Paper short abstract:

Herchurch is a San Francisco based congregation that operates at the intersection of feminism, Lutheranism and paganism. It is the aim of the paper to unravel the intellectual traditions that inform the utopian endeavor of worshipping the divine principle of wisdom in postmodernity.

Paper long abstract:

Herchurch is a San Francisco based congregation belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that decided to rename itself to “Herchurch” underlining the local meaning given to the worship of the “Divine Feminine”. Not only does the congregation experiment with feminist theology, also does it employ a “resident witch” that distributes “magical gifts” and helps discover the divine in nature. The feminist inspired approach can be described as christopagan (Wettich 2022).

The intersection of feminism, Lutheranism and paganism found in Herchurch is also utopian in nature, as it is part of the mission to overcome the worship of the “cultural whitemalegod” that is dominant in most parts of Christianity, in favor of the divine principle of wisdom (Sophia) as a more encompassing advocate of all people. In situations informed by insecurity such as the passage from one life phase to another, Herchurch provides shelter through rites of passage.

The paper discusses influences of the utopian promise given by the feminist inspired christopagan program such as “Thealogy” (Raphael 1999), “Christian Goddess Spirituality” (Beavis 2020), post-Christian spiritualities (Woodhead 1993), and neopaganism in the city (Hegner 2019). It further follows the traces of the utopian dimension of “Female Spirituality” to institutions such as Sophia University San Francisco, Progressive Christianity (Flunder 2005), and “Reconciling in Christ” in order to finally relate it to earlier streams of Lutheran utopian thinking (Andreas 1619).