In Our Own Voices: Four Centuries of American Women's Religious Writing / Edition 1

by Rosemary Skinner Keller, Rosemary Radford Ruether

Overview

Drawing from primary source documents such as diaries, letters, speeches, sermons, essays, and books from seventeenth-century colonial settlements in North America to today, this volume recovers the contributions of women to American religion. With its breadth and richness of sources it will be of interest and use to feminists, church historians, and students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664222857
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	08/01/2000
Pages:	552
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.23(d)

Editorial Reviews

American religious history here comes alive as we listen to women's voices drawn from basically diverse cultures-those from early colonial to late-20th century America. We call this kind of history ``documentary'' because it is assembled through primary source documents (diaries, letters, speeches, sermons, essays and books), but that dry label fails to convey the vitality of this collection and of these women who, speaking and writing from a variety of perspectives (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, African American, evangelical, social reform, utopian, communitarian, Native American, Islamic, Buddhist), share their extraordinary faith and its informing contribution to American religious history. This volume both condenses (including some of the same material) and extends (from 1960 to the mid-1990s) the three-volume documentary history, Women and Religion in America (Harper & Row 1981, 1983 and 1986) also edited by Reuther and Keller. Like the earlier work, this one is definitive in a scholarly sense; yet far beyond that, it is affirming. Demonstrating as it does the rich traditions of American women's spirituality, In Our Own Voices should be required reading. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The conglomeration of faiths and practices that are the American religious experience have traditionally given female perspectives short shrift. Says contributor Judith Plaskow, "Women have a long history of reading ourselves into silence. From childhood bedtime stories to the Biblical narratives...women learn to people silences with our own shadowy forms." Editors Ruether and Keller (faculty at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary) have collected here primary documents that allow women a voice on the content of their American religious experiences. The breadth of material presented is most gratifying: Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, African American, and evangelical texts as well as issues-oriented topics such as ordination, pluralism, and gender. However, the depth of material may not satisfy: on many levels, readers will wish for more, longing to join this company of American believers, to challenge notions like Anzia Yezierska's character, who laments, "The prayers of ...daughters didn't count because God didn't listen to women." Highly recommended for all collections.-Sandra Collins, SLIS, Univ. of Pittsburgh

Library Journal