 July 2021). She was born in 1945.((Most people said her surname as “Krist.”\u00a0 Not to be confused with Carol T. Christ, former president of Smith College and chancellor of the University of California-Berkeley.)) Via HecateDemeter, here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[137,16,233,141,12],"class_list":["post-12320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academia","tag-goddess","tag-pilgrimage","tag-women","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3cI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":391,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=391","url_meta":{"origin":12320,"position":0},"title":"Carol Christ bounced by Catholic\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Carol Christ bounced by Catholic collegeSanta Sabina college says that having the well-known Goddess thealogian on their campus would be \"inappropriate\".Online Catholics reports today that Dr Christ is associated with the so-called \u00b4Goddess\u00b4 spirituality, which is characterised by opponents as pre-Christian or pagan.They didn't know that? Why did they invite\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3098,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3098","url_meta":{"origin":12320,"position":1},"title":"How not to Argue for Matriarchy","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Thealogian Carol Christ shows you how not to do it at the Feminism and Religion blog. First, create a \"straw man\" argument that lets you be the\u00a0 heroic rebel: [T]he \u201cparty line\u201d in the fields of Religious Studies and Archaeology\u2014even among feminists\u2014is that there never were any matriarchies and that\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3098#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11666,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11666","url_meta":{"origin":12320,"position":2},"title":"The Morrigan, Therapy, and Female Self-Narration on Social Media","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"From The Pomegranate's special issue on Paganism, art, and fashion, here is a link to \u00c1ine Warren's article, \"The Morrigan as a 'Dark Goddess': A Goddess Re-Imagined Through Therapeutic Self-Narration of Women on Social Media.\" It and other Pomegranate articles are currently available as free downloads. Here \u00c1ine Warren talks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Goddess\"","block_context":{"text":"Goddess","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=goddess"},"img":{"alt_text":"Idealized interpreation of the Morrigan","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ectweb.cs.depaul.edu\/wcotterm\/pics\/hekate.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":712,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=712","url_meta":{"origin":12320,"position":3},"title":"‘The Goddess comes through’","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 31, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Dancers who embody \"the Goddess\" at this page of QuickTime clips. (Work-safe, so far as I can tell. Downloads 10-15 MB)When we say the Goddess is dancing, we are not simply talking about archetypical feminine qualities appearing in the human dancers. Nor are we referring to the women themselves as\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2390,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2390","url_meta":{"origin":12320,"position":4},"title":"Another Case of ‘Sacred Prostitution’?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In Phoenix, Arizona, the Phoenix Goddess Temple is offering erotic massage, etc., in return for \"offerings.\" Women at the temple take names like Magdalena, Shakti, and Devima. There's also a high priestess named Gypsy, and a tall, lithe blonde named Leila, who advertises her measurements (36-26-37) on her page at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":487,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=487","url_meta":{"origin":12320,"position":5},"title":"In memorium Monica SjooMonica Sjoo,\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 9, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"In memorium Monica SjooMonica Sjoo, artist, writer, and a key figure in Goddess spirituality, died Monday. With Barbara Mor, she coauthored The Great Cosmic Mother: Discovering the Religion of the Earth (Harper San Francisco: 1987). She also wrote Return of the Dark\/Light Mother and other works.In an email circulated this\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12320"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12324,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12320\/revisions\/12324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}