Dancing in the Cosmos

: Towards Liberating Theological Models for Children’s Spirituality and Sexuality

Abstract

This thesis is born out of my own experiences of abuse and of the liberating energy of the divine within this process. There was a struggle and I did not have a language to name my own pain. Both society and the church left me voiceless in relation to my particular experiences but I found a voice in art. From these beginnings I developed a passionate desire to find a new model for our female children, one of empowered embodiment and radical connection, as I realise I was not alone in my experience of voiceless vulnerability. It is my hope that the model I develop will make the girl child less vulnerable to patriarchal systems while not losing the strength of mutual vulnerability of which theologians speak.
Therefore, I examine what Christianity offers the girl child in the areas of sexuality and spirituality and then move on to ask if the interdisciplinary mingling of the new cosmology with feminist theology, which gave me my voice, offers bigger, bolder and more creative spaces in which to grow empowered and passionate girl children.
The new cosmology builds on the embodied opportunities that feminist and radical sexual theology open up for us by exploring the place of the body in the widest possible sphere that of the cosmos itself while not losing the intimacy of that task. This can be demonstrated in the work of Rupert Sheldrake and Judy Cannato who explore the resonance of energetic fields yet link this with human reality. Further, the work of Peter Levine and Maggie Klein, Linda Hartley and Luce Irigaray in the area of breath demonstrates the scientific and also theological significance of this fully embodied activity.
Part of my work is a set of painted panels illustrating our Universe story from the Big Bang to the creation of our planet. These are the backbone of the art work from which I develop a series of other art works which demonstrate my interpretation of the interplay between the embodied narrative of the internal world of the feminine and that of the external environment of theology, society, religion and culture. My art work shows the artist as present as it weaves its way in the written narrative of my thesis.

Date of Award	7 Nov 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Winchester
Supervisor	Lisa Isherwood (Supervisor) & Janet Wootton (Supervisor)