History, Herstory, or Heresy? Sophianity and the New Reformation

• Published in: Sanctifying Misandry pp. 183 - 215
• Main Authors: Young, Katherine K, Nathanson, Paul
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Montreal MQUP 01.01.2010; McGill-Queen's University Press
• Subjects: Anthropology; Applied sociology; Behavioral sciences; Bible; Christian history; Christian philosophy; Christianity; Churches; Divine attributes; Divinity; Doctrinal theology; Ecclesiology; Epistemology; Ethnography; Ethnology; Heresy; Human populations; Jewish studies; Judaism; Men; Persons; Philosophy; Population studies; Practical theology; Religion; Religious orthodoxy; Sacred texts; Social sciences; Sociology; Sociology of religion; Spiritual belief systems; Systematic theology; Theology; Wisdom
• ISBN: 0773536159; 9780773536159
• DOI: 10.1515/9780773576834-009

By the 1990s, some goddess ideologues had become religious separatists. They wanted nothing to do with institutionalized religion, especially Western forms. Of interest here, though, are those goddess ideologues whorejectedseparatism. They wanted instead to take charge within those religions. Using the rhetoric of religious reform, albeit to promote religious revolution, they tried to “restore” feminine imagery, including goddesses that had been rejected by these religions. Some Jewish feminists, eager to restore female imagery to their tradition, borrowed terminology from alien sources. “Rabbi” Leah Novick,¹ for instance, refers to her own “rabbi craft.” Others call themselves “Jewitches.”² But most