Customer Reviews

Enduring Lives: Portraits of Women and Faith in Action

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What an intriguing title! Is this book about immortality? The cover of Enduring Lives intimates a book about Catholicism. But it would be a mistake to catalog this book under Religion. Enduring Lives belongs more with Women's Studies, an evolving discipline in which Carol Lee Flinders breaks new ground.

Speaking generally, men are not keen readers of Women's Studies. However, if they can overcome this disinclination, in this book they will uncover a new perspective on women's sexuality and social organization. For, who best to understand the role sex hormones play on a woman's psyche than those who are denied a sexual partner, either involuntarily or by intent? The question may be: How are biological impulses transmuted into a socially acceptable existence? Scientists often look at aberrations to discover the boundaries of what we assume is the norm. In Enduring Lives we look at some of these boundaries.

There is much to be learned from this well written, edited, and designed book. On the surface, Enduring Lives is a set of distilled biographies of four women who, at first glance, have nothing in common; not in the times they lived, the location, not their religious upbringing, nor in their contribution to our society. Only a scholar with the knowledge of Carol Lee Flinders could weave the biographies of a concentration camp victim, a Ph.D. from Cambridge who studied the Chimpanzee, a recluse from Tibet who started life in war-torn London, and a woman whose work was featured in the movie Dead Man Walking, into an exciting, cohesive account of the amazing evolution of human spirit. The author is informed by her own scholarship, a well argued (non-defamatory) critique of Catholicism, and most of all by a deep understanding of how spirit allows us to survive in a troubled world that seems increasingly to deny opportunity for our very existence

I loved reading this book. Flinders has a long history of sitting quietly and writing, and her style is simple, thoughtful, and personal. Chapter by chapter, she led me through the lives of four modern women -- lives that were and are very different from mine, yet easily accessible through the writing, and immediately important to issues that face us today. Though the religious traditions of each woman are radically different, enough practical suggestions can be gleaned to make this a remarkable handbook for the modern mystic.

I was nervous to read the fourth section because it had to do with the death penalty. I was afraid it might upset me. I closed the book and thought about Flinders' history as an author. She co-wrote Laurel's Kitchen, the intro of which I'd read many times. She wrote the wonderful "At the Root of This Longing," and the poetic "Enduring Grace." Winners all-- could I not trust her by now? Taking a breath, I entered the world of Sister Helen Prejean -- and it was an amazing, inspiring chapter that still remains with me.

Flinders has beautifully described the unique inner experiences of each of these remarkable and very special women .... i have unederlined passages in my book so that I can go back and use them for daily contemplation.

Compelling narratives of four women who listened deeply to an inner calling. Flinders details how aspects of their lives, both supportive and challenging, influenced the unfolding of lived wisdom. If stories are medicine, these are soul food.