Thealogy

Thealogy is literally the study of the Goddess (Greek θεά, thea, "goddess" + λόγος, logos, "study"). In 1993, Charlotte Caron's definition of thealogy as "reflection on the divine in feminine and feminist terms" appeared, but the term actually originates in the writings of Isaac Bonewits in 1974.

First uses

First(?) usage

In "The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)," privately published in 1974, Isaac Bonewits used "thealogian" to refer to a Wiccan author (Aidan Kelly, aka "C. Taliesin Edwards," who may have given him the term or vice versa) and "theilogy" (defined as "the study of more than one God"). Bonewits also used "theilogy" (and possibly "thealogy," since he coined them at the same time) in the pages of the widely-distributed "Gnostica" magazine he edited in 1974 and 1975.

Related Topics:
1974 - Aidan Kelly - 1975

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(Actually, "The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)" were published starting in 1975 and finished in 1976. The article referred to within "The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)" is dated to the summer of 1976. Moreover, this is almost certainly not the first usage; the context of "thealogian" is in citing a work by C. Taliesin Edwards, "Essays towards a Metathealogy of the Goddess." There is, however, a possibility that Bonewits altered the name of the work to fit with his terminology.)

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In 1976, Valerie Saiving, ending her "Androcentrism in Religious Studies" made a much quoted invocation that similarly yearns towards something as yet undefined-

Related Topics:
1976 - Valerie Saiving - Androcentrism

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:it is just possible that the unheard testimony of that half of the human species which has for so long been rendered inarticulate may have something to tell us about the holy which we have not known - something which can finally make us whole.

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::(Saiving 1976:197)

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Second(?) usage

In "The Changing of the Gods" 1979:96, Naomi Goldenberg selfconsciously introduces the term as a half whimsical possibility, an inspirational comment, not a prelude to exegesis. She does not go on to define what thealogy might be, other than the implicit femininity of the coinage. This lack was perhaps because at that time the very assertion of a serious feminist analysis of religion was virtually unheard of, and the introduction of the concept was an excitingly powerful, but vague, possibility.

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This is not to say that both Goldenberg and Saiving do not both offer extremely solid chunks of thealogy, but they do not give an overview of something to which they were midwives.

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Bonewits again

Also in 1979, in the first revised edition of "Real Magic," Bonewits defined "thealogy" in his Glossary this way: "Intellectual speculations concerning the nature of the Goddess and Her relations to the world in general and humans in particular; rational explanations of religious doctrines, practices and beliefs, which may or may not bear any connection to any religion as actually conceived and practiced by the majority of its members." While the last clause was his editorializing, the majority of the definition was adapted by removing sexist assumptions from a dictionary then in his library. Also in the same glossary, he defined "theology" and "theoilogy" (spelled correctly this time) with nearly identical words, changing the pronouns appropriately. He has since dropped the use of "theoilogy" in favor of "polytheology," also first published by him in the 1974 "Druid Chronicles."

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In 2003 he pointed out that "thealogy" is an obvious coinage that may have been invented many times, and that feminist scholars are unlikely to have been familiar with his writings.

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Growing usage by Carol Christ and Ursula King

Carol Christ used the term more substantially in "Laughter of Aphrodite" 1987.

Related Topics:
Carol Christ - 1987

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In 1989 Ursula King notes its growing usage as a fundamental departure from traditional male-oriented theology, characterised by its privileging of symbols over rational explanation. She chronicles sympathetically that-

Related Topics:
1989 - Ursula King

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:most writing on the Goddess, when not historical, is either inspirational or devotional, and a systematically ordered body of thought, even with reference to symbols, is only slowly coming into existence.

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::(1989:126-127)

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