ABSTRACT
As discussed in chapter 2, Christian feminist theology has many intersections and overlaps with the kind of Christian Goddess Spirituality investigated by this study, to the extent that they can be described as “daughters of the same mother.” In the wake of the 1970s Goddess Movement, Christian feminist theologians, historians and biblical scholars have found the female divine deeply ingrained, although often hidden, in the Christian tradition: in the female metaphors for the divine found throughout the Bible, in the fi gure of Sophia, in the early Christian understanding of the Holy Spirit as Mother, in the Marian tradition and in many other ways. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to call this aspect of feminist academic Christian discourse Christian feminist thealogy-Christian discourse concerning the female divine-although, as noted in chapter 1, Christian feminists have seldom used the term thealogy with respect to their own work. This reticence may spring from concern that the use of a term borrowed from Goddess spirituality might be overly controversial in Christian circles, further marginalizing feminist theology, already perceived as marginal to “mainstream” theology. Another factor may be hesitancy to appropriate for Christian purposes a term coined by and for Goddess scholars, especially since Christianity is often perceived as the antithesis of Goddess, Wiccan and Pagan spiritualities. However, as illustrated by earlier chapters, in academic terms, a neat distinction between feminist theology and Goddess thealogy is diffi cult to maintain.
