Customer Reviews

White Fire: A Portrait of Women Spiritual Leaders in America

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Freud asked what women really want. Rabbi Malka Drucker asks what both women and men want and need, spiritually, today. The answer is individual expression within a community, a fellowship, that supports each of us to bring goodness (divinity, God) into the world. The book functions as biography, history, and inspiration all at once, as it introduces the remarkable women--some widely known (Marianne Williamson, Dr. Elaine Pagels), some locally known (Dr. Nahid Angha, Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis)- whose stories it tells. I disagree with "Publishers Weekly" reviewer that Rabbi Drucker's personal comments are intrusive. To the contrary, they enliven and bring immediacy to the spiritual biographies she presents and encourage the reader to bring his or her own experience to meeting these leaders. Though the book could be used for study or the classroom, its personal approach is anything but "textbookish." It's substantial, accessible, authentic, exciting and celebratory. A must-read if you are investigating or committed to matters of the spirit.

Rabbi Drucker takes you into the living rooms, churches and lecture halls of thirty-one of America's notable female spiritual leaders. The author's open descriptions of her personal reactions to each interview engage the reader in both the conversation and its relevance to spirituality today. There is no doubt that Malka is doing more than collecting data. She is making friends, comrades and allies on her own quest to return the feminine voice to religious and spiritual teachings.

These women share their stories, pointing out both the joy and suffering that comes with active participation in ministry. Ranging from Jewish Rabbis, as is the author herself, to Yoruba priestess' and New Age thinkers they are stars shining a bright light on a changing world. Malka Drucker has exposed that light to guide us as we reunite the Divine Feminine with her consort.

Black and white portraits done by Gay Block reveal something about each of her subjects that would have been veiled by color. Ms Block does a wonderful job of capturing the soul through expression and setting.

Reviewer: Rev. Dr. Arlene J. Colver, Author of Magdalen's Way and From Whence They Came, Vice President of Lifelight University, Founder and Chaplain of the Society for Universal Concordance

Many of my friends have read and suggested this books because of its great expressions of faith and how women are changing the face of religious leadership. They represent a new way of seeing God and a new community of leadership. Never before have so many women served the holy with earthly authority; it's a new paradigm and they might change the destructive and violent energy so prevalent in our time.