Carol Christ (Ph.D. Yale University, 1974)
I first became interested in women and religion when I was one of the few women doing graduate work in Religious Studies at Yale University in the late 1960's. When I read in the works of theologians called "great" that woman is to man as body is to soul, that women have a lesser rational capacity than men, that man is to have initiative, precedence, and authority over women, etc., I knew there was something wrong with the inherited religious traditions. From the beginning I understood that the images of God as Father, Son, Lord, and King were part of the problem. As Mary Daly said: if God is a man, then man is God.
At first the ancient images of the Goddess did not interest me. Athena was warlike and stated that she always sided with men. Aphrodite was a sex object, and so on. After much diligent research, aided by other women, I gradually came to understand that beneath the familiar Goddesses of the patriarchy, there is a much more ancient Goddess. The Goddess of Old Europe and Ancient Crete represented the unity of life in nature, delight in the diversity of form, the powers of birth, death and regeneration. In Goddess religion death is not feared, but is understood to be a part of life, followed by birth and renewal. We are not to 'lord' over nature and other creatures. Rather we are all interconnected in the web of life.
In Old Europe and Ancient Crete, women were respected for their roles in the discovery of agriculture and for inventing the arts of weaving and pottery making. Men were valued for their contributions to agriculture, to trade, and to the navigation of rivers and seas. Warfare was unknown or rarely practiced. Though she lived in more violent times, Sappho remembered "how tender feet of Cretan girls danced once around an altar of love" and wrote that "whatever one loves" is more to be valued than calvary corps, infantry, and ships of war.
In traveling to Crete, we seek to connect to ancient women, to a time and place where women were at home in their bodies, honored and revered, subordinate to none. We seek knowledge of a time when women and men came together freely without specters of domination and control, self-loathing and shame, that have marred the relation of the sexes for thousands of years. We have found that the ancient stones speak. Descending into caves we feel grounded in Mother Earth and in the sure knowledge of the power of our female bodies. We seek to heal the wounds of patriarchy, violence, and war. We hope to participate in the creation of ecologically balanced, peaceful cultures in which every woman and man, every creature and every living thing is respected and revered for its unique contribution to the web of life.
Why Women Need the Goddess
Nine Touchstones of the Goddess Religion
Who is Ariadne?
Birdwatching in the Wetlands of Kalloni
The Courage to Create Peace
Remembering Merlin Stone (1931-2011)
From Scotland to the Aegean Sea: Diving Deep in Conversation
with Carol P. Christ [by E.C. Erdmann]