Dance of The Dissident Daughter:
A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to The Sacred Feminine
by
Viola Larson
Garrett Green, Professor of Religious Studies at Connecticut College, in his
article, ‘The Gender of God and The Theology of Metaphor,” wisely explains
that the, ‘most valuable contribution of feminist theology has been to cast
a new critical light on traditional ways in which the metaphor of divine
fatherhood has been misused to legitimate patriarchal institutions and
practices.” He goes on to articulate what he means. Green writes:
If we attend to that story, we discover a protagonist very different
from the authoritarian patriarch exalted by androcentric tradition and
vilified by feminist critique. This God does not jealously hoard his
power. As a husband he does not beat his unfaithful wife but cries out
with the pain of a jilted lover and redoubles his efforts to win her
back (Hos. 2). As Father he ‘did not spare his own Son but gave him up
for us all” (Rom. 8:32). As Son he did not claim the prerogatives of
power and lord it over his subjects but ’emptied himself, taking the
form of a servant. . . . He humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7-8). As Spirit he incorporates
us into the mystical body of Christ, in whom ‘there is neither slave nor
free, there is neither male nor female” (Gal. 3:28). As king he does
not isolate himself in heavenly splendor but wills to dwell with his
people, to ‘wipe away every tear from their eyes” and to deliver them
from all that oppresses them, even from death itself (Rev. 21:4).1
Sue Monk Kidd, author of _The Dance of the Dissident Daughter_, while
seeking for joy, pleasure and meaning in her relationship with the divine,
instead, engages in endless introspection, anger and despair. She vilifies
the biblical God and pushes aside His claims on her life, His desires to
truly transform her. Kidd is seeking for a deity who she believes would best
represent women. The book is her description of a journey from the Southern
Baptist Church to a women’s spirituality anchored in a goddess found in the
being of women. The author describes this as ‘the sacred feminine.” Kidd,
always a religious writer, first wrote articles for magazines such as
_Guideposts_. Readers and reviewers considered her first two books, _God’s
Joyful Surprise_ and _When the Heart Waits,_ Christian. They are both about
journeys and experiences within Christianity. But with her third journey
book, Kidd leaves behind any kind of orthodox Christianity and enters a
religious landscape that is not unlike the world of Wicca.2 Kidd is now a
popular fiction writer with her book, _The Secret Life of Bees,_ on the New
York Times best selling list. Since _The Dance of the Dissident Daughter _is
still a popular book for women’s book studies I will look at her theological
views from a biblical perspective. In particular, I will explore Kidd’s
theological views of revelation, deity, and the person of Christ. I will
also comment on some of her views of feminist history and ritual. I will
explain how her views are compatible with those of modern witchcraft.
*Revelation*
Kidd’s journey begins with a dream. She is pregnant and gives birth to
herself. She journals, she reads voraciously, she looks inside herself for
answers. Writing of her discontent with her ‘traditional female existence,”
and with ‘the religious experience women have been given to live out,” she
enters a religious quest. She writes: ‘in the end we will reinvent not only
ourselves, but also religion and spirituality as they have been handed down
to us.”(12) So the beginning of the new spiritual understanding is based on
women’s experience, imagination and Kidd’s readings in radical feminist
literature. Some of her conclusions are: God in Christianity is seen as
male, a gendered god, a god formed by male understandings of deity. She
begins to see the world as a place controlled by males. Going further on
this journey Kidd inwardly exclaims, during a church service, ‘The ultimate
authority of my life is not the Bible; it is not confined between the covers
of a book. It is not something written by men and frozen in time. It is not
from a source outside myself. _My ultimate authority is the divine voice in
my own soul_. Period.” (Italics the author’s) (78) So all that Kidd tells
of spiritual knowledge in her book is what comes out of her own soul. She
only knows of deity what she knows of herself. She writes of this:
Little by little, I began to contact a feminine source within that
didn’t come from patriarchy or need to be validated by it. The source
was a deep, ancient-feeling place inside me, a place I hadn’t known
existed.
This surprised me because it made me realize that what I sought was not
outside myself. It was within me, already there, waiting. Awakening was
really the act of remembering myself, remembering this deep Feminine
Source. (75)
Having rejected the revelation of God in Jesus Christ in the Old and New
Testaments, Kidd loses her way and brings herself under the power of false
gods. Little by little, first in thought then with real physical actions she
places idols on her altar and pays homage to them. And as Gerhard O. Forde
writes:
Developing speech that seeks to make a god amenable to our projected
hopes and dreams is no different from making a god of wood and stone or
bronze: it is simply idolatry, and it is born of unbelief. And idols all
have one thing in common: they do not have anything to say. So we must
figure out what to say and do for them; one might say we furnish speech
for them. . . . But they don’t say or do anything; they just make
demands on us in their silence. They can only be law, not gospel. And
ultimately they will destroy us.3
*Deity*
Kidd’s view of deity is panentheism. (159) That is, she believes the
universe is God but God is more than the universe. In this kind of
understanding deity can be manifested in anything. All is sacred. Using
these kinds of concepts Kidd is able to see deity in all kinds of objects:
ancient goddesses, a turtle’s shell, even nature itself. But she considers
the sacred feminine the most important manifestation for women. As Kidd puts
it, ‘To embrace goddess is simply to discover the Divine in yourself as
powerfully and vividly feminine.”(141)
Kidd believes that understanding deity as feminine allows people to better
honor nature since she, as do other radical feminists, feel that women are
deeply connected to nature through their bodily and emotional experiences.
She suggests that while patriarchy emphasizes the transcendence of God,
honoring the feminine connects the divine to everything. She writes of
deity, ‘It will also be right here, right now, in me, in the earth, in this
river and this rock, in excrement and roses alike. Divinity will be in the
body, in the cycles of life and death, in the moment of decay and the moment
of lovemaking.”(160) Kidd goes on to explain that women seeing themselves
as ‘an embodiment of the Goddess,” will be able to experience their,
‘female flesh as beautiful and holy, as a vessel of the sacred. She moves
from this to the sacredness of the earth and explains how the earth is
incarnated as will as the human form. (161-163)
This is not the biblical picture of God. In the scriptures God is both
transcendent and immanent. This means that God is the creator but not part
of creation. But it also means that God is intimately involved with His
creation. He cares for His creation. Van A. Harvey, author of _A Handbook of
Theological Terms_, explains the classical view of immanence as the
‘nearness or presence or indwelling of God in the creation.”4 This is not
the same as creation being a part of God. Even in His indwelling God is
totally other than creation. But the unique incarnation of Jesus Christ is
proof enough of God’s care for His creation. Jesus Christ, the second person
of the Trinity chose to dwell with humanity, to take on human flesh and die
for humanity because of God’s great love for creation. (John 1:14)
*Jesus Christ*
There is very little in _The Dance of the Dissident Daughter_ about Jesus
Christ. However, searching for the feminine divine in Christianity, Kidd
refers to the Greek word for wisdom, sophia. Writing of how the Hebrew Bible
and other ancient texts ‘personified” sophia or hokhmah, (the Hebrew for
wisdom) she connects this word with Jesus. This in itself is not wrong, but
Kidd does this in an unbiblical manner. In Proverbs, she takes the
personification of wisdom or Sophia for a real being, rather than an
attribute of God. Kidd misses the point that the feminine personification of
wisdom is a metaphor, a lens for viewing God’s wisdom. She fails to see, as
do others, that in the ninth chapter of proverbs personified wisdom is
juxtaposed against personified folly. Neither are real beings but metaphors
for seeing both God’s wisdom and human foolishness. Derek Kidner, author of
Proverbs, who sees this personification as ‘an abstraction, made personal
for the sake of poetic vividness,” also connects these passages to Jesus
Christ. He writes:
The New Testament shows by its allusions to this passage (Col. 1:15-17;
2:3; Rev. 3:14) that the personifying of wisdom, far from overshooting
the literal truth, was a preparation for its full statement, since the
agent of creation was no mere activity of God, but the Son, His eternal
Word, Wisdom and power (see also Jn. 1-14; 1 Cor. 1: 24,30; Heb. 1:1-4).
5
Additionally, Kidd equates the Hebrew word, ‘ruah”, or spirit, with wisdom
and the Greek word ‘logos” or word, with wisdom. She does this because they
seem to be involved in the same kinds of activity. Of ruah she writes, ‘Many
times ruah is used to refer to the life of God or the essence through which
the Divine acts. It is this transcendent spirit of God that eventually came
to be known as Wisdom, referred to in Old Testament scripture by the
feminine term, hokhmah.”(148) Of logos Kidd writes:
Biblical scholars recognize that while John 1:1-4 and other descriptive
passages may not be using the name Sophia, they do seem to be referring
to her. For some reason the writer substitutes the male term logos for
Sofia. But by comparing the texts, one can see that the figure being
described is indeed Wisdom from Hebrew Scriptures.
Logos and Sophia were perceived as interchangeable because they played
the same role; both are portrayed as coexistent with God before
creation, as reconciling of humanity to God, as revealing the will of
God, and as God’s immanent presence in the world. (149)
Kidd is confused, to say the least. Biblical scholars would call the
metaphor, the feminine personification, the vehicle and the object, in this
case wisdom, the tenor. The vehicle is a means of better perceiving the
tenor. But Kidd has taken a metaphor and made it the object, and then
allowed everything else to flow from her mistake. For her, wisdom becomes a
real goddess from which we receive Jesus Christ. But the feminine
personification was simply the lens to better understand God’s wisdom and a
prophetic hint at the reality to come. And now in the New Testament we see
God’s wisdom, a reality, not a metaphor, Jesus Christ, ‘the power of God and
the _wisdom_ of God. (I Cor. 1: 24b) Kidd totally misses the point that
since Jesus Christ is God the biblical descriptions of the activity of God’s
‘Word.” and God’s ‘Wisdom” would of course be ‘playing the same role.”
Additionally, Kidd refers to Gnostics as those who in early Christianity
refer to Sophia Jesus. She writes that those who compiled the canon of
scripture rejected the word sophia because they did not wish to be tainted
with some of the doctrines of the Gnostics. She mentions the gnostic belief
that Jesus had no material body and that the resurrection was untrue.
However, it should be pointed out that except for the _Sophia of Jesus_,
which was probably composed in the later half of the second century,6 the
picture of Sophia in most Gnostic gospels is not flattering. Riemer Roukema
in his book _Gnosis and Faith In Early Christianity_, writes:
The view that Sophia distanced herself from God and thus set about the
unintended creation of the material world cannot be found there [in the
Old Testament]. This is a new gnostic’ notion of things, which is thus
only in its beginnings derived from the Old Testament.
This myth of the fallen Sophia was these gnostics answer to the question
where our so imperfect world comes from. They did not answer this
question by pointing to Adam and Eve, who had eaten of the forbidden
fruit in paradise, or by pointing to the fall of Satan who was opposed
to God. For these gnostics, the cause of the origin of this world with
its suffering and misery lay in Sophia. They thought that she had
detached herself from the Father and had begun by herself to create
angels, who in their turn had begun to create the imperfect world. So in
this view the earth is not the creation of the good God who saw that it
was good”, even very good’ (Gen. 1.31),. By contrast, the earth emerges
from a fall in the heavenly world. So the evil in the world is given
with the creation of the material world.7
*Ritual and Women’s History*
Kidd’s views of women’s history and her understanding of ritual coincide
with both women’s spirituality groups and Wicca. And there is a historical
reason for this. Ronald Hutton in his book, The Triumph of the Moon: A
History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, documents the coming of witchcraft to
the United States and its merger with radical feminism and women’s
spirituality. He writes, ‘What seems beyond doubt is that all the main
English branches of pagan witchcraft arrived in the United States during the
1960s and early 1970s, . . .” He goes on to explain how this mixed with
various traditions of magic but states that, ‘America’s most distinctive
single contribution to that witchcraft, however, arose from a different
phenomenon: its assimilation to the women’s spirituality movement. He shows
how various feminist myths were incorporated into this merger. Two of the
more important myths are just those that Kidd emphasizes in her book: ‘that
ancient Europeans had worshiped a single great goddess,”(Kidd 134) that
patriarchy had overthrown the ‘prehistoric women-centered cultures,”(135)8
These myths have been refuted by scholars, but they are still important to
women’s spirituality groups and Wicca. Kidd not only refers to them she sees
them as fact. Kidd also practices some of the same kinds of rituals Wiccans
practice, as do many women involved in women’s spirituality groups.
Hutton explains that in the beginning of the merger of witchcraft, radical
feminism and women’s spirituality groups, witches were simply seen as strong
independent women, someone to emulate. Their presence was important in a
political way rather than a religious way. However, with the popularity of
such authors as Starhawk and Zsuzsanna Budapest and their books on
witchcraft, a real Wiccan religion was formed in the United States; one that
then returned to England in its American form. But the point is that someone
may be outside of a Wicca coven and still be practicing Wiccan types of
ritual. They both have the same foundation in earlier women’s spirituality
groups and radical feminism.9 And Kidd, who is very concerned with rituals
shaped for women, at the beginning of her journey, describes a gathering of
women on a beach during ‘A Journey Into Wholeness Conference.” Kidd writes
that, ‘There was an awful lot of talk about the Great Mother’ (whoever she
was) and being connected to the earth and the moon (whatever that meant).”
There was also dancing in a circle about an ancient turtle and touching it
as a sign of ‘the source of feminine support, wisdom and strength.” (37)
Kidd often refers to a circle. At one point, after seeing a picture of a
perfect circle in the midst of trees she writes, ‘ I began to imagine the
circle as a place where once, perhaps long ago, women had gathered, danced,
dreamed, healed, grown wise and powerful together. A place where women were
honored, loved, and supported, where they were invited, even encouraged, to
become different sorts of women.” (93) Kidd’s involvement in sacred circles
and her many references to the moon are not unlike the sacred circles of
witchcraft and their ceremonies, which are referred to as ‘pulling down the
moon.” 10 Kidd’s ritual experiences expand to include an altar where she
places various goddesses and objects of nature. She visits sites of ancient
goddesses and participates there in prayers and rituals. Finally Kidd feels
that she has become the circle, the sacred place. She writes, ‘I need to
become the circle of trees, to be the sacred place wherever I went, to dwell
so deeply inside my experience and have it dwell so deeply inside of me
there was no separation between us.”(218) Referring to ‘a spirituality of
naturalness,” Kidd explains that feminine spirituality incorporates ‘the
earthly, the now, and the ordinary” into the religious experience. (219)
But this kind of deity, with creation as part of its being, is full of
darkness. All of the evil that exists in humanity and all of the chaos that
is a part of nature belongs to this deity. Kidd, who prays, at one point to
the goddess of darkness, has truly crossed over into darkness.(92-91)
In contrast to Kidd’s image of feminine freedom, power and religiosity, C.S.
Lewis in _The Great Divorce,_ pictures a woman, one of the redeemed of
heaven, surrounded by all of the young men and women, all of the dogs, cats,
horses and birds she has befriended on earth. At home with nature and filled
with the love of Christ, bright angels honor her with music and flowers. The
guide in this story says of her:
Every beast and bird that came near her had its place in her love. In
her they became themselves. And now the abundance of life she has in
Christ from the Father flows over into them. (120)
In the book, while on earth, she was simply Sarah Smith and was unknown by
most people. However, she was known and loved by Jesus Christ, and because
of this, her love and joy pervaded her surroundings. Other images in this
book are the people living on the other side of the great divide in hell.
They are self-absorbed, floating farther and farther away from each other.
In the endless fragmenting and changing views of deity, and the endless
re-interpretations of dreams, myths and history, the drifting movement of
women’s spirituality as well as the various Wicca groups resembles the
distancing movement of hell. That place is gray and grows dark. Creation
awaits the redemption of the daughters and sons of God in Jesus Christ.
(Rom. 8:18-23) The Joy of earth, the Joy of now, the Joy of eternity belongs
to those in Jesus Christ.
_______________________________
1 Garrett Green, ‘The Gender of God and the Theology of Metaphor,”
_Speaking the Christian God: The Holy Trinity and the Challenge of
Feminism,_ Alvin F. Kimel, Jr. Editor (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1992) 59-60.
2 For descriptions of the world of Wicca and goddess worship see, ‘Searching
for Identity, Meaning and Community in the Lonely Shadows of Witchcraft,”
http://www.naminggrace.org/id38.htm and ‘Goddesses Spirituality,”
http://www.naminggrace.org/id32.htm.
3 Gerhard O. Forde, ‘Naming the One Who is Above Us,” _Speaking_, 114.
4 Van A. Harvey, _A Handbook of Theological Terms_, (New York: Collier
Books, Macmillan Publishing Company 1964))), 127.
5 Derek Kidner, _Proverbs: An Introduction & Commentary_, D.J. Wiseman, ed.
_Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries_, (Leicester, England; Downers Grove:
Inter-Varsity Press 1964) 79.
6 Phillip Jenkins, _Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost its Way_,
(Oxford: Oxford University Press 2001) 100-101.
7 Riemer Roukerma, _Gnosis and Faith In Early Christianity: An Introduction
to Gnosticism_, trans. John Bowden, (Uitgeverij Meinema, Zoetermeer, The
Netherlands 1998; Harrisburg: Trinity Press International 1999) 108-109.
8 Ronald Hutton, see ‘Uncle Sam and The Goddess” in _The Triumph of the
Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft_, (Oxford: Oxford University
Press 1999) 340-368.
9 Ibid.
10 See, Graham Harvey, ‘The Craft of Witches,” and ‘Goddess Spirituality”
in _Contemporary Paganism: Listening People Speaking Earth_, (New York: New
York University Press 1997.