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Sensuous Spirituality: Out from Fundamentalism

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Virginia Ramey Mollenkott (born 1932) is Professor Emeritus at William Paterson University, and was (temporarily) a stylistic consultant for the New International Version of the Bible. She is an active member of the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus, and Christian Lesbians OUT. She has written/edited other books such as Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? Revised and Updated: Positive Christian Response, A, Women, Men, and the Bible/With Study Guide, and The Divine Feminine: The Biblical Imagery of God As Female.

She states openly in the Preface, "I speak and have always spoken in a lesbian voice; the feminism came much later than the lesbianism, signs of which were apparent in me by age four... My primary communities of accountability are the lesgay community and the feminist and womanist communities and, to one degree or another, liberation communities everywhere."

She writes, "The thesis of this book is that spiritual beings who are having human experiences---at least those with activist temperaments---demonstrate love for their ultimate and eternal context by enacting tender concern for the penultimate and the apparently temporary. In other words, sensuous spirituality breeds concern for the well-being of the people and all the other creatures who are here on this planet at this time, and for the planet itself."

She states, "My name for this Cosmic Energy or Consciousness is God. I dislike the word Goddess because in our social context that word implies the presence of a second All-Encompassing Being---surely a contradiction in terms and logic."

She concludes by recommending "following the bliss of our eternal being, of experiencing complete integrity at every moment, of being in constant touch with God's Self deep within our centered Self. Yet this is the discipleship our Selfhood seeks, and this is the experience that fulfills the heights and depths of our humanity. This is heaven on earth. And perfect freedom."

Sensuous Spirituality is a painful read: certainly not worth reading for pleasure but essential for understanding where feminist Christianity is heading. Ms Mollenkott is a very honest writer who is not afraid of including personal memoir in what is essentially an academic's journey away from her past. This woman can rationalise anything with Bible scriptures. She tears down the foundations of religious Christianity and erects new ones of her own making. Everything is justified with scripture to her complete satisfaction. She wrests scripture with the best of them. Sin is no more, in her universe. Perversion is replaced with anything goes and her goddess looks on with benignity. She cleverly melds the worst of new age thought and mysticism with the gospel of Jesus Christ and airily rewrites his teachings to conform to her worldview. I had to force myself to take up her book and could only bear to read it in very small doses; it is pure poison to the faith of one who follows Jesus and loves the Bible as God's holy word. As soon as I am sure that I understand her beliefs I shall take her book and burn it on the compost heap for the abomination that it is. Don't read this book unless you also worship the goddesses of this world.

Ms. Mollencott has ignored most scripture and taken what scripture she can use out of context. She has done all of this to re-invent God. She has created a god that fits her needs, rather than making herself a worthy sacrifice for God. She has, as the second commandment warns, created a false god to worship. This book is a warning to all who want to follow Christ that there are those who proclaim to have a "new view" of God that is more accurate, except you have to ignore or rewrite scripture to fit the scripture with the new god. This book is worth the reading to see how the enemy works.

Another book attempting to white wash and justify sin........... Shakespeare said it well -- "Oh what goodly outside falsehood has."

Sensuous Spirituality is a painful read: certainly not worth reading for pleasure but essential for understanding where feminist Christianity is heading. Ms Mollenkott is a very honest writer who is not afraid of including personal memoir in what is essentially an academic's journey away from her past. This woman can rationalise anything with Bible scriptures. She tears down the foundations of religious Christianity and erects new ones of her own making. Everything is justified with scripture to her complete satisfaction. She wrests scripture with the best of them. Sin is no more, in her universe. Perversion is replaced with anything goes and her goddess looks on with benignity. She cleverly melds the worst of new age thought and mysticism with the gospel of Jesus Christ and airily rewrites his teachings to conform to her worldview. I had to force myself to take up her book and could only bear to read it in very small doses; it is pure poison to the faith of one who follows Jesus and loves the Bible as God's holy word. As soon as I am sure that I understand her beliefs I shall take her book and burn it on the compost heap for the abomination that it is. Don't read this book unless you also worship the goddesses of this world.