Dancing in the Cosmos: Towards Liberating Theological Models for Children’S Spirituality and Sexuality
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UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Dancing in the Cosmos: Towards Liberating Theological Models for Children’s Spirituality and Sexuality Megan Clay Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2012 Abstract This thesis is born out of my own experiences of abuse and of the liberating energy of the divine within this process. There was a struggle and I did not have a language to name my own pain. Both society and the church left me voiceless in relation to my particular experiences but I found a voice in art. From these beginnings I developed a passionate desire to find a new model for our female children, one of empowered embodiment and radical connection, as I realise I was not alone in my experience of voiceless vulnerability. It is my hope that the model I develop will make the girl child less vulnerable to patriarchal systems while not losing the strength of mutual vulnerability of which theologians speak. Therefore, I examine what Christianity offers the girl child in the areas of sexuality and spirituality and then move on to ask if the interdisciplinary mingling of the new cosmology with feminist theology, which gave me my voice, offers bigger, bolder and more creative spaces in which to grow empowered and passionate girl children. The new cosmology builds on the embodied opportunities that feminist and radical sexual theology open up for us by exploring the place of the body in the widest possible sphere that of the cosmos itself while not losing the intimacy of that task. This can be demonstrated in the work of Rupert Sheldrake and Judy Cannato who explore the resonance of energetic fields yet link this with human reality. Further, the work of Peter Levine and Maggie Klein, Linda Hartley and Luce Irigaray in the area of breath demonstrates the scientific and also theological significance of this fully embodied activity. Part of my work is a set of painted panels illustrating our Universe story from the Big Bang to the creation of our planet. These are the backbone of the art work from which I develop a series of other art works which demonstrate my interpretation of the interplay between the embodied narrative of the internal world of the feminine and that of the external environment of theology, society, religion and culture. My art work shows the artist as present as it weaves its way in the written narrative of my thesis. Table of Contents List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................ 1 Declaration of Authorship ................................................................................................ 3 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5 My Story ........................................................................................................................ 6 Art That Speaks Through Feminist Theological Discourses ........................................ 17 Witnessing Each Other Rise. ....................................................................................... 19 Bodies and Cosmologies ............................................................................................. 23 Methodology .................................................................................................................. 27 Art as a Feminist Theological Praxis ............................................................................ 32 Art work in the Garden ............................................................................................... 33 Divine/Human - Incarnation and Art. .......................................................................... 36 Section 1: The Sexual Child in Christian Thought .......................................................... 45 Understanding Sexual/Sensual Meaning for Girls ...................................................... 45 Sexual Theology Beginning With Jesus ....................................................................... 48 Dualism, Heteronormativity, Consumerism, Girlhood and the Danger Within.......... 49 An Encounter with Mysticism ..................................................................................... 56 Twentieth Century Theology of Sexuality ................................................................... 60 Queer Connections...................................................................................................... 85 Untangling and Loving Embodiment ........................................................................... 88 Section 2: The Spiritual Child in Christian Thought ....................................................... 91 Early Christian Views – Early Fathers .......................................................................... 98 Contemporary Christian Views ................................................................................. 112 Nurturing the Spiritual Child within Academic Theory and Educative Praxis ........... 121 Trauma and the Spiritual Child ................................................................................. 135 Section 3: A New World View ..................................................................................... 142 Quantum Being ......................................................................................................... 143 The Material Beginnings of Our Embodied Human Story ......................................... 151 Energetic Infusions, Entanglement and Quantum Stories of Incarnation ................ 177 Pre-Christian Artifacts: Worshipping the Feminine in the Cosmos .......................... 182 Theological and Scientific Incarnations, Movement and Breath .............................. 187 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 217 The Story So far ......................................................................................................... 217 Key Findings ............................................................................................................... 225 1. Art as Language and Praxis ................................................................................... 225 2. The Paradox of Pain/Pleasure in the Sexual/Sensual life of the Female Child ..... 229 3. Locating Childhood in the Theological Cosmology of Women ............................. 233 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 235 List of Illustrations Figure 1 - The Secret - 5 Figure 2 - In the Depths of Divine - 9 Figure 3 - Choice - 12 Figure 4 - Rising - 13 Figure 5 - Oppression, Suppression, Repression - 14 Figure 6 - Mother - 15 Figure 7 - New Beginnings - 16 Figure 8 - She is Risen - 21 Figure 9 - Awaiting Resurrection - 22 Figure 10 - A Place Where Stars Are Born - 23 Figure 11 - Mural at the Beginning of the Cosmic Walk - 34 Figure 12 - Cosmic Walk Mural Looking Back From the Earth - 34 Figure 13 - A View through the Trees - 35 Figure 14 – Textured Fragments of the Cosmic Mural - 35 Figure 15 - Female Sexuality and Spirituality - 37 Figure 16 - The Vagina Quilt - 63 Figure 17 - Monster of the Deep - 64 Figure 18 - Praying - 131 Figure 19 - Heaven and Hell - 131 Figure 20 - Religious and Non-Religious People - 131 Figure 21 - The Box - 133 Figure 22 - Quantum Being - Galactic Beauty - 144 Figure 23 - Invitation to the Cosmic Dance 1 - 147 Figure 24 - Invitation to the Cosmic Dance 2 - 147 Figure 25 - Sophia Wisdom - 149 Figure 26 - The Folded Fabric of the Universe - 150 Figure 27 - Looking Back Into the Darkness of Time and Space - 150 Figure 28 - Tohu Vabohu - The Face of the Feminine - 153 Figure 29 - Tohu Vabohu - 153 1 Figure 30 - The Primordial Flaring Forth - 156 Figure 31 - Cosmic Explosion - The Big Bang - 156 Figure 32 - The Cosmic Uroboros - 157 Figure 33 - Interconnection, Interrelation, Interdependence - 158 Figure 34 - Transition and Transformation - 159 Figure 35 - Particles Dancing on Into the Darkness - 159 Figure 36 - The Abyss - 161 Figure 37 - The Long Dark Night - 161 Figure 38 - Eurynome Dancing - 163 Figure 39 - Eurynome and the Dance of Creation - 163 Figure 40 - Galactic Cloud - 165 Figure 41 - Galactic Cloud - Then There Was Light - 165 Figure 42 – Billowing Galactic Clouds 1 - 167 Figure 43 – Billowing Galactic Clouds 2 - 167 Figure 44 - The Birth of Galaxies - 169 Figure 45 - Clusters of Galaxies - 169 Figure 46 - Tiamat - 171 Figure 47 – Tiamat’s Body Exploding - 171 Figure 48 - Birth of the Sun - 173 Figure 49 - The Sun Being Born - 173 Figure 50 - Birth of the Solar System 1 - 174 Figure 51 - Birth of the Solar System 2 - 174 Figure 52 - Planet Earth - 176 Figure 53 - Planet Earth - Our Blue Planet - 176 Figure 54 - Venus of Willendorf - 183 Figure 55 - Vinca Culture, c5000BC - 184 Figure 56 - In The Beginning - Can You Hear Me? - 199 Figure 57 - Cosmic Cunt - 201 Figure 58 - Female Child Christa- 214 2 Declaration of Authorship I, Megan Clay, declare that the thesis entitled: ‘Dancing in the Cosmos: Towards Liberating Theological Models for Children’s Spirituality and Sexuality’ and the work presented in the thesis are both my own, and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that: this work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree