Thealogy
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Thealogy, a neologism coined by Isaac Bonewits in 1974, is a discourse that reflects upon the meaning of Goddess and Her relationship to life forms. It is a discourse that critically engages the beliefs, wisdom, practices, questions, and values of the Goddess community, both past and present. The term suggests a feminist approach to theism and the context of God and gender within Neopaganism. "Thealogy" increasingly appeared in feminist literature associated with the Neopagan Goddess movement during the 1980s to 1990s, perhaps coined independently of Bonewits, as Naomi Goldenberg is often credited with first using the term in 1979 in her book Changing of the Gods.
Thealogy could be described as religiously pluralistic, as thealogians come from various religious backgrounds that are often hybrid in nature. In addition to Neopagans, they are also Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Quakers, etc. or define themselves as Spiritual Feminists. As such, the term thealogy has also been used by feminists within mainstream monotheistic religions describe in more detail the feminine aspect of a monotheistic deity or trinity, such as God/dess Herself, or the Heavenly Mother of the Latter Day Saint movement.
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