Cousins – Mary Visits, and Elizabeth Welcomes  

“womanism is to feminism, as purple is to lavender”*

Mary visited Elizabeth after learning that she was bearing a gift that would change the world, and that Elizabeth too was pregnant with opportunities to prepare the way for that change. While the biblical text does not offer much detail about their meeting, readers can imagine that they gathered, embraced, shed tears, shared meals, and prayed, reflecting on how best to lead their efforts for the societal change that was to come. 

Byzantine Hoodoo likens this relationship to feminism and womanism and the hermeneutical challenges and reassurances that the two have offered me as lover and scholar of sacred scripture. The two meet at what may seem for some opposite ends of a spectrum; however, at their core, for many others, is the merging of ideas to create possibilities and an environment that considers best practices that aid in the goodness and wholeness of themselves and their communities. This is at the heart of Mary and Elizabeth’s story, as is the work of Byzantine Hoodoo. 

*Alice Walker first used the term womanism in 1979, and later expanded it to a four-part definition found in her book In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose