Overview

Full Product Details

9780253343161

Table of Contents

Reviews

<p> In a sensitive and empathic study, Campbell (Colby) examines candid autobiographical writings of selected Roman Catholic women who have departed from the institutional church. These exit narratives explore women's strategies of religious self-representation of flight, escape, and crossing over, complete with internal cracks and disjunctures, rifts and ruptures. These women--Monica Baldwin, Antonia White, Mary McCarthy, Mary Gordon, Mary Daly, Karen Armstrong, Barbara Ferraro, Patricia Hussey, and Patricia Hampl--were all deeply shaped by their early commitments to the Church; they also found themselves isolated, marginalized, and mostly liberated as they discovered their own religious meanings and unleashed their passionate, dissenting, subversive voices. Some never went back to the organized Church; some went elsewhere; some returned; some moved back and forth across the boundary. In all cases, they spoke in dramatic ways about their spiritual journeys. Campbell highlights these neglected flight narratives in order to inspire and empower women who find themselves tempted to leave their proper, prescribed spaces and duties. This is a refreshing and lively book for anyone interested in the transformations of women struggling with institutional religion. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, lower-level undergraduates, and professionals/practitioners. --P. K./P>--P. K. Steinfeld, Buena Vista University Choice (01/01/2004)

<p>. .. this is a brave examination of many different kinds of spiritualborder crossings. -- Publishers Weekly

... the humanity and open-endedness of the narratives [come through]. Unique in gathering these contemporary patterns of departure from the Church, this is a study in slow, complex, and often agonizing self-realization as well as a consideration of the role of women in the Church today. Recommended. -Library Journal ... this is a brave examination of many different kinds of spiritual border crossings. -Publishers Weekly In a sensitive and empathic study, Campbell (Colby) examines candid autobiographical writings of selected Roman Catholic women who have departed from the institutional church. These exit narratives explore women's strategies of religious self-representation of flight, escape, and crossing over, complete with internal cracks and disjunctures, rifts and ruptures. These women-Monica Baldwin, Antonia White, Mary McCarthy, Mary Gordon, Mary Daly, Karen Armstrong, Barbara Ferraro, Patricia Hussey, and Patricia Hampl-were all deeply shaped by their early commitments to the Church; they also found themselves isolated, marginalized, and mostly liberated as they discovered their own religious meanings and unleashed their passionate, dissenting, subversive voices. Some never went back to the organized Church; some went elsewhere; some returned; some moved back and forth across the boundary. In all cases, they spoke in dramatic ways about their spiritual journeys. Campbell highlights these neglected flight narratives in order to inspire and empower women who find themselves tempted to leave their proper, prescribed spaces and duties. This is a refreshing and lively book for anyone interested in the transformations of women struggling with institutional religion. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, lower-level undergraduates, and professionals/practitioners. -P. K. Steinfeld, Buena Vista University, Choice, July 2004

Author Information

Debra Campbell is Professor of Religious Studies at Colby College, and co-author (with R. Scott Appleby, Patricia Byrne, and Jay P. Dolan) of Transforming Parish Ministry. She lives in Waterville, Maine.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available