Rev. Dr. Angela M. Yarber

God of many names, who is not constrained by gender or the binaries humans construct, thank You for the diversity that You imbue in each of us, Your beloved children. We are grateful that You love unabashedly and without discrimination, celebrating the wondrous diversity of humankind: women, men, trans, gay, straight, bi, lesbian, queer, and those not limited to the finitude of our language. In a world where many of us feel constrained by socially constructed categories, we implore You to set us free. In a world where some are valued more than others, we beg You to liberate, overturn, subvert the status quo. And we ask You to embolden us to liberate, overturn, and subvert. Empower us to be Your people, people called to set the captives free, basking in Your never-ending, life-changing, always-accepting love that unites us all. Mother, Father, Friend, Lover, and Guide, incarnate Yourself in us we pray. Amen.

This prayer comes from Rev. Dr. Angela M. Yarber’s prophetic book The Gendered Pulpit: Sex, Body, and Desire in Preaching and Worship. In addition to providing liturgical resources, Dr. Yarber engages readers with personal narrative and scholarly examination of scripture, church history, theology, and theories of preaching and worship. In this book she demonstrates that “gendered and sexualized bodies” are “a vital part of proclaiming the Word, so the body and the experiences of women and the LGBTQ community should be affirmed in preaching and worship.”

In the introduction to The Gendered Pulpit Rev. Dr. Yarber states that through her experience “as an ordained lesbian Baptist preacher,” she has discovered the importance of highlighting marginalized voices. “Since I firmly believe in the notion, ‘if you can’t see it, you can’t be it,’ I have devoted all my adulthood to shifting the status quo when it comes to preaching and worship, doing my best to gender the pulpit in a manner that creates pathways for women and LGBTQ persons to see that they, too, can be called to proclaim the Word. When I step into the pulpit each Sunday, I do so on behalf of countless people who never dreamed that they were affirmed and beloved of God, let alone that they, too, have a Word to share.”

In addition to being a pastor, Rev. Dr. Yarber is an artist, dancer, and scholar. I met Angela at the 2013 Alliance of Baptists Gathering in Greenville, South Carolina. I was amazed to see her powerful Divine Feminine paintings all around the large church where we met. Even though the Alliance is more progressive than any other Baptist group and than most other denominations and the language in worship usually avoids masculine pronouns for God, there are rarely any female divine names and images included in worship at the annual meetings. So I was surprised and delighted to see Angela’s Divine Feminine paintings displayed throughout the church and to watch her paint on the platform during worship services, illustrating the sermons and other liturgical elements. Her first book, Embodying the Feminine in the Dances of the World’s Religions, addresses the importance of embodying the Feminine Divine as a part of interfaith dialogue by looking at four dances from four different faith traditions. Her other scholarly work includes The Gendered Pulpit, Dance in Scripture: How Biblical Dancers Can Revolutionize Worship Today (forthcoming, fall 2013), and numerous articles in books and periodicals.

Angela didn’t grow up in the church, but became very active in a conservative church when she was a teenager. “My family isn’t religious, but I come from a long line of feminists,” she says. “Though church was not a part of my upbringing, my mother always taught me the importance of harmony, compassion, love, and openness. When I did become involved in a very conservative church in my late teens, I accepted the brand of Christianity they taught for a brief period because I thought that their version of Christianity was the only version. I gave up some important parts of myself—including feminism—for a couple of years until I was exposed to feminist theology and Baptist history in college. It was then that I realized my original feminist/artist/vegan-self could also be Christian. The two weren’t mutually exclusive like I was taught. I’ve been proclaiming the Feminine Divine ever since!”

After earning the BA degree in Religion from Brewton-Parker College, affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention, Angela went on to earn the MDiv degree from McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University and then the PhD in Art and Religions from the Graduate Theological Union at UC Berkeley. From the time she was at McAfee School of Theology, she has taught courses in colleges, seminaries, and divinity schools.

Rev. Dr. Yarber comments on ways she brings theology inclusive of the Divine Feminine to theological education and to the church. “The most obvious example is the inclusive language policy I have on all my syllabi and in worship. I do all my own translations each week for worship, so that language about God and humanity is inclusive (and typically quite true to the Hebrew or Greek). This is an example of an explicit theology, but the implicit is also important: artwork, music, worship leadership, and feminists/womanists being well-represented in assigned readings and exegesis. As a queer woman, I also think that my very presence—in a classroom or pulpit—illustrates elements of the Feminine Divine. My bodily being speaks to this inclusion before I even open my mouth and proclaim a word.”

Female divine names and images are embedded in Christian history, scripture, and tradition, Rev. Yarber believes. “It’s simply that patriarchy and heteronormativity have ignored or neglected them and it’s our responsibility to uncover these seemingly hidden truths. When I do, indeed, ‘change’ the church’s tradition regarding language or symbols it’s in the spirit of openness, inclusion, and justice. I believe that justice and equality are at the heart of our tradition, so our language and symbols should reflect and honor that.”

"Tiamet/Tehom/Deep" from Genesis 1, by Angela Yarber

In The Gendered Pulpit, Rev. Dr. Yarber writes that “gender-neutral” language is not enough to promote justice. “Neutral inclusive language continues to allow socialized patterns of domination to shape perceptions of God and humanity. If men and women were truly treated equally, and if an equal number of people perceived God to be female as well as male, then such neutral language could work. But women and men are not treated equally in society, and certainly not in the church, and most people still perceive God in male terms. Until this shifts, neutral language is not sufficient enough to gender the pulpit in the direction of justice.” Instead, Angela advocates the use of biblical female divine names and images like Ruah, Hokmah, Sophia, El Shaddai, and Shekhinah in worship. These names and images have the “potential to gender the pulpit in a manner that promotes equality, justice, and empowerment.”

"Sophia," by Angela Yarber

"Our Mother, Mary," by Angela Yarber

Angela says she paints multicultural female divine images also to promote justice, openness, and inclusion. “It’s important for women, LGBTQ persons, and racial and ethnic minorities to be able to see images that reflect who they are in worship. Worship that only includes images from traditional iconography, for example, ignores the experiences of women and LGBTQ persons, while also “white-washing” many persons of color out of our history. If the church truly values all of humanity, then one should be able to look at the images the church displays and see all of humanity. If a woman, LGBTQ person, or person of color can step into the church and see an image of the divine that looks like them, they can be empowered to know that they can become the God they adore. This empowerment extends beyond the walls of the church and into the world so that oppressed minorities can be emboldened, validated, and liberated. The liberation that occurs at church is not limited to the church, but can expand beyond it; as it should, the church can lead the world toward justice.”

"Our Lady of Guadalupe," by Angela Yarber

Although Rev. Dr. Yarber has at times considered leaving the church, she feels a responsibility to stay. “When I receive regular hate mail that tells me I’m damned to hell simply for who I am, and when I experience sexist, classist, and heterosexist microaggressions within my own congregations, communities, and denomination, I often consider leaving! But I return to the notion: ‘if you can’t see it, you can’t be it.’ I think of the women and LGBTQ persons who have never looked into the pulpit and seen anyone like them preaching behind it. I think of the way the church has maligned and oppressed their bodies. And I think of the privilege I’ve had to be a queer woman proclaiming the Word week after week. When a five-year-old girl dresses up at home and pretends to be Pastor Angela, or a gay man tells me that Sunday is the only day of the week he can ‘be gay all day long’ without anyone discriminating against him, I feel a responsibility to stay and create pathways for other women and LGBTQ persons to find affirmation, liberation, and justice.”

By working to create new pathways in church and society, Angela acknowledges that she takes risks. “When a feminist theologian received an award for her work on pneumatology and referred to the Spirit by saying ‘bless Her,’ the room filled with nervous laughter. When gendering the pulpit in the direction of justice, many respond with nervous laughter, as though what you’re saying isn’t valid, true, scholarly, meaningful, or important. Worse, people sometimes respond with anger and disdain. This is a small risk: people thinking you’re foolish, people regarding your work as nonacademic or unchristian, or people disregarding it all because they think feminism isn’t needed. The bigger risks come with some of the hate mail I’ve received. These deal less with issues of gender and more with sexuality. I can take the standard quotation of six bible verses ripped out of context and condemning me to hell. I can even take the writer of one of my pieces of hate mail describing the way my flesh will smell when I burn in hell. But when anyone names my partner, or the baby we are trying to adopt, they have gone too far.  This is a risk I am not willing to take.”

Though not the extreme responses she receives in the hate mail, Rev. Dr. Yarber also experiences criticism of her inclusive/expansive theology. “Less extreme (but often annoying) is when someone says ‘I’m just not comfortable changing scripture’ or ‘you just don’t take the bible seriously.’ These comments are annoying merely because I’ve chosen to dedicate my entire life to taking scripture seriously. I translate it weekly and read it nearly every day; I spend a great deal of time researching its historical contexts and do my best to live by the virtues of love, compassion, peace, and justice that come from much of scripture. If someone isn’t comfortable ‘changing’ scripture, then they should translate it themselves and acknowledge that every translation is an interpretation. If someone chooses to translate anthropos as ‘man’ rather than ‘human,’ for example, they are ignoring the broader and truer meaning of the scriptural text. And since the dictionary deemed it ‘academically archaic’ to refer to humanity as ‘man’ over forty years ago, I’d hope the church could stop resisting and update their antiquated language.”

Inspiration and strength to meet the resistance, struggles, and challenges come to Angela from many people. “I often think of the many women and LGBTQ persons who have gone before me, living authentically into their callings, so that I, too, can live into mine,” she says. “Many of these women are found in my Holy Women Icons (http://angelayarber.wordpress.com/artist/), and I think of them as the ‘great cloud of witnesses’ who strengthen, embolden, inspire, liberate, and empower. If Jarena Lee or Frida Kahlo or Isadora Duncan or Fatima or Sojourner Truth or Dorothy Day could do it, so can I. I’m also inspired and strengthened daily by people in my own life, namely my mother and my partner. My partner is an ethicist and she inspires me to be more compassionate to all creatures, to wonder at the earth, to stand in solidarity with the poor, and to ‘go gently’ (as Dorothy Day and Gandhi would say). She also embodies the playful words of one of my favorite songs by the Indigo Girls: ‘The best thing you’ve ever done for me is to help me take my life less seriously. It’s only life, after all.’”

Angela further recounts rewarding experiences: “I think of the 8^th grader who participated in the ‘Day of Silence’ and has grown into a fabulous straight ally. I think of marching in the Pride parade with over 50 of my congregants because they believe in justice for all. I think of over 30 women at Baptist Women in Ministry who initiated a letter writing campaign to write me ‘love letters’ to combat the hate mail I receive. I think of the peacemakers who gather each year at the Baptist Peace Fellowship’s annual conference who make protest signs that read ‘Jesus Loves All Cocoa Farmers’ and inaugurate the Baptist Equal Exchange partnership for fair trade chocolate. Anytime a student or congregant has told me that my teaching or preaching has helped them live more compassionately, more justly, more peacefully, it is a rewarding experience.”

Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber articulates a hopeful, expansive vision for the future of the church: “I hope and dream of the day when women, LGBTQ persons, and the Feminine Divine are an integral part of the church and church leadership. I hope that, one day, our visions of the divine and of what it looks like to be a church leader are equal and inclusive. I hope that, one day, people will not giggle or become angry when God is referred to as ‘She.’ I hope that, one day, when churches post signs that say ‘all are welcome,’ they’ll truly mean all: gay and straight, black and white, rich and poor, university educated and life educated, English speaking and non-English speaking, young and old, abled and differently-abled, male and female. Unfortunately, I think this day is in the far too distant future. Until then, I continue to rage, work, paint, write, and dance toward justice.”

For more of Angela M. Yarber’s prophetic, creative work, see http://angelayarber.wordpress.com/.

Rev. Lori Eickmann

Church tradition has forgotten, ignored or repressed the feminine images of the Holy that are present in the Bible. The truth of inclusive language for the Divine is biblical. We risk impairing the witness of the good news of Jesus Christ when we try to keep God in a box. Also, female imagery for God is part of the Judeo-Christian tradition (Woman Wisdom in the Old Testament and Jesus as Sophia’s—Wisdom’s—prophet or Sophia incarnate in the New Testament). Someone once said that the exclusive use of masculine names and imagery for God is the Golden Calf of this century. We must teach people that the Divine Feminine is reality and truth, and justice will flow.

Rev. Lori Eickmann writes these words in answer to my question: Why do you believe language and symbolism are important enough to go to all the effort to change two thousand years of church tradition? I invited Lori to do an interview for my blog after I read her powerful story in Lana Dalberg’s book, Birthing God: Women’s Experiences of the Divine.

Lori’s story in Birthing God includes this excerpt from an article by Lori entitled “In Search of God: One Woman’s Quest Leads Her to Change Her Life and Answer the Call to Become a Minister”: “I felt invisible, there in church. Maybe it was because I had children—one son and one daughter—and I was seeing the world through their eyes. I had to notice that the world offers a God who, as someone wrote, ‘is somehow more like my father, husband and brother than like me.’ I began to ache for all the daughters who couldn’t see themselves reflected in the Divine. I ached for them and for myself, because I knew we were created in God’s image, but mainstream Christian religion seemed unwilling to admit that” (San Jose Mercury News, May 2, 1998).

Lori recalls that she grew up in a churchgoing family, but stopped attending when she went to college. “I left the church at age 20 not because of any spiritual crisis, but simply because I went away to college and got out of the habit. I returned to church a decade later because I yearned for a church home and wanted my young children to know God and grow up with a community of faith.  But when I returned to church, I was shocked at how all the masculine names and descriptions of God made me feel: invisible.  Although I’d grown up calling God ‘Father’ and ‘Lord,’ the lack of images of God as ‘Mother’ or ‘She’ now made me feel excluded, unseen, ‘less than.’ How could the One in whose image I was created be imagined as only male?”

At this time, Lori’s pastors were a clergy couple. She asked the woman pastor, Jan, why everything about God and the Bible seemed focused on men and maleness. Jan replied, “There are feminine images of God in the Bible.” Lori expressed surprise: “Nobody’s ever told me that!” Jan gave Lori copies of The Divine Feminine: The Biblical Imagery of God as Female by Virginia Ramey Mollencott, Biblical Affirmations of Woman by Leonard Swidler, and other books about female divine images in the Bible.

Then Lori and her husband participated in a nine-month discipleship program created by their pastors. Through this program, Lori felt God calling her “to learn and to teach others that there are feminine images of God in our sacred Scriptures.” After the discipleship program ended, Lori went on a spiritual renewal retreat. There she met a woman who confirmed her call and labeled it a “call to ministry.” Lori laughed and reminded her that the motto printed on their church bulletin each Sunday was “Every Member a Minister.” The woman replied, “No, I mean seminary.” Since Lori’s children were in elementary school at the time, she decided that this call would probably come when they were in high school, she says. “If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans for the future.”

A few years later Lori entered Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, “stunned but grateful that God wants the cosmos to know all her names and faces.” In 2005, she received the Master of Divinity degree.

Before seminary, Lori worked as a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News in San Jose, California. The last year she was at the newspaper she wrote the article (mentioned above) for the religion page about her search, as a Christian woman, for her Heavenly Mother. The paper, she says, had “already run national stories about Jewish and Muslim women searching for Our Mother in their sacred texts.” This article was published not only in the San Jose Mercury News (one of the top 10 newspapers in the country), but also in other newspapers nationwide.

Lori continued to look for ways to share her discovery of biblical female images of the Divine. After graduating from seminary, while waiting for a call to a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), she was asked to serve as interim pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Livermore, California. Through that experience Lori realized that her call to ministry was to serve congregations in transition as an intentional interim pastor. This ministry would not only allow her to use her gifts to guide congregations through a self-study process for 12-18 months to help them prepare for a new pastor, but also fulfill her call to teach people about female images of God in the Bible. Lori comments on this unexpected opportunity: “God was surely laughing again! I now had an opportunity to educate many congregations about female imagery for God in the Bible. I developed a three-week class called ‘Rediscovering Feminine Images of God in Scripture,’ and I’ve been able to offer it to each of the five congregations I’ve served so far.”

In January of 2010, shortly after beginning at her third interim congregation, Rev. Eickmann was ordained into intentional interim ministry. Currently she is serving her fifth congregation, Good Shepherd Lutheran, as a trained and certified Intentional Interim Pastor in the Sierra Pacific Synod of the ELCA.

Rev. Eickmann reflects on the benefits of teaching congregations about biblical female names and images of the Divine. “Educating people that there are feminine images of God in the Bible is part of helping people go deeper into their faith through Bible study. In the Lutheran church, the Book of Faith Initiative was begun to help Lutherans become more educated about the Bible, which many Lutherans (and other Christians) have never studied in much depth, if at all. People are more open to hearing feminine names for God if they have been taught that these are rooted in Holy Scripture and in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Ultimately, this will lead not only to gender equality, but a deeper, richer and more mature faith.”

Multicultural images of humanity and divinity will also make a big difference, Rev. Eickmann states. “Multicultural images of the Holy One and of women, children and men are simply truthful and woefully absent in most of the white churches I’ve served. In my overwhelmingly Caucasian denomination, diverse images of God reveal a God who loves and is reflected in all people—male, female, many colors, young, old, and everything beyond and in between.”

Although at one time Lori considered leaving the church because of the exclusivity she experienced, she now feels called to change the church. “I did consider leaving the church when I found, as a young mother, that not only did I feel invisible, confused and angry each Sunday during worship, I also began to realize that I could not raise my children to believe that God was a guy. I was not angry at God—it was the church that had it wrong. When my pastors asked me to be part of their discipleship program, part of me was afraid that by going deeper into Bible study I would find that God was/is a guy after all! So I prayed. I said, “God, if I take this class and find out you really are all about men and maleness, you’d better help me see why that is—because otherwise I’m outta here. But part of me knew from the start that Mom was about to take me on a big adventure. I’ve stayed with the church because I have experienced the love of my Mother, the grace of her Son, and the inspiration of the Spirit of Wisdom (Sophia in Greek). I am called to be part of bringing the feminine faces and names of God into the church and into people’s hearts.”

Through her class and conversations and sermons, Rev. Eickmann brings female names and images of the Divine to the congregations she serves as interim pastor. In her class she discusses biblical texts such as Deuteronomy 32:18: “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.” Among the many other female divine images Rev. Eickmann teaches are Midwife and Wisdom. She points out that in Psalm 22:9-10 “God is praised as a caring midwife: ‘Yet it was you who took me from my mother’s womb, you kept me safe on my mother’s breast. On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God.’” And Lori elucidates the biblical parallels between Wisdom and Jesus: “In the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus speaks as Wisdom (Sophia in Greek) incarnate when he says, ‘Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’ He says this at the end of the passage that starts with the disciples of John the Baptizer asking Jesus, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we wait for another?’ Jesus says they should tell John what they see—that the blind see and the lame walk; thus is Wisdom vindicated by her deeds. The Hebrew Wisdom tradition holds that Wisdom is a feminine personification of God, co-creating with God (Proverbs 8:22 to which John 1:1,3-4 bears striking similarities).

One time when Rev. Eickmann was teaching her class on female images of God in Scripture at a small church of people mostly in their 80s and 90s, one of the older women remarked, “Imagine, learning all these new things at our age!” Lori recalls another time she offered the class at a larger church she was serving; this church was more diverse in age. “Some women, particularly, were very glad the class was offered, while others—both men and women—came even though they were very skeptical. At the end, one older man said, ‘When I first heard about this, I thought it was going to be a bunch of hooey—but now you’ve shown that this is in the Bible!’ Another man said he personally didn’t really like the idea of God being called ‘Mother,’ but added, ‘Now I can see why someone might need those kinds of images of God.’”

Before Rev. Eickmann goes to a church as interim pastor, she usually has an opportunity to express her passion for helping people discover biblical female names and images of God. “Usually when I interview with a congregation to be their interim pastor, someone asks me why I left journalism to pursue ministry. I can’t tell of my call to ministry without talking about feminine images of God. This is usually met with polite smiles and no follow-up questions. (Yet they call me anyway; go figure!) I come to a congregation as an intentional interim pastor with specific work to do with that congregation. I don’t come in and demand that people start calling God ‘She’ or ‘Mother,’ but I do tend to neutralize the masculine language in the liturgy. Talking about female imagery for God and the need for inclusive language comes up in conversation, and I always offer my class. This is seed planting, and I pray that the seeds will sprout in individual hearts and maybe even in the congregation’s life and ministry with the new pastor.”

Rev. Eickmann appreciates the ELCA’s statement on “Language and the Christian Assembly,” calling for inclusive language and imagery for God in worship. “That’s a big step into a just future,” she acknowledges. “However, there still aren’t any officially sanctioned worship resources and liturgies from the ELCA to support inclusive language, so many pastors and worship leaders struggling to promote female imagery for God have to constantly re-invent the wheel. Also, when I am serving as the interim in a congregation that is engulfed in conflict, introducing inclusive language isn’t the first order of business—so in such circumstances I find myself letting the exclusive, male-centric language stand with few changes, and I begin to feel I am part of the problem and not part of the solution.”

Understanding, strength, and inspiration for all her challenges come from many sources, Lori affirms. “I get strength from prayer and meditation (spending time with my understanding and forgiving Mother), from friends and colleagues who share my struggles, and from books, articles, blogs, and worship services I may attend in which the Divine Feminine is named and celebrated.”

Lori recounts an especially empowering experience. “I once participated in an intense, weeklong seminar on Emotional Intelligence for continuing education, and there discovered that because of the daily realities and pressures of parish/interim ministry I was feeling too disconnected from my call to bring the feminine face of God to light. I felt guilty for not doing what God had called me to do. So the workshop leader had me kneel while the rest of the group (both men and women) laid their hands on me and commissioned me as a prophet of Holy Sophia. Remembering that always makes me smile, because it was so cool, but also because it reminds me that I had written into my ordination vows a vow to lift up the Divine Feminine. Truly, this is part of my calling as a Lutheran pastor.”

Through her prophetic ministry in many congregations, Rev. Eickmann is fulfilling this calling. She offers a visionary prayer for the future of faith communities. “I pray that the Lutheran church and other Christian denominations and other faith traditions will all be inspired to write songs and liturgies that are inclusive—reflecting the truth that God is our Mother, Father, Inspiration, Love, Life and Hope.”

Dr. Mary E. Hunt

More than two decades after women-church began, the movement is mature enough to let the needs of the world, not the failings of the institutional church, guide it. . . . It has always been a constructive feminist force that tries to embody what it envisions. Members keep the justice focus sharp by prodding one another to explore hard issues including racism, reproductive choice, homosexuality, and economic justice. . . . Leadership in house churches tends to rotate among participants. Empowering lots of people to be involved is a goal in women-church.

This is an excerpt from Dr. Mary E. Hunt’s chapter, “New Feminist Catholics: Community and Ministry,” in New Feminist Christianity: Many Voices, Many Views, which she co-edited with Dr. Diann Neu (Skylight Paths, 2010). Dr. Hunt is active in the egalitarian women-church movement, describing it as “an outgrowth of both the refusal by the Roman Catholic church to ordain women and the deeply felt need by Catholic women to act publicly as moral and religious agents despite exclusion from official church positions.” She further states that this very exclusion of women “has highlighted how inadequate church structures are for men as well as women, in that they are antithetical to gospel values of inclusivity and equality.”

Thirty years ago Mary E. Hunt and Diann Neu, along with a group of a dozen women, co-founded Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) “in response to the need for theological, ethical, and liturgical development for and by women.” WATER is “a feminist educational center and network of justice-seekers.” Dr. Hunt comments on her joining with Dr. Neu to create WATER: “We two were white  Catholic women well trained in theology but as out lesbians who were publicly pro-choice were absolutely unwelcome in our own house. So we decided to use our skills and privilege to create new space where women could do their feminist religious work—teaching, writing, counseling, organizing—unfettered by the demands of the university or the church. WATER is the happy result.” (http://www.hers.com/~water/09files/about/about_us.html)

Dr. Hunt celebrates some of the accomplishments and the ongoing work of WATER. “In our first thirty years we have tried to expand the space and deepen the impact of feminists in religion. Our more than 45 interns tell the story best as they take on leadership in many organizations around the world. Likewise, our various programs, projects, and publications have been aimed at amplifying women’s voices and encouraging ever more participation. That work continues to unfold.”

Through her teaching and writing, Dr. Hunt has also had a major impact on feminism in religion. With the Masters in Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and the Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and the Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union, she has taught at Georgetown University, Iliff School of Theology, Pacific School of Religion, and Lancaster Theological Seminary. Dr. Hunt is the editor of A Guide for Women in Religion: Making Your Way from A to Z (Palgrave, 2004) and co-editor, with Patricia Beattie Jung and Radhika Balakrishnan, of Good Sex: Feminist Perspectives from the World’s Religions (Rutgers University Press, 2001). She authored Fierce Tenderness: A Feminist Theology of Friendship (Crossroad, 1991) and edited From Woman-Pain to Woman-Vision: Writings in Feminist Theology (Fortress Press, 1989) by Anne McGrew Bennett. Among her many other publications are articles in the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Concilium, Conscience, and Mandragora; and chapters in books such as Feminist Theologies: Legacy and Prospect (ed. Rosemary Radford Ruether), Heterosexism in Contemporary World Religion: Problem and Prospect (ed. Marvin M. Ellison and Judith Plaskow), Feminist Theological Ethics (ed. Lois Daly), and Sexual Diversity and Catholicism (ed. Patricia Beattie Jung).

Mary states that her “earliest, deepest religious roots” are in the Catholic tradition. “Catholic is a language I speak, a symbol and sacramental system that I understand. In many ways, the institutional church (what Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza has helpfully called ‘kyriarchy’) has left me insofar as its structures and doctrines are anathema to so many things I hold dear. On the other hand, I feel a responsibility to do justice in and through my tradition so I have not left it in any formal sense. I have never been tempted to join other Christian denominations which I think of as marginally better on the surface but perhaps rather like Catholicism underneath it all. I feel a special responsibility to work in my own setting. That the Roman Catholic Church wields so much power in the world motivates me to pay attention to it in a primary way.

Although Mary feels she has little access to institutional churches and “no place” in her own Catholic denomination, her work at WATER models the changes in language and symbolism that she feels are vital to changing church and society. “In our work at WATER we have been careful to use inclusive/expansive language in liturgies, lectures, and publications to model just how easy and elegant it can be. Language and symbolism are the coins of the realm in religion. They are how we articulate what is most dear to us, what is ultimately important. Both are deeply connected to the social order; neither is ever innocent. We learned the hard way that “God Father Lord Ruler King” is a linguistic marker that gives men license to take more power than belongs to them. Mary Daly made this clear on gender terms; Anne McGrew Bennett pioneered ways of thinking about political power, especially war, as connected with language about the divine. Following their lead, I have always been attentive to the use and abuse of language in this regard.”

Including female language for Deity “does not guarantee feminist results,” Dr. Hunt says. “But where feminist ideas have accompanied such language, the result has been empowering and enlivening of those involved.” In all her feminist writings, she uses inclusive language for the Divine. “God Laughing Out Loud” is one creative, enlivening example:

            Light years later, when creation came into being and people began to toil and sweat their way, she noticed that her first principle had been replaced by work and pain. So she sent a reminder of her legacy. She gave it several names: celebration, recreation, fun, potluck dinners, fellowship. Some thought it was a vestige of days gone by. But God knew that it was the real thing. She called it salvation. (Concilium: International Journal for Theology, 2000/4)

Inclusive language for Deity makes a difference in the way we see ourselves, others, and the world, Dr. Hunt asserts. “It is important for people to see themselves in the image of the divine. That men have long had this possibility is reflected in their sense of entitlement in the world. For women and children, it is a new experience. Hopefully, it will have a positive impact on self-image, social life, and global community. I am concerned that language reflect racial and class inclusion, attention to issues of sexual diversity, and clear analysis of the ways in which ableism functions to make certain bodies normative and other bodies exceptional. All of this is language-related.”

Inclusive language, leadership and symbolism in church will also contribute to change in the wider culture, Mary believes. “If the divine is the greatest thing we can conceive (a la Anselm), then including many genders in the names of the divine reflects the fact that many genders (I am wary of two gender approaches) are fully human/divine. The hard part is that lifting up only male gender people, styles, roles etc. in religion gives implicit permission for people in other realms to act in similarly limited ways. To bring about peace and equality, justice and cooperation is a team effort for which having people from a range of backgrounds is necessary.”

In addition to including many genders in language for Deity, Dr. Hunt uses genderless names. “I think of inclusive and expansive ways of conceiving of the divine—numinous, Friends, Spirit, and Force among others—that express genderless notions.”

Dr. Hunt feels that taking risks and meeting resistance come with her role as a theologian. “I think it is important to call it like one sees it and risk is a minor consideration. I don’t worry about pleasing the masses, or being acceptable in official circles. I am interested to create theology that does justice beginning with the most marginalized. Of course, the world resists change and those in power resist mightily. So many of the efforts I have supported in this regard have come to naught. Most Sunday worship services in U.S. Christian churches are fraught with exclusive language. Conservative theologians try to make the case for such discourse. Mostly I see it as a matter of theo-politics, a matter of power. The resistance is often a measure of how deeply our work is getting into the mainstream.”

Challenging theo-politics in her Catholic tradition, Dr. Hunt recently published an article in Religion & Politics entitled “Theology Has Consequences: What Policies Will Pope Francis Champion?” (March 18, 1013). Here are some excerpts:

Mary finds inspiration and strength for her prophetic ministry from the most marginalized groups and individuals who struggle against oppression. “Survivors of sexual abuse, people whose governments oppress them, those who are made poor by global greed and uncontrolled capitalism, those who live under racist and colonialist oppression, women struggling for reproductive justice, LGBTIQ people making the world safe for difference, among others are all sources of inspiration for me. When I see their efforts, the risks and consequences for them and their children, I think my own efforts are tame by comparison. White, class, national, and other forms of privilege that I enjoy are a buffer against the worst of challenges.”

In her work as a theologian and as co-director of WATER, Mary has had many rewarding experiences, which she celebrates. “Seeing so many of WATER’s interns and visiting scholars doing important work in the world is very rewarding. I realize that I have made a place for them without which they would not be as able to do what they feel called to do. I also find it rewarding to see that positions I staked out decades ago are now quite commonly held, for example, on feminist ministry, same-sex loving relationships, and the like.”

Dr. Mary E. Hunt articulates a hopeful, expansive vision for the future. “I imagine that in time, perhaps not in my lifetime but I realize that, feminist understandings of power, divinity, ministry, indeed expansive understandings of religion as a human right and quest will be common. Then, many names of the divine will resound among many communities that struggle to understand one another’s perspectives and to embrace one another’s visions as a part of their own. Human community and our connection to the natural order are in the balance. That is why this work is so vital.”

For more of Mary E. Hunt’s prophetic, creative work, see http://www.amazon.com/Mary-E.-Hunt/e/B001JS1CM2/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1365703948&sr=1-2-ent; and http://www.hers.com/~water/09files/about/about_us.html.