Feminist Inquiry in the Sociology of Religion 285
source of empowerment (Griffin 2000; Foltz 2000; Neitz 1990). Looking at female and
male countercultural spiritual seekers who were unaffiliated with Goddess worship-
ping groups, Bloch (1997) found that women spoke about finding validation through
Goddess imagery, and both women and men spoke of the need for balance between God
and Goddess. Men did not speak about gender inequalities, but rather about seeing the
Goddess “in terms of nurturing and assistance” (1997: 189). Berger (1998) discusses the
ramifications of reimagining deity as God and Goddess for gender relations and child
rearing in a neopagan community. Neitz (2000) further explores the ramifications of
neopaganism for gender identity and sexuality. The essay “Queering the Dragonfest”
looks at gender-bending and the disruption of heteronormitivity that occurs among
witches with a postpatriarchal ideology. The essay narrates a story about witches who
create a religion in which sexuality is sacred, and remove from it assumptions of pa-
triarchy. In so doing, they create the possibility for a “queering” of heterosexuality
allowing for play with and among sexualities and genders.^9
Feminist perspectives constitute a reference point for the authors of the studies re-
viewed here. The studies themselves are a part of an ongoing conversation about women
and gender in the sociology of religion. All extend our knowledge about gender and
religion. They challenge conventional conceptualizations to varying degrees. Marginal
locations, while neither necessary or sufficient, often disrupt taken for granted ideas
and help us see things differently, in part because studies that locate subjects away
from the centers of organized religion are more likely to also find that the theories and
concepts of the discipline do not quite fit. This experience of “not fitting” is the origin
of the paradigmatic shift that birthed feminist sociology. In the next section, I explore
a type of feminist theorizing that begins in the acknowledgment of the bifurcation of
consciousness between the experiences of women and mainstream sociology.
THE FEMINIST THEORY AS A METHOD OF INQUIRY
In 1985, Barrie Thorne and Judith Stacey, in their famous essay, “The Missing Feminist
Revolution in Sociology,” stated that feminist theory in sociology had been less suc-
cessful in causing a paradigm shift in the discipline of sociology than it had in history
or anthropology. Although acknowledging the many contributions, they argued that,
within sociology, feminism has been contained and coopted. In part, they thought
this reflected the fragmented nature of the discipline, but they argued it also reflected
dominant methodologies and positivist traditions which place a value on knowledge
phrased in abstract and universal terms. Stacey and Thorne pointed to the Canadian
sociologist Dorothy Smith as someone in sociology who is “reconsidering the relation-
ship between knower and known to develop a method of inquiry that will preserve
the presence of the subject as an actor and experiencer” (1985: 309). The promise of
(^9) This last article points to an emerging body of literature on gay and lesbian experiences with or-
ganized religion. I have not included this literature here because it rarely problematizes gender
in an explicit way. For examples, see Dillon (1999a) for a discussion of Dignity’s confronta-
tion with the heterosexist policies of the Catholic church; Ponticelli (1999) studied Exodus
International, a Christian organization dedicated to supporting groups which encourage gays
and lesbians to reconstruct their sexual identities as straight. The anthropologist Ellen Lewin’s
(1998) study of gay and lesbian commitment ceremonies suggests possibilities for studying
religious practices of gays and lesbians outside of the institutions.