Carol P. Christ

Carol Patrice Christ (December 20, 1945^[1] – July 14, 2021^[2]) was a feminist historian, thealogian, author, and foremother of the Goddess movement. She obtained her PhD from Yale University and served as a professor at universities such as Columbia University and Harvard Divinity School. Her best-known publication is "Why Women Need The Goddess".^[3] It was initially a keynote presentation at the "Great Goddess Re-emerging" conference" at the University of Santa Cruz in 1978. This essay helped to launch the Goddess movement in the U.S. and other countries. It discusses the importance of religious symbols in general, and the effects of male symbolism of God on women in particular. Christ called herself a "thealogian" and as such, made important contributions to the discipline of theology, significantly helping to create a space for it to be far more inclusive of women than has historically been the case. The term "thealogy" is derived from Ancient Greek θεά (theá, "goddess") + -logy.^[4]

Christ wrote five influential books on women's spirituality and feminist theology and was a co-editor of two classic anthologies: "Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality" (1989); and "Womanspirit Rising" (1979/1989). The latter included her essay Why Women Need the Goddess.^[5] Both anthologies included feminist religious writing from writers from a very diverse range of religious backgrounds. She held a PhD from Yale University. Carol P. Christ taught at major universities in the United States, including Columbia University, Harvard Divinity School, Pomona College, San Jose State, and the California Institute of Integral Studies. As director of the Ariadne Institute, she conducted pilgrimages to sacred sites in Greece containing artifacts of matriarchal religion.^[6] For many years she had been a resident of the Greek island of Lesbos, the home of the poet Sappho.^[7][8]