The Dance of the Dissident Daughter (Book Review)
- Elaine R Kelly
- Jun 26
- 21 min read
Updated: Jul 3
Book Review: The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, 20th Anniversary Edition: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine
Author: Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees, The Invention of Wings, The Book of Longings, and others.
Publisher: HarperOne (Paperback) 304 pages
Published in 2016 on the 20th anniversary of its 1996 initial publication.
I listened to the audiobook produced by HarperCollins in 2023.
Genres: Religious Biographies, Memoir, Personal Transformation, Spirituality, Religious and Inspirational, Consciousness & Thought. This book reads like a personal journal, a biographical memoir of one woman's journey into feminine awakening and spiritual discovery.
Author's note:
Awakening to the Feminine Divine
The author notes that she hopes this book will be an opening for the reader, something to satisfy a woman's hunger for the sacred feminine, even though she may not have realized her need.
Kidd takes readers with her as she discovers the lost history of the sacred feminine. Readers journey alongside the author as she seeks to bring wholeness and healing inside herself. Her journey encompasses Greek myths, dream analysis, visions, contemplation, internal guidance, and the creation of new rituals to mark the changes within herself.
Kidd indicates she follows feminist theology.
The book encourages women to awaken and reflect on their own experience of who they are and how they came to be that way. She realized she shared a feminine wound from women being treated as "less than". Kidd was jolted by the idea that God can be visualized in feminine ways. Her church insisted that God was only a father, son, and dove, and that Jesus was foremost a male saviour, as opposed to God in the flesh.
Now, twenty years since publication, liberation theology, feminist theology, feminine imagery, and egalitarian biblical scholarship are more prevalent. Kidd states that there is still a feminine wound within religion, but it is being slowly healed as more people wake up to the harm of patriarchy and hierarchical power and express their voices.
Why I Chose It:
I enjoyed reading Kidd's fiction: The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings. I remembered when Sue Monk Kidd was a contributing editor at Guideposts, a Christian inspirational magazine. I was surprised to find that The Book of Longings portrayed Christ's resurrection as visions, in contrast to a bodily resurrection. I further discovered that the Jesus Seminar is a group of Christians who see the resurrection as a visionary experience.
I wanted to know more about the author's spiritual views.
In this book, she says that honouring the divine feminine simply means worshipping the Christian God in female form. The Sacred Feminine can be worshipped either separately or within the Christian Tradition.
Kidd is no longer writing Christian inspirational articles, having turned to writing memoir and fiction, usually with female main characters that may have been marginalized or silenced.
I also write to show women using their voice, and further, to show that God equips women to understand, authorizes women to speak, and empowers women to be strong and empowered. I write historical fiction that retells the Gospels and acts of the early apostles from the viewpoint of women. I believe Sue Monk Kidd's readers would enjoy my historical fiction.
Personal Reflections
This is more than a book review of Sue Monk Kidd's spiritual memoir. It includes where my journey intersects with hers, and my reflections on feminist and liberation theology based on this memoir. Maybe it will help stimulate your spiritual journey.
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter was thought-provoking and challenging. Some ideas and concepts were so foreign to me that I had to re-read them. It made me uncomfortable in places as I looked into my soul, and I became wary because I did not want to go on a journey that ended where her journey seemed to lead. I already supported liberation theology and feminist theology, but Kidd's worship of the sacred feminine seemed to reject Jesus as God and risen Saviour. I remain uncomfortable with venerating a divine feminine, even though I am comfortable praying to either Mother God, Father God, or Creator God. She states we are all on individual journeys, but I was surprised at the many intersections between my journey and hers. I found this memoir to resonate with ideas that I can apply to my Christian spiritual development. It is read that can challenge you to wake up to what is happening around you and in you. It forces to look at yourself in the mirror. Read it if you have the guts!
Part 1: Awakening:
The Deep Sleep
Kidd grew up in the Southern Baptist Church, and it took many years to realize that the very air she breathed was filled with ideas that made women feel "less than". Kidd comments that many women live their lives in a deep sleep, absorbing the patriarchal norms as their own, and letting go of their female selves.
The last straw was seeing men tell her daughter that she belonged on the floor on her knees in front of them. That awakened her to the harm of patriarchy and the need to get out of it. She described an image of herself in the middle of a nest of yellow leaves, giving birth to herself, a new self. She describes how each of us needs to realize or conceive our Feminine Self.
Reflections:
What was the last straw that awakened my spiritual journey? As I was preparing to retire from my long career as a financial advisor, I enjoyed reading and researching the women in the Bible. I found it so fascinating that I wanted to put it in a novel to make the ideas accessible to a wider audience. I wanted today's women to imagine themselves as the female disciples, patrons, and apostles that I saw in the Gospels.
My awakening was not when I discovered the women in the Bible. My awakening came after I published my novel, Forgotten Followers from Broken to Bold. I thought Christians would welcome a retelling of the Gospels from the view of female disciples. I thought it would be great to bring to life the way Jesus empowered his female students. I even showed how Jesus helped a mother accept her son, since Jesus said that some men are born not oriented to marry a woman.
I found that readers of Christian fiction did not view women as proactive disciples. I learned that Christian Fiction was a genre that usually showed women aiming only for marriage, not having personal goals, and certainly not speaking as religious leaders. Conservative Christians did not consider its feminist or gay-affirming message to belong in Christian books.
I had been asleep during the conservative resurgence in the evangelical church over the last forty years. While I had been busy with my family and my financial career, the fundamentalist and evangelical men created and promoted so-called biblical womanhood. They pressured organizations to sign the Danvers Statement conforming to the beliefs that portrayed women as secondary. They wrote and promoted each other's books and study guides on male leadership and hierarchical marriage. They discounted non-evangelicals as non-Christians. I researched extensively how strands of patriarchy had taken root in politics, culture, churches, family and societal expectations in America as well as my country, Canada.
I uncovered the biblical interpretations that were the root causes of the evangelical endorsement of patriarchy, as well as the biblical interpretations by egalitarian scholars. I put these opposing views side by side for those who are just beginning to examine how you can hold onto the Bible while letting go of patriarchy. After my first novel, I put these into a small non-fiction book called: The Sword: A Fun Way to Engage in Healthy Debate on What the Bible Says About a Woman's Role.
For my second novel, Because She Was Called, I researched the book of Acts and the early church and dug deeper into Christian feminist and liberation theology. Since it shows the apostles baptizing a eunuch and Roman soldiers, my novel shows gay characters baptized as equals in the early church (based on Acts 8 and 10). That's when I learned that most conservative Christians rejected these ideas. That's when I awakened to the harm of the heteronormative male patriarchy and began to conceive of myself as an LGBTQ+ advocate.
Like many women, a feeling of betrayal was my first reaction when I awoke to the harm of hierarchical power structures in the church. My religion, the Christian tradition, had not only stood by and watched secular men abuse women, but had also propped up and strengthened attitudes that made ordinary women and men feel powerless. I gave my life to Christ, but the organizations that represented Christ betrayed me.
Christ uplifted the humble, but Christian organizations kept down the vulnerable. Much of my writing comes back to the idea that Jesus came to set us free from oppression, fear, self-defeating attitudes, authoritarian rules, and male hierarchies. God gives women the freedom to be who we are and pursue the passions God has given us.
Feminine Wound:
Kidd defines the feminine wound as a spiritual, psychological, or emotional scar that results from a lifetime of feeling inferior because you were born female. It's the post-traumatic impact of church and society oppressing you, putting you down for being female, and treating you as "less than" because you are female. The feminine wound reveals itself when girls and women have:
low self-confidence, self-esteem, or low self-worth
aim to please others, seek external approval
Push to be perfect, over-prepared, over-qualified
drive to be knowledgeable and perform well
Don't trust their intuition
tendency towards suspicion and lack of trust
hesitant to ask for recognition, praise, or career promotions, feel undeserving of praise
feel undeserving of praise or promotion
feel unqualified, not permitted or entitled to speak
feel self-doubt, despite high accomplishments
hesitant to take risks
Societal expectations and cultural biases can cause a feminine wound that silences women and prevents them from taking action or courageously realizing their potential. Kidd discusses forming a feminist critique. This means looking at how gender and society are shown in art and literature, waking up to see the ways we sideline and silence others.
Reflections:
I denied that I had a feminine wound because I was not as restricted as other women. What wounds did I carry compared to women who grew up in conservative Christian traditions or nations where women had fewer rights? I grew up hearing some Christians say that God designed women to be subordinate, but I always believed they were wrong. I wrote them off as a minority. However, restrictions on women are prevalent in our society and culture. It shows a preference for men and limitations on equal opportunities and pay for women in education, business, and politics.
Despite enjoying freedom, I show many of the behaviours that result from the female wound. I have felt inferior, defensive against criticism, and needed to prove myself because I am a woman. I have many of the signs that reveal a feminine wound. Perhaps a lifetime of being in the weaker position can be wearing. I knew intellectually that women and men were equal, but my body was showing that I didn't feel it.
Note to Men:
Kidd calls these behaviours as symptoms of a feminine wound but they are similar to the symptoms of impostor syndrome. While this phenomenon is found more often in women, many men also show these symptoms.
While male hierarchies that favour men can cause a feminine wound, hierarchical power structures can and do cause wounds in people of all genders. Patriarchy, which favours the eldest male, strict gender expectations, which limit male emotions, can and does harm a man's emotional development. These power systems promote domination over others and often wound those who are most vulnerable, gentle, kind, honest, and considerate.
Note to Women:
Overcoming the feminine wound does not mean absorbing the patriarchal view of power or promoting a matriarchal hierarchy. The solution is not trying to domineer and rule over others. The feminine wound (or impostor syndrome) will be reduced by resisting these power structures. Know your value, take your place and use your voice, and also show you value others, let them have their place, and use their voice. Matriarchy is as harmful as patriarchy. The goal is mutual respect and freedom for all.
Dance:
When Kidd mentions dances in this book, it seems to represent unrestrained freedom, responding to your internal emotions and moving to the sound of your heart without a thought to pleasing others. Dancing without inhibition means being comfortable in your own skin and being completely content.
Near the outset of her journey, Kidd sees other women who dance around a turtle, touching it as they pass, thinking of the myth of a turtle holding the world on its back. Near the end of her journey, as she watches a turtle lay eggs, she sees herself like a turtle. Feminist theology sees a turtle as a symbol of patience, endurance, and wisdom, particularly in the slow and determined journey towards justice and equality.
Reflections:
My children seem to think I look like a turtle in the way I sometimes tilt my chin forward. Now, I have a small collection of turtles, one with a head that bobs, one made of shells, and one that is an ocarina whistle. I loved it when I had the chance to snorkel with sea turtles. The indigenous name for North America is Turtle Island, referring to a creation story where the land is formed on the back of a turtle.
I remember dancing freely at a beach near a cottage we had rented back in the 1990s. It was late afternoon, and my shadow was long and slender on the sand as I kicked and splashed and twirled at the water's edge. It was a good feeling.
Kidd's story of dancing with other women reminded me of a Christian women's retreat I attended over twenty years ago. We met in small groups in a church basement and discussed balancing families, careers, and the old Christian tradition of the wisdom Sophia. Sophia is a Christian personification of God's divine wisdom as a woman. The Bible represents Sophia as Lady Wisdom, being with God from the beginning and showing us the way to live (Proverbs 3:13-21, 8:1-36). I dug out the CD I bought at that retreat and discovered it is called "Dancing Sophia's Circle". These songs have a meditative quality as the writer, Colleen Fulmer, lived in a religious order. She sings about God as the Divine Womb:
O Sacred Womb of love and grace, We can feel you all around us. We lift our hands to touch and bless you, For we are held and carried in this holy place.
Daughter:
Kidd seems to go back to the image of the daughter as a person who is both nurtured and challenged by pressures from her parents and society. Being a daughter may lead many women to an internal view of trying to be perfect, gracious, pleasant, and pleasing to the men in their lives. Being a daughter of a Father-God can make you feel subordinate, obedient, submissive and "less-than" the sons of God. These expectations limit a daughter's agency and self-expression. Kidd discusses the image of a multi-breasted woman who gives sacrificially to nourish others, sometimes at the loss of herself.
Being a daughter of a female deity can make you feel like you are carrying on the spiritual lineage of holiness. It can empower you to know that the Spirit is in you, as the Bible promises, and gives you the words to say. Is that how men have always felt?
In the past, I resisted the ideas of female subordination from an intellectual standpoint. In recent years, I have resisted patriarchal hierarchies based on Bible passages that show God empowering women and Jesus equipping and endorsing women in ministry. I've studied the works of egalitarian biblical scholars, and I know that God created humans both with responsibility over the earth, that women are the corresponding equivalent to men, and that men rule because of their sin, not because of God's design.
While using either intellectual or biblical arguments for gender equality, the feminine wound leaves me and other women continuing to think of ourselves as unworthy and "less than". It is meaningful to me that, in a world where men and boys inherit the name, property, and business of their fathers, in God's realm, both women and men inherit with the full rights of sons. I am a daughter of God, a female heir inheriting the same as male heirs.
Part 2: Initiation
Entering a Dark Gorge
Initiation is that initial discouragement when you see the systems and structures that have held you back, and you cannot unsee them. Kidd compares it to entering a dark gorge. While she was in this dark gorge, newly aware of the impact of her feminine wound, she did art therapy and ended up painting women with no hands and no mouths.
Kidd discusses looking for the divine inside you and learning to trust your own feminine source. This means starting to trust your body, looking within, and learning to trust your instincts and visions. It means putting a stop to listening to the patriarchy telling us only to trust the intellect and teaching of men. The feminine aspects of the divine are a source of power, compassion, and wisdom that reside within us. These aspects of God have often been marginalized in Christian tradition, but nurturing them can bring us to wholeness. Nurturing this inner awareness and confidence can help you climb out of the gorge.
Kidd refers to C.G. Jung and regular visits to an analyst to discuss dreams, what may be happening in the internal psyche, how it is striving towards wholeness, spiritual longings, and how experiences impact the individual. It involves an individual moving beyond their everyday view of themselves to pay attention to the self, listen to it and follow that internal leading. Jung integrated science, psychology, and mystical experiences into the person's spiritual experience.
Reflections:
While I have never explored Jung's thoughts, nor recorded my dreams, I believe science, psychology, and Christianity exist in harmony. Christianity helps us understand science, and science helps us understand God's creation.
I have had periods of melancholy, where I could not laugh and did not have the ability to sing or dance. For me, being with people made it worse, and I would seek out time alone. Eventually, I sought out professional help, a counsellor who began by assessing my emotional inventory. Essentially, a series of questions revealed areas where I was strong as well as areas where I felt discontent. When these areas were pinpointed, they resonated with me as being true, and I was finally able to see inside and realize some of the root causes of my lethargy and unhappiness. My new self-awareness allowed me to focus on changes in my daily life.
Looking inside does not mean choosing ego over God. Looking inside means seeing God in me, exactly where I invited God to be. Quakers, also known as the Religious Society of Friends, refer to the "God in everyone" and the "Inner Light," which allows us to experience God's will and guidance. As a Christian, I invited Jesus into my heart, and the Holy Spirit comforts and guides me. The Holy Spirit, divine spark, or the Light of Jesus, is in me and all Christians. The church is one body, the body of Christ, and Christ is in all of us. The God who resides in me also resides in the heart of every other Christian.
The word "Namaste" translates roughly as, "The divine spark in me recognizes the divine in you", or "the inner light in me greets the light in you." It is used as both a greeting and a farewell and is not restricted to use for the Hindu religion.
Kidd mentions some techniques that I also use towards healing from the feminine wound, from spiritual or emotional trauma. These include meditation, mindfulness, naming and accepting your emotions. I discuss these tools and others in my short self-help book: Walk with Mara on Her Healing Journey: 21 Steps to Emotional Resilience.
A Guiding Feminine Myth (Ariadne)
Kidd looked for a feminine source to guide her out of the dark gorge. She studied a culture that existed before patriarchy dominated: the Minoan culture on the island of Crete. Its religion centred on a goddess who carried a snake in each hand. Athena was a goddess associated with owls, representing wisdom, and snakes, representing transformation and new life (from the shedding of skin). In the Minoan myth, Ariadne is a goddess who uses a red thread to guide Theseus out of the labyrinth after defeating the Minotaur.
Kidd mentions an art piece created by Meinrad Craighead called "Hagia Sophia". It depicts wisdom-Sophia holding Ariadne's red thread, ready to guide us out of the labyrinth. We are the pilgrim, Theseus, deep in the womb of the labyrinth, and wisdom-Sophia is holding the red thread to guide us out of her womb and into our new life. The womb is the labyrinth, and at the centre of it is the feminine source, the wisdom-Sophia.
The owls represent wisdom, knowledge, and intuition.
Kidd discovered that the large stones at Avebury, Britain, date from the Neolithic age and appear similar to Stonehenge. At Avebury, some view the stones to be arranged for ceremonial worship of a goddess, with one stone actually named the Vulva Stone.
Kidd discusses God as the great womb, with all creation being born of that womb, and all humans being born from one divine womb. This image drives a call to care for one another and the earth and all its creatures, since we are all God's creations.
Reflections:
Back in the 1980s, before I was married, I visited Chartres Cathedral in France. Built into its floor is a mosaic that forms a labyrinth. I was pulled to it and felt peace in walking it, without fully realizing its symbolism. The Chartres Cathedral was built in the 12th century.
I don't think I knew that the cathedral was dedicated to honouring the Virgin Mary and that she was traditionally called the Mystical Rose and closely associated with the Holy Spirit. I didn't notice that the six-petal rose in the centre of the labyrinth mirrored the six-petal rose in the windows. I was not there in the afternoon to see how the West Rose Window is positioned to shine a red glow to the centre of the labyrinth. Early Christians redefined the ancient characters from the Greek myth. Taking the place of the goddess Ariadne as the one who guides us through the labyrinth safely is the Mystical Rose, Mary, representing the Holy Spirit. The Minotaur that threatens our death is sin, and we are like Theseus as seekers and pilgrims.
After reading Kidd's memoir, I visited a couple of free local labyrinths. Many people use labyrinths to calm their minds and souls. As you enter the labyrinth, you leave the world behind. Since you do not have to make any choices along the way, your conscious thought is not needed, and your subconscious is free to work on your stresses. Rather than thinking about where to go, walking the labyrinth means trusting in the way. You can recite, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). You can meditate on Jesus as the light, affirming, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105). I walked this labyrinth while repeating "Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6) and pondering what that might mean. The labyrinth clears our heads so we can listen to God. At the centre of the labyrinth, I imagined being in the presence of the Holy Spirit and listening for guidance and wisdom. As I exited the labyrinth, I imagined the Spirit birthing new life in me.
Part 3: Grounding
Encountering a Feminine Form for the Formless
For Kidd to emerge from the deep gorge, she needed to become aware of the feminine source inside her and let it lead her.
Many Christians (especially those in Kidd's childhood Southern Baptist Church) use the word "God" to mean "Male-only". This use of the word "God" tends towards insisting on male-only pastors or priests as representatives of a male God. Seeing God as male can lead to men only being able to officiate Communion, or speak God's messages, accept people into God's family by baptism and confirmation, or voice the male God's forgiveness after hearing your confession.
One way to resist the pressure to see God as male-only is to focus on God as both male and female. The Bible is filled with female imagery of God. It shows God as a creator, a woman labouring to bear children, nurturing or nursing us, seeking us as a woman seeks a lost coin, sheltering us as a mother bird, and protecting us like a mother bear. In these ways, God is like a womb, forming us and giving us life.
Another way to avoid portraying God as male-only is to use the word "God" instead of a male pronoun (he/him). However, because the male image of God is dominant, most traditional Christians will still imagine a male God. Some will use the male pronoun for Jesus and the Father and the female for the Holy Spirit, or a plural pronoun for the Trinitarian God. While God transcends gender, many Christians are uncomfortable using pronouns other than male pronouns for God.
God transcends the human concept of sex and is neither man nor woman. However, humans need forms. While the Bible uses feminine metaphors for God's qualities, Kidd struggled to find a word that explicitly showed that God was not a man. The most obvious word corresponding to the male word "god" is the female word "goddess". While the word goddess comes with patriarchal baggage, it simply is the female name, just as governor is used for a male and governess is used for a female. All she had to do was relieve the word goddess of its baggage. She calls the divine one "goddess" or "Herself", as a feminine name for God.
Reflections
Giving form to a spirit that is neither male nor female is difficult. When The Shack was released by William Paul Young in 2007, it came under fire from some evangelicals for portraying God appearing in various forms as a nurturing old African-American woman, an Asian woman, and a Middle Eastern man.
The persons of the Holy Trinity are most often called by poetic names: Father, Son, and Spirit. This reflects a view that God is male. However, many church traditions, including my own, use gender-neutral names that indicate their primary roles: Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.
The Bible also provides images of God carrying us until we are born, then giving birth and bouncing us on the knee (Psalm 110:3, Isaiah 21:3, 26:17-18, 42:14-15, 49:15, 66:9-12). The Bible represents God's wisdom as female. Jesus calls himself wisdom (Matthew 11:19, Luke 7:35). Paul speaks of having wisdom as having the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:18-31). In Proverbs 8, wisdom is portrayed as a woman who was with God in the beginning, before creation, and she was God. In Wisdom of Solomon 7, an Apocrypha book included in Catholic and Episcopal Bibles, wisdom's name is provided: Sophia. She is called “the fashioner” and “mother” of all good things.
I have noticed many biblical references to the feminine aspects of God: nurturing, loving, compassionate, creative, healing, and wise, and I have prayed to both Father God and Mother God. I have always used the word "God" to mean both male and female. The word "goddess" makes me uncomfortable as I associate it with non-Christian religions. However, I recognize that some use the word "god" to mean "male-god". It is somewhat confusing in the same way as the word "man" has historically meant "mankind" and "humanity". When it suits their purpose, people will say it means "male-only". In my novels, I avoid using pronouns for God. I may reword a sentence or use the word God in place of a pronoun. If a sentence is building on the biblical portrayal of God as a woman or God giving birth, I use a female pronoun. I explore the Bible's various pronouns for God in this article on God's gender.
Part 4: Empowerment
Empowerment is not about absorbing hierarchical attitudes and trying to be on top. Empowerment means being free to be you and also letting others be free to be themselves.
Kidd explains that the nesting doll is also called "matryoshka", which means "grandmother". She saw the matrioszka as a symbol of female lineage, of women giving birth to daughters, each doll coming forth from the womb of the one before. She described how it empowered her to take out the dolls and name her maternal lineage.
I was delighted to find and buy a nesting doll when we visited Poland. It reminded me of one I had as a child. Kidd often describes physical actions or rituals to affirm ideas or words. I touched the top of each doll, thinking about my lineage of mothers and daughters. I named them in order, starting with my great-great-grandmother: Ellen, Maggie, Eliza Jean, Audrey, Elaine. The lineage will go on with my daughters and granddaughters.
Kidd described a cave in Greece as a womb, where the women shouted their female lineage, and as they came out of it, as exiting a womb, their tour guide cheered, "Hurrah, it's a girl!".
There's a small tunnel in the rocks near me, so I went into it and in the dark, I said aloud, "I am Elaine, daughter of Audrey, daughter of Eliza Jean, daughter of Maggie, daughter of Ellen." As I emerged from the top of the rocks, I said to myself that I was happy to be born a girl.
I pondered if I might have a different self-image if I had kept my maiden name, or if my mother had kept her maiden name. My father's side is German and English. My mother's side is Irish. Would my self-image change by the equal acknowledgement of the matrilineal line?
Forgiveness and Healing
Kidd discusses the need to forgive the church for its patriarchal overtones, in order to listen to the song that is Jesus. She also talks about forgiving women who have absorbed the patriarchal view of power.
Kidd's healing occurred when she re-visited a monastery. On her first visit, women were required to remain on the balcony, as physically marginalized as blacks in the 1950s. On a later visit, she was invited to participate in a liturgical dance performed beside the altar in the centre of the main floor. That was when she finally felt the love of the divine for her, as a woman, invited to the holy of holies. That's when she began to forgive the Christian church for the marginalization and betrayal.
At the final meeting of the long-ago women's retreat where I bought the "Dancing Sophia's Circle" CD, we danced in a circle in the chancel area. We tapped our fingers to each other's, above the head and below the hip, as we wove between each other in opposite-moving circles to the music of Colleen Fulmer. It was a lovely way to feel connected and empowered.
Conclusion:
Kidd summarizes that she faced a choice between patriarchy and dissidence. A dissident is a person who opposes official policy or authoritarianism. She chose dissidence.
As Sue Monk Kidd described her spiritual journey to the Christian feminine divine, many told her that it was not an option. There was no such path. But she found her way even without signposts, and she hopes her memoir may help others find their way. We can oppose traditional church power structures and patriarchy while supporting Christ and Christianity. In fact, Christ may call us to overturn these hierarchies.
We might compare Sue Monk Kidd's 1990s spiritual awakening to today's faith deconstruction and reconstruction. She let go of harmful teachings and built her faith on helpful teachings, largely in a safe place, with a small circle of people. Now that she has gone through this long process of tearing down and rebuilding, she can attend church and participate in the community without being triggered by negative baggage. She holds onto her new holistic image of the feminine divine. She has re-shaped her faith into one that includes all people and all creation. Her journey gave her the confidence to use her prophetic voice more publicly to describe worshipping God, who is neither male nor female.
I hope that we can reconstruct our faith so that we can honour God, not man.
Elaine Ricker Kelly Author is empowering women with historical fiction about women in the Bible and early church and Christian blogs about women in leadership, church history and doctrine. Her books include:
Forgotten Followers from Broken to Bold, Book 1, A Novel (2022)
The Sword: A Fun Way to Engage in Healthy Debate on What the Bible Says About a Woman's Role (2023)
Because She Was Called from Broken to Bold, Book 2, A Novel of the Early Church (2024)
Walk with Mara on Her Healing Journey: 21 Steps to Emotional Resilience (2024)
Finding Her Voice from Broken to Bold, Book 3, A Novel of the Earliest Female Apostles (coming October 2025)
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