Women's Books of Note

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Permalink Reply by Susie-Q on April 8, 2008 at 1:07pm

Thanks for the resource, Stina. I just love reading about mystics! It's such a powerful model.

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Permalink Reply by Stina Brown on May 10, 2008 at 10:30am

Hello Ladies,
Ok, so to revise this book note... I finished the book and was so ... frustrated, that I promptly donated it to the library. The women highlighted in this book were either totally subject to extreeeeme self-denial (around everything pleasure etc.) in subordination to God (Puritan Christian context), or, they were the mal-treated side-kicks of their male religious leaders... quite disappointing. Either their belief system of a harsh patriarchal God, or their male-dominant culture completely ruled even their deepest, most personal sacred practices. Wild. :o(

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Permalink Reply by Ann Hunt on May 14, 2008 at 10:43am

Stina, I read this book about 5 maybe 6 years ago. I have forgotten who she talks about in particulaar and what her thesis was but as a student of religious history, I am mindful that there are great cultural divides between our time and theirs... and how things appear to us may not be the heart of the matter... I agree, some of the personal repression and mal-treatment of women in the past was absurd... Some of the ways women attempted to find their own personal "freedom" within systems that were often life denying and/or woman phobic are disturbing from our point of view. But within the constraints of their time these women were often courageously and mindfully engaging the systems and culture around them. Even today, few women are immune from the limitations of their culture... Most of us can at best hope to prepare the ground for our dreams and hope that another future generation will bring them to harvest... That we know anything about these women is a testimony to the inner strength and courage of the preservers of their stories... And the stories you read are as much about the strength and courage of the preservers of these stories as it is about the women & times chronicled. Unfortunately our lives too will be judged by younger women as lacking... So it goes in the passage of time and generations. Blessings!

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