Carol P. Christ Quotations

The women's movement will present a growing threat to patriarchal religion less by attacking it than by simply leaving it behind.

I first became interested in women and religion when I was one of the few women doing graduate work in Religious Studies at Yale University in the late 1960's.

Beliefs and values that have held sway for thousands of years will be questioned as never before.

The mother must socialize her daughter to become subordinate to men, and if her daughter challenges patriarchal norms, the mother is likely to defend the patriarchal structures against her own daughters.

Subversive language, however, must be constantly reinvented, because it is continually being co-opted by the powerful.

The simple act of telling a woman's story from a woman's point of view is a revolutionary act: it never has been done before.

Why does everyone cling to the masculine imagery and pronouns even though they are a mere linguistic device that has never meant that God is male?

Because religion has such a compelling hold on the deep psyches of so many people, feminists cannot afford to leave it in the hands of the fathers.

At first the ancient images of the Goddess did not interest me.

In Goddess religion death is not feared, but is understood to be a part of life, followed by birth and renewal.