Terminology
In "The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)", privately published in 1976, Isaac Bonewits used "thealogian" to refer to Wiccan author Aidan Kelly, aka "C. Taliesin Edwards". "The Druid Chronicles (Evolved)" represented a three-year project starting in 1974 and finished (published) 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" appears in 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. Kelley himself had related to Bonewits that he couldn't remember which of the two of them said "thealogy" to the other first.
In the 1979 "The Changing of the Gods," Naomi Goldenberg introduces the term as a future possibility with respect to a distinct discourse, highlighting the masculine nature of theology.
Also in 1979, in the first revised edition of "Real Magic", Bonewits defined "thealogy" in his Glossary as "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." Also in the same glossary, he defined "theology" with nearly identical words, changing the feminine pronouns with masculine pronouns appropriately.
In 1989 Ursula King notes thealogy's growing usage as a fundamental departure from traditional male-oriented theology, characterized by its privileging of symbols over rational explanation. She chronicles that:
- 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(King 1989, pp. 126-127).
Carol Christ used the term more substantially in "Laughter of Aphrodite" (1987), acknowledging that those who create thealogy cannot avoid being influenced by the categories and questions posed in Christian and Jewish theologies (Christ 1987, p. xii). In "Rebirth of the Goddess", Christ establishes some guidelines for method, suggesting that thealogy begins rooted in women's experience (Christ 1997, pp. 31–49). Christ's text "Rebirth of the Goddess" sets out to develop the first systematic thealogy.
In 1993, Charlotte Caron's definition of thealogy as "reflection on the divine in feminine and feminist terms" appeared in "To Make and Make Again" (Russell & Clarkson 1996). By this time, the concept had gained considerable status among Goddess adherents. Mainstream religious studies scholars and theologians have contested the legitimacy of such a discourse.
In 2000, Melissa Raphael wrote the text "Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on the Goddess". Written for an academic audience, it purports to introduce the main elements of thealogy within the context of Goddess feminism. She situates thealogy as a discourse that can be engaged with by Goddess feminists—those who are feminist adherents of the Goddess who may have left their church, synagogue, or mosque, or those who may still belong to their originally established religion (Melissa Raphael 2000, p. 16)
In 2007, Paul Reid-Bowen wrote the text "Goddess as Nature: Towards a Philosophical Thealogy", which can be regarded as another systematic approach to thealogy, but which integrates philosophical discourse.
In 2010, Angela Hope co-founded the "Institute for Thealogy & Deasophy" with Patricia 'Iolana.
In the past decade, other thealogians like Patricia 'Iolana and D'vorah Grenn have generated discourses that bridge thealogy with other academic disciplines. 'Iolana's Jungian thealogy bridges analytical psychology with thealogy, and Grenn's metaformic thealogy is a bridge between matriarchal studies and thealogy.
Read more about this topic: Thealogy