Ep. 55: God is a Black Woman w/ Dr. Christena Cleveland

2022-11-01

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“The Spirit of God, She has made me, and the breath of the nursing God, She gives me life.” - Job 33:4When you close your eyes and envision God, who do you see? Like me, you probably envision God as an old, white male sitting on a throne looking down from on high with an air of judgment and anger toward the world. This is the god of authoritarianism, patriarchy, domination, and purity culture and he’s been entrenched in our hearts and minds for years. But what if we’ve gotten God wrong all along? What if instead of a Divin...

“The Spirit of God, She has made me, and the breath of the nursing God, She gives me life.” - Job 33:4

When you close your eyes and envision God, who do you see? Like me, you probably envision God as an old, white male sitting on a throne looking down from on high with an air of judgment and anger toward the world. This is the god of authoritarianism, patriarchy, domination, and purity culture and he’s been entrenched in our hearts and minds for years. But what if we’ve gotten God wrong all along? What if instead of a Divine dictator, God is Creator and Mother, the Sacred sustainer of life?

The Divine Feminine is the spiritual concept that there exists a feminine counterpart to the patriarchal and masculine worship structures that have long dominated organized religions. The Divine Feminine extends well beyond one belief system, and instead can be used as a spiritual lens to balance our perspective on what it means to envision the Sacred. She shows up in all of the world’s great religions including the Black Madonna, the Black Kali, and the Black Tara.

It is high time we recovered God in female form for the sake of everyone.

Bio

Christena Cleveland, Ph.D. is a social psychologist, public theologian, author, and activist. She is the founder and director of the Center for Justice + Renewal as well as its sister organization, Sacred Folk, which creates resources to stimulate people’s spiritual imaginations and support their journeys toward liberation. An award-winning researcher and former professor at Duke University’s Divinity School, Christena lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

A weaver of Black liberation and the sacred feminine, Dr. Cleveland integrates psychology, theology, storytelling, and art to stimulate our spiritual imaginations. She recently completed her third full-length book, God is a Black Woman, which details her 400-mile walking pilgrimage across central France in search of ancient Black Madonna statues, and examines the relationship among race, gender, and cultural perceptions of the Divine.

Dr. Cleveland holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California Santa Barbara as well as an honorary doctorate from the Virginia Theological Seminary. An award-winning researcher and author, Christena is a Ford Foundation Fellow who has held faculty positions at several institutions of higher education — most recently at Duke University’s Divinity School.

A bona fide tea snob, lover of Black art, and Ólafur Arnalds superfan — Christena makes her home in Boston.

Quotables

“It’s not just white Jesus that I hate, it’s male Jesus too.”

“What does God do all day? God Gives birth.”

“Whitemalegod is the spiritual or religious organizing principle behind this white patriarchy that flows in our land.”

“It’s scary to see how whitemalegod has poisoned so much of global Christianity.”

“As a Black woman, I couldn’t even show up (in church) as both Black and female.”

“No one person has broken my heart like the Church has.”

“I had no idea Saints across history have seen Jesus as female and feminine.”

“I trust Black women to get the job done.”

“I can relinquish a lot of the need to control others because God is a Black Woman, and She has it handled.”

“I’m passionate about people finding themselves in the Divine.”