Customer Reviews

Chasing Sophia: Reclaiming the Lost Wisdom of Jesus

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Lillian Barger's extensive study, deep and broad thinking, personal wrestling and Christ-centered wisdom combine to make Chasing Sophia an invaluable read for folks from many walks of life--women and men, churched and unchurched, Christian and "non". Not only am I recommending it to the women I work with in my psychotherapy practice, I'm purchasing copies for many of my colleagues and friends.

Especially important is Barger's incisive analysis and critique of how both popular culture and the church have failed to empower women in trusting the wisdom that is "in our bones." She writes, "The voice of the friendly media-based expert has become omnipresent. Entering our homes and offices, experts attempt to interpret not only the geopolitical balance but also the meaning of everything, presenting scientific-sounding information about every detail of our lives, from what we eat to how we work...While Oprah tells us what she knows 'for sure,' we're left to wonder if we know anything at all"(p.62). This is but one example of numerous eye-opening insights offered.

As a therapist specializing in eating disorders, I am especially grateful for the chapter "It's In Your Bones" where Barger writes about women's disconnection from body wisdom (one of the four sources of wisdom she writes about along with nature, scripture and community). She points out that "The self-doubt we feel begins with doubt about our bodily adequacy, which is the basis for all other forms of doubt we experience"(p. 107). In a culture where surveys indicate that the majority of women struggle with negative body image, it is no wonder that we haven't claimed the wisdom of our bodies. As Barger so eloquently states, many of us have suffered so much pain in our bodies, that we "live as ambivalent tenants" in our own skin.

Chasing Sophia is an inspiring and hopeful read for all who seek to more fully inhabit our bodies and trust our own wisdom.

Chasing Sophia is an unusual book. I recommend it especially for women who know intuitively that it's a privilege to be female, and yet who struggle to be secure in their femininity. In these thoughtful pages, author Lilian Calles Barger gives a very sensible commentary on women's spirituality, acknowledging women's strengths, yet without rebelling against Christianity. She writes convincingly with intelligence, sensitivity, and faithfulness to the truth about Jesus.

The call of Chasing Sophia is for women not merely to seek knowledge, but to embody it. Bridging the gap between the heart of feminist ideals, (the equality and worth of women), and the redeeming truth of Jesus Christ, Barger not only dispels contemporary myths that distort the truth of Christianity, but reminds women of their inherent worth and that through them God displays His wisdom. Intelligent and warm, Barger gently and persuasively invites women to explore afresh the person of Jesus Christ. For those who are thirsty and long to believe...come and drink.

Lilian Calles Barger's work offers fresh and unique thinking on wisdom that does not easily fit into any particular "box." This is a book that is smart and well written. As a male I was challenged from cover to cover. It opened my eyes in new ways to the oppression of women through the centuries as well as the dangers of inappropriately reacting to that oppression. The book also enables the reader to take a fresh look at faith and institutional religion. Barger's honest and candid words engaged some of my own faith struggles and allowed me to know that I am not alone in my thinking and questioning. She did this while challenging me to take the person of Jesus Christ more seriously.

Lillian Calles Barger writes a compelling tale of a woman finding her voice and discovering the truth of herself through her own spiritual quest. In the book's title play on words, "chasing sophia" from the Greek word for wisdom, comes the discovery of the feminine embodiment of truth with a surprising twist on the conventional re-telling of a male-power based Christian tradition. Ms. Barger turns numerous assumptions of faith and power on its head and confidently grasps and discovers the true source and nature of a woman's knowledge of herself. Filled with wonderful personal stories of her childhood in Argentina, her immigration to the United States, and her experimentation with different belief traditions,Ms. Barger weaves both a personal tale and a universal one for women: How do we know what we know? How can we be sure what we know? and what is true knowledge based on anyway? An unconventional story, this book will leave you with more than you bargained for.

This book has so many incisive facets. As Lauren Winner suggests, it would be ideal to give to those who have left Christianity for what is supposedly a more woman-friendly faith. Some conservatives might scare a little, in fact, at Barger's willingness to appreciate the needs felt by some who have tried to feminize the gospel to the loss of its purity. But she brings us back to the tried and true gospel and its message of redemption for all, including the dignity of God's female image-bearers. Men as well as women will get a better look into the complexity of the devaluations women have faced, the obstacles they encounter in embracing their own rational and intuitive God-given wisdom and acting on it, and the contemporary draw of gnosticism and how it does not meet or empower us in our true needs. While she draws on a breadth of historical knowledge and scholarly insight, particularly showing us what avenues of spiritual wisdom have and have not been open to women in the Church in various eras, it is accessible enough for those with only a very modestly intellectual bent. It was enjoyable to "converse" with a like mind on such matters as the female "Wisdom" of Proverbs. Her evaluation of the experience of caring for a father in his final days and making decisions pertinent to his care as a wisdom-bearer is a must-read for health practitioners and anyone in caregiving shoes for those with terminal illness. Her depiction of our celebration of communion as recreating the meal at Emmaus, where amid our brokenness and confusion Christ is revealed in the breaking of the bread, is a profound one that I will return to in the act.

I purchased this book hoping that it would give new interpretations of the references to Wisdom in the Bible as well as a new view of Jesus as the embodiment of Wisdom or The Word Made Flesh. What I got, however, was biased, judgmental rhetoric against women who choose "mysticism" and personal inward spiritual journeys as a way to reclaim their lost feminine spirituality.

Barger claims that mysticism encourages women to seek "escape from the world and their bodies". The book is littered with many such half-truths and statements which are simply factually wrong. The author asserts that, "The hazards of the inward journey are many.... Instead of clarity we find bewilderment." She must be speaking to readers who have never been on their own journey of self-knowledge and would therefore have no way of knowing that this is just not true. But Barger doesn't stop there; she also makes the statement that self-knowledge "is rather elusive" and only reveals our "double-mindedness." What a strange idea considering that the majority of people who actually do take these inward journeys report experiencing greater clarity about their lives and their spirituality.

The above examples are just a few of the myriad of thinly veiled attacks Barger makes on any other feminist spirituality which may or may not have its basis in Christianity. I was hoping this book would shed some light on the references to and importance of Lady Wisdom as she appears in the Old and New Testaments and was greatly disappointed.

I bought this book based on the high ratings given to it by other reviewers and to say I came away from it disgusted would be an understatement of gross proportions. I would give this book less than 1 star if I could.