Exploring Feminst Theology | With Library Technology
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"The symbol of the GODDESS is the acknowledgment
of the legitimacy of female power as a beneficent and independent power." -Carol Christ
What does God(dess) look like to you?
About the Course
As part of the flipped classroom project, I have created a unit lesson in which learners will creatively apply Feminist Theological principles to certain tech projects. The lesson actively engages with the texts of feminist ‘thealogian’ Carol P. Christ. Videos, articles, and various forms of writing will be assessed in conjunction to Christ’s texts. The concepts and critical analysis developed through the assessment of these works will shape the artistic tech projects assigned in the lesson. An overall objective is to teach learners how to critically analyze certain religious symbols that have the potential to disempower and marginalize people/ groups. Not only does the course proffer an example of a more inclusive religious symbol system, it also invites learners to experience the autonomy of reflecting on ideas that subvert patriarchal constructs, especially those within religious institutions.
As the lesson centralizes Carol Christ’s various works, participants will explore how Christ’s theories on spirituality and religious symbology can translate to their own lives or their own personal affiliations with certain religions. In her works, Christ asserts that a connection between one’s own life and one’s own theology/thealogy necessitates a critique of scholarly and theological traditions. The symbol systems rooted in religion and manifested in culture cannot be rejected by the psyche, so she endeavors to replace these symbols with the image of the Goddess.
The lesson unit is a personal excavation of the self, the Goddess symbol, and of many other intersecting facets that constitute one’s identity. Learners will see how Christ’s assertion of Goddess symbolism has a very long tradition throughout history; many cultures throughout ancient times heralded the female form and deified the body via Goddess worship. However, positing Goddess symbolism in history/herstory is not the validating fulcrum. The relevancy of the Goddess is assessed through how She relates to the individual lives of each learner. One of the tech projects urges learners to replace traditional views of God with images that speak to their own personalities and connections to all life forms. God doesn’t have to be the old, bearded man seen throughout art history. Another tech project compels learners to think critically about the representation of females/ the female body in various religions. Analyzing these portrayals from a feminist lens (the type of lens utilized in Christ’s texts), learners will give voices to female religious figures, relaying their feelings about how religious systems have represented them over time. These exercises encourage learners to examine the nuanced interpretations of female religious figures and how the means by which they have been portrayed can be altered—for the good of many different kinds of people.
Christ’s thealogy, with its Goddess symbolism, can be translated across various religions. As learners read her texts and participate in various tech/dialogue projects (which I call the four seasons: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, and Season 4), they can decide if the Goddess symbolism is beneficial to their own spirituality.
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Is God a man? A woman? Both? Neither? The lesson unit explores how particular perceptions can enfranchise and empower those marginalized by traditional, patriarchal views. The Goddess symbol—in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or countless other religions—can be extraordinarily powerful and life affirming; participate in the lesson to find out how!
