The Awakened Woman: Feminist or Fully Feminine?
" ‘Goddess worshiper,
feminazi, heretic.’ These are the names I have been called since
realizing that I too, as a woman, am created in God’s image and am a
valuable part of the church."
–from Welcoming the Awakened Woman, by Julie Clawson
Have you ever heard the term "feminist spiritual awakening"? For Christian women, it’s kind of a scary, controversial sounding phrase. It’s usually used to describe the process of rejecting the church and
Christ, too, in order to follow a path of self-discover that very often ends in worship of the self,
exploration of goddess spirituality, or full-on paganism. But in a new article called Welcoming the Awakened Woman, an emerging church pastor named Julie Clawson co-opts this phrase, so often used by pagans and goddess worshipers, to mean something
entirely different:
"It of course looks different for every woman, but generally involves a period of self-reflection and self-discovery. It
is the realization that as a women one is made in the image of God and
is as valuable, worthy of respect, and full of potential as men. It
involves not only discovering that one has a voice, but that what one
has to say is important and needs to be heard… even if (especially if)
it differs from the status quo. It is the realization that as God’s
creation we can be called to serve God in any variety of ways. And
it often involves a period of anger – anger and frustration that we
have not been told these things before and that others actively
suppress women who try to teach those ideas."
I love Clawson’s new twist on the phrase "spiritual awakening," because I think it’s so biblical. We
become awake and alive in Christ alone, not in some frustrating and endless inner journey so many women embark on. Jesus made a way, and he was a revolutionary when he offered new life to women themselves, no longer dependent on men for redemption, as they still are in certain religious belief systems. When we awaken to our new life in him, we are "dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11).
So although I would have not claimed a feminist spiritual awakening before I read Julie’s article, I think I would now, as she has defined it, because I’m claiming my role as image-bearer. I’m made in the image of God! Now that’s something to wake up to.
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SUSY FLORY is a writer, speaker, and journalist who inspires and challenges women to embrace a life of passion, boldness, & adventure. In your own unique way, YOU can change the world, starting in your own backyard. 
I LOVE when Christians take something negative and turn it into a postive, reaffirming message. This is great. Of course, when I read the title “The Awakened Woman” I thought you were referring to a mother with a preschooler who sleepwalks.
OH wait, that would be me.