Jesus, Muhammad and the Goddess

38 International contributors reflect on finding Goddess within (and without) Christianity and Islam.

"How did we go from a place where women were honored and respected and rape was inconceivable, to a place where women are treated as little more than intelligent animals to be used and tossed away?" -Liona Rowan

"Why would God create half of humanity only to be subjugated, and then give that oppressed half the divine spark in our wombs?" -Tamara Albanna

"Can You Kill the Spirit? What Happened to Female Imagery for God in Christian Worship?" -Carol P. Christ, PhD

"My father was not love, so how could I even think of the male deity and its offshoots: Lord, King...Kingdom...? How can the triune God be in community with nothing but men or masculine archetypes?" -Bonnie Odiorne, PhD

"Why do I need Jesus to mediate what conversations I have with God? How is it reasonable to posit that those who do not profess a belief in him are condemned to hell? Explain how God is a three-personed deity who imposes a set of rules we are to follow but who also sets certain biological instincts in opposition to those rules? And what the hell is all this business about God creating man, but man creating woman?" -Dominique Christina

"By altering tradition - and amending the translation from the (now) traditional "He" to "She" - does the collective consciousness of the Ummah shift? Do we authentically reclaim The Divine Feminine inside Allah that was acknowledged 1400 years ago? Do we eliminate the neo-patriarchal paradigm that infects the Islam of our "modern" era?" -Shahla Khan Salter

"When was the last time we experienced true prophecy? The last prophets gave us patriarchy. Since then, our connection to the divine has seemingly ceased while mainstream religion continues to regurgitate the old destructive message. Simultaneously, current low rates of church attendance attest to the irrelevance of that message. We clearly need a new message." -Mary Petiet

Contributors include:

Dr. Amina Wadud, Andrew Gurevich, Anna Ruiz, Bonnie Odiorne, Ph.D., Carol P. Christ, Ph.D., Dominique Christina, Donna Snyder, Glenys Livingstone, Ph.D., Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D., Rev. Dr. Karen Tate, Kelly Stewart Hall, Kim Mohiuddin, Laurence Galian, Liona Rowan, Lisa Artis, Marianne Widmalm, Marilyn McFarlane, Mary Petiet, Mary Saracino, Monette Chilson, Nano Boye Nagle, Nicola O'Hanlon, Noor-un-nisa Gretasdottir, Patty Kay, Penny-Anne Beaudoin, Poet on Watch, Rachael Patterson, Shahla Khan Salter, Shehnaz Zindabad, Susan Klahr, Susan Morgaine, Susannah Gregan, Tamara Albanna, Trista Hendren, Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente, Victoria A. Brownworth and Wynn Manners.