Feminist Spirituality

These discussions of feminist spirituality took place on WMST-L in March
2008 and August/September 2009.  They consider several aspects: definitions of
feminist spirituality, resources for teaching about it, women within and outside
organized religion, the relation between spirituality and religion, and more. 
Because of its length, the 2008 discussion has been divided into two parts (both
parts are in this one file--simply click on the arrows to navigate between the
parts).  Part 3 contains the discussion from 2009.  For more WMST-L files
available on the Web, see the WMST-L File Collection.

PART 1 OF 3

Hi.  I am developing a course I am calling "Feminist Spirituality."  We will
look at women across the ages both within and out of organized religion. 
I'd also like to consider the "role" of the academy in teaching
spirituality.  Are we to presume objectivity?  Are we here to grow their
minds or their spirits?  Are these even useful terms?

In part this arose due to a discussion in class last week where several
students expressed frustration over how to deal with the seemingly overwhelming
amount of negativity in the world.  They feel powerless to do anything about
all the things they are now aware of.  So I am thinking a course that addresses
changing oneself makes sense.  Please send along any ideas you've got regarding
texts.  Of course there's the goddess-worship stuff, academically oriented. 
How about other material, perhaps women's own spiritual journeys in the context
of feminism?  I am open to all suggestions.

Any advice and ideas appreciated.   Please reply privately.

Thanks!

dyb

Diana York Blaine, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
The Writing Program and Gender Studies
University of Southern California
dblaine AT usc.edu
http://www.dianablaine.com

"Serving the Moon Goddess since 1961"

A few suggestions from Jewish feminist traditions:

Merle Feld, _A Spiritual Life: A Jewish Feminist Journey_

Haviva ner-David, _Life on the Fringes_

ed. Danya Ruttenberg, _Yentl's Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism_

fiction by Tova Mirvis (_The Ladies Auxiliary_ and _The Outside World_)
might also be useful

Helene Meyers
Professor of English
Southwestern University
1001 E. University Ave.
Georgetown, TX 78626
http://www.southwestern.edu/faculty/meyers/

Hello,

You might want to try Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands (a new edition came
out last year) paired with one of her interviews from the edited
collection by Ana Louise Keating. She frequently brings up what
spirituality means to her, and also comments on how in discussions of her
work this component is ignored. When I've taught her work, my students
have really connected to her work - I think it opens up the possibility of
them considering the place of spirituality in their work and lives,
without being making them feel like there is one right way or that I am
trying to draw them into a specific belief system.  Along with Anzaldua,
Chicana feminists such as Cherrie Moraga and Ana Castillo might be good to
look at.

Good luck!

Ariella

Ariella R. Rotramel
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Women's and Gender Studies
Rutgers University-New Brunswick
rotramel AT rci.rutgers.edu

Does anybody have any guidance on what spirituality actually is? Is it
religion by another name, or something else, and if it's something else,
does anyone know what?

------------------------------
Ophelia Benson, Editor 
Butterflies and Wheels
www.butterfliesandwheels.com<http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/>
------------------------------

An older book, but a very good one is Carol P. Christ's "Diving Deep and
Surfacing."  She has several introductory  chapters (including an
excellent chapter on what amounts to a woman's dark night of the soul),
then takes individual works from writers such as Ntozake Shange,
Adrienne Rich, Margaret Atwood, in short poets and fiction writers whose
subjects are feminine spiritual quests.

Nancy Whitt, Ph.D.
Professor of English and Department Chair
Samford University
Birmingham, AL 35229
nmwhitt AT samford.edu

As an accessible starting place, there is bell hooks essay "Feminist
Spirituality" in Feminism is for Everyone.

For a more specific focus on Christianity, there is the collection
"Being Feminist, Being Christian" published by Palgrave 2006 (has one of
my essays in it).

There is also The Woman's Bible by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and there are
of course a whole host of writings by female mystics through the ages.

Best,

Carol
 
Carol Blessing, Ph.D.
Professor of Literature
Point Loma Nazarene University
San Diego, CA 92106
carolblessing AT pointloma.edu
 
"I believe in parables. I navigate life using stories where I find them,
and I hold tight to the ones that tell me new kinds of truth."  Barbara
Kingsolver, "Small Wonder."

Both the memoirs by Kidd and Galland reflect interesting journeys through
and then away from traditional Christianity--

Sue Monk Kidd. The Dance of the Dissident Daughter:  A Woman's Journey From
Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine.  (1996)

China Galland,  Longing for Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna (1991)

-- 
Dr. Barbara C. Ewell
Dorothy Harrell Brown Professor of English
Loyola University New Orleans
New Orleans, LA 70118
http://www.loyno.edu/~bewell

I think that there are multiple definitions of "spirituality."  While some
might define it as religion by another name, others see it as quite
different from organized religions, or even belief in "higher powers."  I
would argue that spirituality & religion can be quite different.  Anzaldua's
theory of spiritual activism offers an important alternative to religious
spirituality, as do holistic perspectives and social-justice theories of
interconnectivity.  To blow my own horn: I discuss some of these issues in
my *Teaching Transformation: Transcultural Classroom Dialogues*.  You might
also look at the first and last chapters of M. Jacqui Alexander's
*Pedagogies of Crossing* or the final section of *this bridge we call home:
radical visions for transformation* (ed by Anzaldua & myself) or Leela
Fernandes' *Transforming Feminist Practice: Non-Violence, Social Justice,
and the Possibilities of a Spiritualized Feminism*.  Interconnectivity is
key.

AnaLouise Keating
Women's Studies
Texas Woman's University
zami11 AT verizon.net

The woman's encyclopedia of myths and secrets (1983) ISBN 0-06-250925-X 
The woman's dictionary of symbols and sacred objects (1988), Castle Books, ISBN 0-06-250923-3 
The crone: woman of age, wisdom, and power (1988) ISBN 0-06-250934-9 
Women's rituals: a sourcebook (1990) ISBN 0-06-250939-X 
Restoring the goddess: equal rites for modern women (2000) ISBN 1-57392-786-4 
The essential handbook of women's spirituality and ritual (2001) ISBN 1-931412-64-2 
The skeptical feminist: discovering the virgin, mother, and crone (1987) ISBN 0-06-250932-2 
 
The first, the Encyclopedia, is rather dense, the last distinctly
accessible. In other words, Walker's style is varied, is broad.

Tamarah Cohen (KGU, Japan)

In a message dated 3/10/2008 3:39:45 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
dblaine AT USC.EDU writes:

> They feel powerless to do anything about all the things they are now aware 
> of.  So I am thinking a course that addresses changing oneself makes sense.  
> Please send along any ideas you've got regarding texts.  

I'm not so sure that changing oneself is the appropriate initial
solution to a sociopolitical problem (which is what I consider the
oppression of women in a number of major religions to be). The major
focus of feminist spirituality, as it arose most recently in the 1970s
and has continued lo these many years, is to change traditions,
scriptural interpretations, imaging of deity and other practices and
beliefs within various religions that oppress us (women). This can
mean we attempt to make changes in those religions or it can mean we
establish new-ish religions (or spiritual paths) based on what, as far
as we can tell, has been suppressed in the history of various
religions. The latter includes re-instituting at least some of the
probable religious traditions that have been (almost) erased from
memory (this is where what you call "the goddess worship stuff") comes
in. Change within oneself may come as a result of these changes in
either established religions or from the religions  we (re-)
establish. But I think to say that the initial change must be within
oneself is similar to saying that the persecuted must change, rather
than the persecution must change (stop!).  IOW, before the we can
change within, the outside socio-political base for religion needs to
be dealt with. Exposing this socio-political base is, imo, an
appropriate approach for women's studies courses.

Regarding the difference between "spirituality" and "religion": some
people make a distinction because they are seeking to make a break
with established or organized religions. IOW, the word "religion" has
negative associations. For other people religion has an element of
organization and shared beliefs that "spirituality" doesn't have. When
it comes to "the goddess worship stuff" as it is practiced today I
would note, first, that many of us prefer to call it Goddess
veneration or honoring or some other synonym, rather than "worship"
because "worship" seems to place a distance and hierarchy between the
individual and the divine that we don't feel exists. Regarding the
term "religion," as it relates to contemporary Goddess veneration, I
agree with Carol P. Christ (see for example, _Rebirth of the Goddess:
Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality_ ,1997, Addison-Wesley) and
others who see what is going on today as religion, taking into
consideration that word "religion" derives from a root meaning "re-
linking."

I've posted the following resource here before in response to similar
queries, but since someone else is asking again, here's a bibliography
of books and videos/dvds that you may find useful:
http://goddess.judithlaura.com/biblio.html They include Goddess,
Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other viewpoints, including some
Womanist texts.

Judith
  
http://www.judithlaura.com/

The woman's bible is mostly an attack on sexism in the bible and by its
conventional interpreters. it's hilarious. But I wouldn't call it spiritual.

Katha Pollitt
katha.pollitt AT gmail.com

If you want personal spiritual/religious journeys, but in the context of a
politically activist collective context then look at God's Fierce Whimsy by
the Mudflower Collective (Katie G. Cannon, Beverly Harrison, Carter Heyward,
Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Bess Johnson, Mary Pellauer, and Nancy D. Richardson -
all Christian feminists and fierce and wonderful people!)

Barbara Scott Winkler, 
Director of Women's Studies, Southern Oregon University, on sabbatical 2007-2008 
winklerb AT sou.edu or winklerb AT charter.net

A number of us have been active in reworking Judaism across the spectrum
to make it women-friendly, reflecting our lives, our ideas, our desires,
our experiences-- Alicia Ostriker, Suzannah Heschel, Blu Greenberg, many
women rabbis, myself, etc.  There is a great deal of material available.

Marge Piercy

>Please send along any ideas you've got regarding texts.

http://www.yorku.ca/inanna/theorize_empowerment-contents.html

Theorizing Empowerment: Canadian Perspectives on Black Feminist Thought
edited by Notisha Massaquoi and Njoki Nathani Wane (2007)
ISBN no. 978-0-9782233-4-2 / 328 pgs. / $29.95

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
xi

Foreword 

Joan Grant Cummings
xiii

love equality freedom and revolushun
d'bi.young.anitafrika
1

Introduction

Future Imaginings of Black Feminist Thought
Notisha Massaquoi
5

Black Feminist Spiritualities: Where It All Begins 

African Women's Indigenous Spirituality: Bringing It All Home
Njoki Nathani Wane and Erica Neegan
27

Practicing African Spirituality: Insights from Zulu-Latifa, an African
Woman Healer
Njoki Nathani Wane 
47

"We Get Trooà" : Caribbean Canadian Women's Spirituality as a Strategy of
Resistance
Yvonne Bobb-Smith 
55

Black Canadian Feminist Histories and Frameworks: 
Reclaiming Our "Place" 

An Unsettled Feminist Discourse
Notisha Massaquoi
75

Building Sandcastles in the Snow: Meanings and Misconceptions of the
Development of Black Feminist Theory in Canada
Jewel Amoah
95

Black Women, Racing and Gendering the Canadian Nation
Charmaine Crawford
119

African Women and Canadian History: Demanding Our Place in the Curriculum
Njoki Nathani Wane
129

Black Canadian Feminist Experiences and Struggles: Multiple Jeopardy

"Third World Women,"  "Women of Colour,"  and "Minority Women" : 
An African/Black Feminist Analysis of Our Identities 
Roberta K. Timothy
155

When Race Structures "Beingness" : The Experiences of African Canadian
Women in a Place They Call Home
Bathseba Opini and Njoki Nathani Wane
177

Race, Language and la Francophonie: Black Francophones Caught Between
Racism and Linguicism
Amal Madibbo
199

Censure and Silence:
Sexual Violence and Women of the African Diaspora
LLana James
228

Black Canadian Feminist Discourses and Practices: 
Organizing for Change

Feminist Leadership and Female Genital Mutilation in Canada: A Community
Health Centre's Advocacy and fgm Eradication Efforts
Wangari Esther Tharao and Linda Cornwell
247

Canadian Black Feminist Thought and Scholar-Activist Praxis
Rai Reece
266

Notes on Feminism, Racism and Sisterhood
Charmaine C. Williams and Shirley Chau 
285

Conclusion

Canadian Black Feminist Thought: 
Re-Imagining New Possibilities for Empowerment
Njoki Nathani Wane
296

Contributor Notes
310

hello, I very much resonate with the following comments: 

> I'm not so sure that changing oneself is the appropriate initial 
> solution to a sociopolitical problem (which is what I consider the 
> oppression of women in a number of major religions to be). The major 
> focus of feminist spirituality, as it arose most recently in the 1970s 
> and has continued lo these many years, is to change traditions, 
> scriptural interpretations, imaging of deity and other practices and 
> beliefs within various religions that oppress us (women). This can 
> mean we attempt to make changes in those religions or it can mean we 
> establish new-ish religions (or spiritual paths) based on what, as far 
> as we can tell, has been suppressed in the history of various 
> religions. The latter includes re-instituting at least some of the 
> probable religious traditions that have been (almost) erased from 
> memory (this is where what you call "the goddess worship stuff") comes 
> in. Change within oneself may come as a result of these changes in 
> either established religions or from the religions  we (re-) 
> establish. But I think to say that the initial change must be within 
> oneself is similar to saying that the persecuted must change, rather 
> than the persecution must change (stop!).  IOW, before the we can 
> change within, the outside socio-political base for religion needs to 
> be dealt with. Exposing this socio-political base is, imo, an 
> appropriate approach for women's studies courses. 

I appreciate the situation of spirituality within the theorization of
empowerment by Black Canadian feminists. And I think the change implied is
also a change in the politics and arrangements of power which suppress and
delegitimize nondominant and indigenous spiritual
beliefs/practice/worldviews, as in the systematic suppression of
Aboriginal spirituality under colonialism. Spirituality and healing in
this context are expressions of anticolonialism. Similar attention is
needed to the our implications in power as we attempt to avoid the
epistemological violence of unclusive theorizations that invisibilize
diversities and histories. 

I don't think the text below addresses how politically charged
spirituality is but surely there is work that does. An example is a
chapter in Andrea Smith's (2005) book, Conquest: Sexual Violence and
American Indian Genocide South End Press, titled Spiritual appropriation
as sexual violence, pp. 119-135.

Linda 

Making Space for Indigenous Feminism
edited by Joyce Green
224pp ISBN: 978-1-55266-220-5 $24.95 May

The majority of scholarly and activist opinion by and about Aboriginal
women claims that feminism is irrelevant for them. Yet, there is also an
articulate, theoretically informed and activist constituency that
identifies as feminist. By and about Aboriginal feminists, this book
provides a powerful and original intellectual and political contribution
demonstrating that feminism has much to offer Aboriginal women in their
struggles against oppression. The contributors are from Canada, the USA,
Sßpmi (Samiland) and Aotearoa/New Zealand. The chapters include
theoretical contributions, stories 
Contents:
Introduction: From Symposium to Book Joyce Green Part 1: What is 
Aboriginal Feminism?   Taking Account of Aboriginal Feminism Joyce 
Green   Aboriginal Women on Feminism: Exploring Diverse Points of View 
Verna St. Denis   Metis and Feminist: Reflections from the Margins 
Emma LaRocque Part II: Feminist Analysis and Theory   Sami Women and 
Feminism: Strategies for Healing and Transformation Rauna Kuokkanen   
Native American Feminism, Sovereignty, and Social Change Andrea Smith 
  Gender, Essentialism, and Feminism in Samiland Jorunn Eikjok 
translated by Gunhild Hoogensen   Indigenous Feminism as Resistance to 
Imperialism Makere Stewart-Harawira   Balancing Strategies: Aboriginal 
Women and Constitutional Rights in Canada Joyce Green Part III: 
Aboriginal Feminist Activists and Sister-Travellers   Looking Back, 
Looking Forward Shirley Green   Maori Women and Leadership in Aotearoa 
Kathie Irwin   Yes, My Daughter, We Are Cherokee Women Denise Henning 
  My Home Town Northern Canada South Africa Emma LaRocque   Culturing 
Politics and Politicizing Culture Shirley Bear   An Aboriginal 
Feminist on Violence Against Women Tina Beads with Rauna Kuokkanen   
Colleen Glenn: A Metis Feminist in Indian Rights for Indian Women 
Colleen Glenn with Joyce Green   Woman of Action: An Interview with 
Sharon McIvor Sharon McIvor with Rauna Kuokkanen
____________________
Linda Green
lgreen AT oise.utoronto.ca

> The woman's bible is mostly an attack on sexism in the bible and by
> its conventional interpreters. it's hilarious. But I wouldn't call it
> spiritual.

I've lost the original question, but
Stanton's essay-? on solitude, written I think on her 90th birthday is
both feminist and spiritual.  I haven't read it in a long time, but
Matilda Jocyln Gage might be another 19th century source. Also, the
Iriquois, who influenced both of the above had a feminist spirituality.

Pat Murphy
Associate Professor of Sociology
SUNY Geneseo
1 College Circle
Geneseo, NY 14454
murphy AT geneseo.edu

I wrote an explicit feminist essay for _The Unfolding
Tradition: Jewish Law After Sinai_ ed. Rabbi Elliot
Dorff (Aviv Press, Rabbinical Assembly, 2005)
on feminism and halakhah (Jewish Law, which is in
traditional Jewish movements the vehicle for
spirituality- together with prayer, of course- part of
how spirituality gets expressed).
This chapter is used by the Conservative movement as
part of rabbinic training on Jewish approaches to
practice.

Alana Suskin

HI Linda -- I agree here, too about the neo-liberal
individualism (change yourself, strive for
enlightenment, etc.) that seems to be behind this new
sprituality feminism. 

I have noticed something very interesting with
students, especially women's and gender studies
students -- a belief that the 'next wave' or 4rth wave
of the US women's movement will be based on
sprituality and a revival of mother-earth discourses
from the second wave. 

Often, in my courses, I teach the dominant
historiography of US and transnational women's
movements and the major interventions/critiques of
that dominant history. So, for example, they learn
that 3rd wave feminism was no simple continuation of
the 60s/70s, that it came out of the black feminist
critical race critique in combination with a new
mutli-ethnic generation of young women's
issues/observations. 

History, let alone the concept of a social movement
are new teaching topics for them ....
When I ask students to define a 'social movement',
justice or social change in the context of their
feminist spritualism, they seem lost.

I also see a lot of "waving" going on -- as a desire
to pick, identify, and name what might be 'next' for
the new incarnation of feminism. This desire for a new
wave seems to be some funny combination of
post-feminism and a denial of the important points
raised by the 3rd wave (increasingly not even invested
in 'wave' analogy) -- like the increasing converence
of evangelical religiousity in the US with corporate,
mutlimedia hegemony.

I am also quite intriqued by what might be an end game
around important 80s, 90s, and 2000s critiques of US
neo-imperial white feminism with a simple revival of
"feminist sprituality" (not to mention potentially
problematic separation of church-state issues for
pedagogy, practice, and politics.)

Well, just some thoughts -- Sarah

In a message dated 3/11/2008 9:34:11 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
sarahrasmusson AT YAHOO.COM writes:

> HI Linda -- I agree here, too about the neo-liberal
> individualism (change yourself, strive for
> enlightenment, etc.) that seems to be behind this new
> sprituality feminism.  

Sarah,
The comments Linda said she was resonating with were mine. And my 
point specifically was that the initial burden of change should NOT be 
put upon the individual woman to change "within" her, but rather upon 
the socio-political context undergirding religion in the society in 
which she finds herself.  The assumption that changing oneself is 
"behind" spiritual feminism, at least as a first step, is not the 
approach taken by most of us who have been active in this movement for 
some time. It rather represents either an accusation meant to 
discredit and de-legitimize the examination of  (and those who 
examine) religion in a socio-political context, or is a 
misunderstanding based on too little familiarity with basic feminist 
spirituality texts. 

Judith
http://www.judithlaura.com/

HI Judith -- You might notice that my comments were
about young women's approach to feminist sprituality
and attempt to sort out the present moment (and,
needing assistance with a socio-political context as
you mention) ... not you or 'those of us in the
movement for a long time' for a long time or the
texts. Thanks, Sarah


Sarah L. Rasmusson
Women's & Gender Studies Program
The College of New Jersey 

A great book to consider would be Diane Bell's "Daughters of the Dreaming"
(1983, George Allen & Unwin). It deals with the ritual/spiritual lives of
Aboriginal women in Australia. Western women might be surprised how much we
share and how much we can learn from the Ab. women. Barbara Watson

Maria-Barbara Watson-Franke, Ph. D.
Professor Emerita
Department of Women's Studies
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182
e-mail: mbwatson AT mail.sdsu.edu

 It seems to me that what we are seeing is a replay of the 60s "Change
the world," turning into the 70s "Change ourselves because maybe we
aren't ready to change the world which was harder to change than we
thought," to the 80's "If I can't change my spirit, maybe I can grow
some muscles."  After that we attempted to reach perfection by losing
weight.

For people who aren't looking at feminist history (and a lot of our
students haven't looked at it), the burnout that follows a strong effort
to change society -- or the present "looking at the size of the
problems, I can't imagine anything I could do would help" feeling of
exhaustion -- comes as a shock.  There was and there is today a feeling
that we need something big to back us up, and the thing we're looking
for has to be internalized -- spirituality instead of religion.
Spirituality may be based on a recognized formalized religion or it may
be witchcraft or earth based, or something more individual, but it has
to be part of us, not something different centered around making rules
for us. There was and is a recognition that a major part of our strength
should come from within but be more than we are without it -- part of us
but not just ourselves.

So this idea is not so much "changing oneself" to fit some external
expectation but being changed by our choices and discoveries into
stronger, more resilient selves, which can then work more productively
to make change and to recover from resistance to the changes we are
working to make.  Stronger women who may or may not choose to be part of
the religious traditions one's socio-political group supports already
change and undermine (or possibly enhance) the socio-political group.  

What we want to do next depends on us as individuals and as groups.  The
possibilities are almost without limit.  I think it's important to
emphasize that no one has to do everything and that different things
will be important to different women.  The great fear that many people
have is that they won't be able to do anything important.  Looking at
all the problems before us, one of my first women's studies students
looked up at her discouraged classmates and said, "Look at it this way,
there's enough important work for all of us."  No class of mine, of any
kind, has finished without hearing that.

Marilyn Grotzky
Marilyn.Grotzky AT cudenver.edu
Auraria Library