Honoring Carol P. Christ

Goddess Scholar and Thealogian Carol P. Christ

“The Goddess is the intelligent embodied love that is in all being.”

On July 14, beloved scholar and teacher Carol P. Christ passed away from cancer. Her last presentation, for the ASWM Symposium, was recorded only days before her death and will be archived in our Resource Library.

We acknowledge this deep loss to the community of goddess scholars and women everywhere, and we want to share resources, a beautiful obituary, and a call for papers for an upcoming symposium in her honor.

Everyone who knew her is invited to share memories and photos of Carol for a running tribute post on the Feminism and Religion Blog. Please email Xochitl Alvizo at feminismandreligionblog@gmail.com (the subject must include ‘blog’).

Also, filmmaker Cheri Gaulke has posted a video of an interview she and Anne Gauldin conducted with Carol during her Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete in September 2019, the last tour Carol led.

OBITUARY: Carol Patrice Christ, 1945-2021 Ellen Boneparth and Mara Lynn Keller

“In Goddess religion death is not feared, but is understood to be a part of life, followed by birth and renewal.” — Carol P. Christ

Carol Patrice Christ died peacefully on July 14 from cancer. Carol was and will remain one of the foremothers and most brilliant voices of the Women’s Spirituality movement. At the conference on “The Great Goddess Re-Emerging” at the University of California at Santa Cruz in the spring of 1978, Carol delivered the keynote address, “Why Women Need the Goddess: Phenomenological, Psychological, and Political Reflections.” Christ proposed four compelling reasons why women might turn to the Goddess: the affirmation and legitimation of female power as beneficent; affirmation of the female body and its life cycles; affirmation of women’s will; and affirmation of women’s bonds with one another and their positive female heritage (Christ 1979).

Carol graduated from Yale University with a PhD in Religious Studies and went on to teach as a feminist scholar of women and religion, women’s spirituality, and Goddess studies, at institutions including Columbia University, Harvard Divinity School, Pomona College, San Jose State University, and the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she was an adjunct professor since the inception of the Women’s Spirituality, Philosophy and Religion graduate studies program in 1993. Christ published eight profoundly thoughtful and inspiring books, several in collaboration with her friend and colleague Judith Plaskow, whom she met at Yale:

Diving Deep and Surfacing: Women Writers on Spiritual Quest (1986)
Woman Spirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, anthology co-edited with Judith Plaskow (1992)
Odyssey with the Goddess: A Spiritual Quest in Crete (1995)
Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality. Anthology co-edited with Judith Plaskow (1989)
Laughter of Aphrodite: Reflections on a Journey to the Goddess (1987)
Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality (1998)
She Who Changes: Re-imaging the Divine in the World (2004)
Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology. Co-authored with Judith Plaskow (2016)

Christ’s 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’s 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’s life); and a new naming (in one’s own terms). She emphasizes the importance of telling women’s stories in order to move beyond the stories told about women by the male-centered patriarchy. Her concluding chapter speaks of a “Culture of Wholeness,” that encompasses women’s 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.

After first traveling to Greece in 1981 with the Aegean Women’s Studies Institute led by her friend Ellen Boneparth, Carol fell in love with the country. She chose to live in Greece, first in Molivos on the beautiful island of Lesbos, and then moving recently to Heraklion, Crete. She had a passion for saving the environment and was active in the Green movement in Greece. she also had a love for swimming in the Aegean and sharing Greek food and wine with friends in Greece and from overseas.

Carol’s fascination with Crete, ancient and modern, led her to found the Ariadne Institute for the Study of Myth and Ritual, through which she offered an educational tour, “Pilgrimage to the Goddess” twice annually. These tours introduced many to a direct experience of the ancient Earth Mother Goddess in Crete.

In her most recent article, for the Encyclopedia of Women in World Religion: Faith and Culture, Christ wrote about the Goddess religion and culture of her beloved island of Crete, and the roles women played in that “egalitarian matriarchal” civilization. Her eloquent words speak not only to the Goddess religion of ancient Crete, but also to the spirituality and ethical values she also cherished, which are much needed in our own culture today.

As discerners and guardians of the mysteries, women created rituals to celebrate the Source of Life and to pass the secrets of agriculture, pottery, and weaving down through the generations. The major rituals of the agricultural cycle involved blessing the seeds before planting, offering the first fruits of the harvest to the Goddess, and sharing the bounty of the harvest in communal feasts. These rituals establish that life is a gift of the Goddess and institute gift-giving as a cultural practice. As women controlled the secrets of agriculture, it makes sense that land was held by maternal clans, that kinship and inheritance passed through the maternal line, and that governance and decision-making for the group were in the hands of the elders of the maternal clan. In this context, the intelligence, love, and generosity of mothers and clan mothers would have been understood to reflect the intelligence, love, and generosity of the Goddess.

FREE ONLINE SYMPOSIUM : Carol P. Christ: A Symposium in Celebration of Her Spiritual-Feminist Activism and Women’s Spirituality Scholarship

October 22, 2021. 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Free Symposium via Zoom hosted by the Women’s Spirituality Graduate Studies Program, California Institute of Integral Studies

Carol Christ Symposium CALL FOR PAPERS

June 20, 2019January 9, 2024

Dr. Savithri Shanker De Tourreil

Sadly, we report that Dr. Savithri Shanker De Tourreil (1935-2019) passed away from complications related to illness, in Montreal, Quebec, on 18 June 2019. She was 84. She was a beloved member of our ASWM community of scholars.

Dr. De Tourreil who held degrees in English literature and religious studies was an active member of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM) where she presented foundational and engaging studies on the matrilineal cultures and customs of Kerala. Her groundbreaking ethnographic doctoral research on women-centered social customs among the Nayar community, *Nayars in a South Indian Matrix: A Study Based on Female Centered Rituals* (Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, 1995) continues to serve as an inspiring model of feminist ethnography, feminist religious studies, matrilineal kinship, goddess scholarship, Hindu women, social change and social customs. Savithri cherished her colleagues and friends in the ASWM circle, and until failing health prevented her from traveling, actively participated in ASWM conferences. Savithri’s clear, original and engaging discussions on the ethnographic, sociological, and anthropological dimensions of women-centered religious practices, gift-economies, matrilineal studies, and goddess mythology have enlivened many ASWM conferences. Savithri’s research has been widely published in feminist religious studies and matrilineal studies.

Full of laughter and wisdom, Savithri was an inspiration to scholars everywhere. Her niece, Gayatri Devi, who co-presented with her, is a member of our ASWM Board. It was Savithri and Gayatri who taught us the wonderful Hand Blessing of the women of Kerala. To paraphrase the famous Jewish prayer, her memory is a blessing to us all.

May 14, 2018January 9, 2024

Remembering Elinor Gadon

We note the passing of feminist cultural historian Elinor Gadon with sadness but also with great gratitude for her work and her influence on research into goddesses and strong women. On this post we will assemble remarks from those who knew her and also from those who benefitted from her work. We will add comments as they are received. To contribute your thoughts, email us at the “contact” address.

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Starr Goode, who interviewed Elinor for her Goddess in Art television series, says of her

The essential quality of Elinor’s work and what she felt was so important was to resacralize women’s bodies. Thank Goddess, this value has found its way into the spirit of our times. Elinor’s work with artists offered us a foundation from which to rise.

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Miriam Robbins Dexter says,

I have a sweet memory of Elinor from the ASWM conference. Toward the end of the Boston ASWM in 2016, I joined Vicki Noble and Donna Read at breakfast. Shortly afterward, Elinor joined us. The four of us ended up having a very long breakfast with wonderful conversation. It is my last memory of Elinor, and I am very happy to remember her that way.

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Eleanor’s longtime friend and colleague Dianne Jenett wrote: A feminist cultural historian and scholar, she was also an extraordinary teacher and the founder of the first academic program in Women’s Spirituality, at The California Institute of Integral Studies, in SF. Her 1989 book The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Times remains an important feminist work in the field of women and religion. With stamina and passionate intellectual curiosity which inspired many of us, in her seventies and eighties Elinor returned to the India she loved in order to do research on the village goddesses of Orissa. Her son John said after he read letters women from all over the world sent to her, “I had no idea she changed so many lives.” She will be sorely missed.

May 11, 2018January 9, 2024

Farewell to Elinor Gadon

Elinor Gadon, 92, died peacefully at her home in Cambridge, MA on May 8th.

As an art historian specializing in the art and culture of India, she taught at Harvard, Tufts and the California Institute of Integral Studies, and held an appointment as a Life Scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center. Her 1989 book, The Once and Future Goddess, became an essential text for the women’s spirituality and Goddess movements, and for college courses on Women and Mythology around the world.

Longtime friend and colleague Dianne Jenett says that her research continued to the end of her life:

With stamina and passionate intellectual curiosity which inspired many of us, in her seventies and eighties Elinor returned to the India she loved in order to do research on the village goddesses of Orissa. Her son John said, after he read letters women from all over the world sent to her, “I had no idea she changed so many lives.” She will be sorely missed.

Born on September 17, 1925 to Maurice H. Weiner and Jean (Kaplan) Weiner, Elinor grew up in Reading, PA, where her parents were the proprietors of Weiner’s Men’s Clothing store on Penn Street. She graduated from Reading High School in 1942 and from the University of Michigan in 1945. She later obtained her doctorate in History of Culture from the University of Chicago.

She was the recipient of the Honor Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts from the Women’s Caucus for Art, and of the Demeter Award for Leadership in Women’s Spirituality from the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology in 2016.

When she received the Demeter award, she responded,

“I have tears in my eyes… how nice of all of you to recognize my work. I really did what was in my heart and on my mind, and how wonderful to have it reach so many people. Let’s keep on with this vision because it’s women who are going to save the world.”

September 13, 2016January 9, 2024

The Passing of Mary Kelly

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We are saddened to report that our longtime ASWM advisory board member, keynoter, and colleague Mary B. Kelly died in March of this year, at her beautiful home in Hilton Head, SC. Mary was a talented artist and teacher whose work on women’s textiles contributed greatly to our knowledge of goddess symbolism and folklore. Her books include a trilogy on goddess embroideries in Eurasia and the Mediterranean. She also led international tours related to women’s spiritual practice through ritual tapestries and cloths.

Mary earned a Master’s degree at Rhode Island School of Design and established the art program at Tompkins Cortland Community College in New York, where she was a professor for 25 years. She also participated in a teaching exchange with a university in Moscow, Russia. In addition to drawing and painting, Mary had a particular interest in textiles. At the same time, she showed her own artwork internationally in many galleries and museums.

She had major solo exhibitions at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Generali Foundation in Vienna, Institute for Contemporary Art in London and her work was featured in exhibitions in the Whitney Museum in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Mary’s art can be found in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery in the UK. She was most recently featured in Mary Kelly: Projects, 1973-2020 at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester, UK.^[16]

Wherever we are discussing goddess lore or sewing fabric art, Mary will be deeply missed. Her passion for goddess embroidery and the spiritual quality of textile-making has inspired a new generation of artists and scholars.