Griffin, Wendy, ed. Daughters of the Goddess: Studies of Healing,
Identity, and Empowerment. Lanham, Md., 2000. A collec-
tion of predominantly theoretical essays written by American
and British Goddess feminists writing as academics, practi-
tioners, or both.
Goldenberg, Naomi. Changing of the Gods: Feminism and the End
of Traditional Religions. Boston, 1979. A groundbreaking
thealogical text, using Jung and other thinkers to urge
women to envision the end of patriarchal religions and to ex-
perience liberation through new woman-centered spirituali-
ties such as feminist Wicca.
Long, Asphodel “The One or the Many: The Great Goddess Re-
visited.” Feminist Theology 15 (1997): 13–29. Examines the
different conception of female deity in the contemporary
Goddess movement.
Mantin, Ruth. “Can Goddesses Travel with Nomads and Cybor-
gs? Feminist Thealogies in a Postmodern Context.” Feminist
Theology 26 (2001): 21–43. Correlates postmodern feminist
accounts of female subjectivity and identity with the
thealogical poetics of the “spiraling” journey of the female
self.
Raphael, Melissa. Thealogy and Embodiment: The Post-Patriarchal
Reconstruction of Female Sacrality. Sheffield, U.K., 1996. A
study of Goddess feminism’s construal of the female body’s
transformative power.
Raphael, Melissa. Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on the Goddess.
Sheffield, U.K., 1999; Cleveland, 2000. An accessible intro-
duction to Goddess feminist thealogy, historiography, poli-
tics, and practice.
Reid-Bowen, Paul. “Reflexive Transformations: Research Com-
ments on Me(n), Feminist Philosophy, and the Thealogial
Imagination.” In Gender, Religion, and Diversity: Cross-
Cultural Perspectives, edited by Ursula King and Tina Beattie,
pp. 190–200. London and New York, 2004. A discussion
of thealogy and Goddess feminism by a committed male
feminist.
Salomonsen, Jone. Enchanted Feminism: Ritual, Gender, and Di-
vinity Among the Reclaiming Witches of San Francisco. London
and New York, 2002. Discusses Starhawk’s teaching and her
continuing influence since the formation of the Reclaiming
Collective in 1979. Includes ethnographic descriptions and
a theological discussion of the beliefs and practices of their
new religious movement.
Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Religion of the Great
Goddess. New York, 1979. A pivotal work of thealogical his-
toriography in which Starhawk presents Wicca as a Goddess-
worshipping religon that empowers women today.
MELISSA RAPHAEL (2005)
THEATER SEE DANCE; DRAMA
THECLA was the most popular female saint after Mary
in early Christianity. Thecla was widely remembered as a dis-
ciple of the apostle Paul in Asia Minor (modern Turkey).
The original source for the Thecla legend was the second-
century Acts of Paul and Thecla, which reports her story as
follows: When Paul comes to Thecla’s hometown of Iconi-
um preaching a gospel that emphasized the virtue of celibacy,
Thecla abandons her plans for marriage and follows the apos-
tle. This countercultural action provokes the anger of her fi-
ancé, her family, and the local governor, who together con-
spire to have her burned at the stake. Thecla is saved only
when a miraculous thunderstorm quenches the flames. Later,
after being reunited with Paul, she is sexually assaulted on
the road to Antioch by a prominent citizen of that city. She
manages to rebuff her attacker, but he arranges to have her
thrown to the beasts in the local arena. While in custody she
receives support from a rich female patron, and in the arena
she is defended by a lioness and survives the attacks of lions,
bears, and bulls. She finally throws herself into a pool filled
with ravenous seals, which are struck dead by a flash of light-
ning, and she baptizes herself in the water. After the awe-
struck governor releases her, she dresses herself in male
clothes and begins to travel and teach the gospel after the
fashion of Paul. Ultimately, Thecla takes her final rest at the
town of Seleucia (modern Silifke, Turkey).
The North African writer Tertullian (On Baptism 17,
c. 200 CE) provides the first external reference to the Acts of
Paul and Thecla. He reports that it was composed by an
Asian presbyter, but certain details in Thecla’s story have
prompted speculation about the folkloric origins of her leg-
end. The prominence of female characters and the details of
their social relations have led some scholars to argue further
that the Acts of Paul and Thecla may have had roots in the
storytelling practices of ascetic women. While such origins
ultimately remain uncertain, Tertullian gives evidence that
early Christian women appealed to Thecla’s example to “de-
fend the liberty of women to teach and to baptize” (On Bap-
tism 17).
By the fourth and fifth centuries, devotion to Thecla as
a saint and ascetic exemplar had become a widespread phe-
nomenon in the Mediterranean world. The focal point of
this devotion was her pilgrimage shrine, Hagia Thekla at Se-
leucia. Ancient sources describe large numbers of monks who
lived in the vicinity and managed the shrine, including a
community of female virgins in residence within the sanctu-
ary area. Modern excavations at the site have uncovered the
remains of three basilicas, a large public bath, and a number
of cisterns. A flurry of architectural adaptation at the site in
the late fifth century attests its rapidly growing popularity
among Christian pilgrims.
Thecla’s shrine was also the recipient of literary patron-
age. Later writers produced expanded versions of her legend,
including accounts of her “martyrdom” at Seleucia—
specifically, how she finally escaped her persecutors by disap-
pearing into a large rock while still alive. The story was meant
to validate the local veneration of Thecla as a true martyr,
despite the absence of her bodily relics. The rock into which
she sank became a local cultic marker, the site of the altar
in her church. Finally, collections of miracle stories also doc-THECLA 9101