On the Need for Diverse, Embodied Theology
The theology that taught me to only ever address God with male pronouns had never given me an imagination for a God who had a body that looked like mine, for a God that had the bodily experiences that I experienced in my body.
Before we start, I have fun news! I just released my first ever devotional, entitled Embodying the Divine. Check it out by clicking the image below.
After I had my first baby, I would often think to myself, “I can’t find God.” Prior to that point in my life I would have said that I truly understand the felt experience of God. Like, I had this certain God-feeling in my body And after I had my first baby, I couldn’t find that feeling. I would try and try to walk down the paths that had led me to God before and I couldn’t conjure that feeling anymore. I didn't know where God had gone and I felt utterly unanchored.
It took me years to realize that God was always there in my body, and I was right to be able to locate God in my body. But the problem was, when I had these uniquely female experiences of pregnancy, postpartum mental health crises, miscarriage, infertility, that theology that taught me to only ever address God with male pronouns had never given me an imagination for a God who had a body that looked like mine, for a God that had the bodily experiences that I experienced in my body.
It’s no wonder that when my body was going through these experiences, I couldn’t find that God in my body.This is why it’s so important for us to have a theology that makes space for the lived experiences of all people because we have been told that we are all made in the image of God, that God lives in our bodies, and yet the majority of our theology was created by able bodied, cisgendered men.
Almost a year ago, I started identifying as a lay theologian.