Ok…
Quick GQ question.
I’ve just gone through the "Is Mormonism false?"thread in GD and have a quick question.
If there a religion that has been ‘founded’ by a woman?
I’m sure that this question has been asked and answered many times in the past and will happily accept links to SD threads answers but he Guinness has made my fingers too large to use the search bar…
Certainly. “Shakerism” was founded by Mother Ann Lee.
Christian Science was founded by Mary Baker Eddy.
I’m certain there are others.
There are more, I’m sure, but both Shakerism (“Mother” Ann Lee) and Christian Science (Mary Baker Eddy) were founded by women.
I wouldn’t call it a religion, but rather a denomination of Christianity – but there is the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion, which even has the founder’s name included in its title.
Ellen G. White was fundamental to the founding of Seventh Day Adventism.
Madame Blavatsky was central to Theosophy, and Spiritualism (if you consider that a religions) had numerous female leaders, starting with the Fox sisters.
Depends what you mean by “founded”, as well as what you mean by “religion”. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s (fictional) book The Mists of Avalon has inspired several distinct groups and countless individual Goddess worshippers to create a religion which is more-or-less what she describes in the book (allowing for differences like no pre-adolescent fostering and other bits that are just impractical in today’s age).
However, MZB never organized, ran or led these religious groups. She, in fact, converted to Christianity late in her life, if I understand correctly. Plus, I don’t know if any of those groups are legally incorporated and recognized churches in the UK.
Here in the US, there are countless small (and a few not-so-small) neopagan churches, legally organized and incorporated, which have been started or run by women. The most famous is probably The Reclaiming Collective which grew out of classes offered by Starhawk and Diane Baker. Again, though, neither Starhawk nor Baker “lead” the group - they are strictly and proudly non-hierarchical.
Circle Sanctuary is run by Selena Fox, a wonderful crone with the spirit and energy of a toddler. I don’t know if they’re a legal Church, but they fulfill all the social, spiritual and emotional functions of one.
Joanna Southcott was a prophetess who built up a considerable following in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth centuries.
The congregación mita in Puerto Rico. I have classmates who are part of it, but like any other religion, I don’t discuss that much with them. I do know that they have different chorus and bands (a harp band!!), and that their school uniforms are easily recognized (bright pink skirts under the knee).
There are also possible pre-historic religions, such as an Earth Mother cult. Exactly what they did or who founded them is lost in the mists of time.