Feminist Studies

Loving Criticism: A Spiritual Philosophy ofSocial Change SharonDoetsch-Kidder This essay meditates on the spiritual challenges of doing activ ist and political work. Critics and activists have long appreciated the necessary focus on the material dimensions of social change encour aged by antiracist feminists such as Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldua, and bell hooks, but we frequently forget to attend to the spiritual aspects of liberation articulated by these same authors. How we do our work matters, whether as scholars or as activists. Paying atten tion to the spirit of our work can help us to produce knowledge that is useful to those struggling to survive, that serves humanity, and that brings more love, peace, and compassion to the world. We can draw on ancient and internal knowledges to help us find alter natives to the oppositional thinking that is the root of violence and to treat with understanding and kindness those with whom we disagree, thereby opening up worlds of possibility for creating deep, lasting change. Already I have trouble with language. The material and spiri tual are not in opposition. Our spiritual interconnection is part of our global material interdependence; indeed this notion is central to what historian Becky Thompson names multiracial feminism — "the liberation movement spearheaded by women of color in the United States in the 1970s that was characterized by its international perspective, its attention to interlocking oppressions, and its support FeministStudies38, no. 2 (Summer 2012). © 2012 by Feminist Studies, Inc. 444 Sharon Doetsch-Kidder 445 of coalition politics."1 Also, activists and intellectuals are not distinct groups. Many whom I cite in this essay are writer-activists. The nature of much activist work is critique of the status quo, and the work of socially engaged criticism is activist in nature, so these terms are largely interchangeable. Most of the thinkers on whom I draw here write for people engaged in all aspects of social change work—polit ical, cultural, spiritual, intellectual — categories that also overlap and dissolve into one another; my usage only indicates whether an author's primary work is scholarly writing or political organizing. I write of "activists" and "intellectuals" or "critics," but mostly of "we" who are engaged in the work of positive social change. Those of us familiar with histories of exclusion are trained to question any use of "we," using specificity to indicate that we understand we cannot speak for everyone. I insist on using a hopeful "we" to reflect my very broad view of what constitutes social change work. Teach ing, parenting, writing, performing, creating art, building commu nities, acting ethically and responsibly—all of these acts, as well as explicitly political activism and organizing, work to make the world a better place if they are done with "the spirit of love and protection for all things."2 Background Antiracist feminist activists and intellectuals such as Anzaldua, Lorde, hooks, Alice Walker, Akasha Gloria Hull, Cherrfe Moraga, Chela Sandoval, Paula Gunn Allen, Mab Segrest, M. Jacqui Alexander, Leela Fernandes, and AnaLouise Keating have been important voices in incor porating spirit into social change work. They have been paying atten tion to not just when and where but how we enter into discourse and social interaction, so that our work reflects our best values rather than the negative emotions often generated in response to conflict.3 Scholars and practitioners of feminist spirituality, such as Luisah Teish, Starhawk, Charlene Spretnak, Carol Christ, Katie Cannon, Mary E. Hunt, Judith Plaskow, Delores Williams, Rita Gross, and Ada Maria Isasi-Dfaz, have been integrating spiritual and political work for decades.4 Their work continues legacies of spiritual social change that can be traced through civil rights movements, Black women's clubs, and women's suffrage and abolitionist struggles in the United States, as well as decolonization and other liberation movements 446 Sharon Doetsch-Kidder around the world.5 Spiritual social change work consistently links spirituality with political practice, theorizing and demonstrating the importance of spirituality for the vitality of feminism and progres sive social movements. Yet such attention to spirituality remains marginal within women's and queer studies and progressive social movements. Here I reflect on the implications of spirit for how we work toward social...