Attached Paper Online June Annual Meeting 2026

Yemoja, We Always Swim in a Circle to Arrive Home: The Sacred Feminine as a Trans-Religious Theology of Liberatory Hope

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

Sacred Feminine theologies and iconographies are trans-religious - fluidly summoned,
transmitted, reflected, and reinforced across multiple contexts in liturgy and praxis. The synchronous "seeing" of the Sacred Feminine as a theistic vision of sovereignty, empowerment, embodiment, protection, justice, and hope is a defining characteristic of Her presence and a method of Her endurance.

The Sacred Feminine as a trans-religious theology of liberatory hope is a divine counter-narrative that transgresses hegemonic dis-embodiments). Embracing a womanist/Black feminist theo-ethical and spiritualist lens, this presentation weaves theologies and theodicies of the Sacred Feminine in African/a Heritage Religions (AHRs), Sakta Hinduism, and the Black Madonna of Catholic Christianity to "midwife" a shared telos of justice on behalf of the most structurally vulnerable in our societies. The Sacred Feminine is an audacious hope - a theistic vision of justice and liberation embodied as womn, as Black, as wholly Divine. Midwifing a shared teleological see-ing of Divine Feminine as a justice ethos is an urgent function of a theology that meets the needs of the times we face.