Unruly Catholic Feminists
Prose, Poetry, and the Future of the Faith
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Third- and fourth-wave feminists write about their experiences with Catholicism and their visions for the future of women in the Church.
Description
A collection of creative pieces, Unruly Catholic Feminists explores how women are coming to terms with their feminism and Catholicism in the twenty-first century. Through short stories, poems, and personal essays, third- and fourth-wave feminists write about the issues, reforms, and potential for progress. Giving voice to many younger writers, the book includes a variety of geographic and ethnic points of view from which women write about their experiences with Catholicism and their visions for the future. While change in the church may be slow to come, even the promise of progress may provide hope for women struggling with the conflicts between their religion and their sense of their own spirituality. Rather than always only oppressing or containing women, Catholicism also drives or inspires many to challenge literary, social, political, or religious hierarchies. By examining how women attempt to reconcile their unruliness with their Catholic backgrounds or conversions and their future hopes and dreams, Unruly Catholic Feminists offers new perspectives on gender and religion today—and for the days yet to come.
Jeana DelRosso is Sister Maura Eichner Endowed Professor of English and Professor of Women's Studies at Notre Dame of Maryland University. Leigh Eicke is a writer in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ana Kothe is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Together, they are the coeditors of Unruly Catholic Women Writers: Creative Responses to Catholicism and Unruly Catholic Nuns: Sisters' Stories, both also published by SUNY Press.
Reviews
"…Unruly Catholic Feminists is a great example of how lived experiences can be utilized to explain complex ideas, such as the intersection between the Catholic faith and feminist ideals. This book is a great resource for a wide variety of readers, whether they are students studying topics like religion or gender studies, or whether they are simply interested in literature and poetry." — Reading Religion
"Divine unruliness from the divine devout, as valiant in their feminism as in their faith. This is the Word from women brave. Writ, spoken, heard. And it is good!" — Sandra Cisneros
"These 'unruly' Catholic feminists challenge the constraints and cruelties of contemporary clerical culture while reclaiming the riches of a shared heritage and, in doing so, beautifully and boldly embody the radical and essential tradition of Christian social justice." — Sonja Livingston, author of The Virgin of Prince Street: Expeditions into Devotion