At the Root of this Longing

Description

Identifying the four key points at which the paths of spirituality and feminism seem to divide - vowing silence or finding voice, relinquishing ego or establishing "self", resisting desire or reclaiming the body, and enclosure or freedom - the author sets out to discover not only the sources of these conflicts, but how they can be reconciled. Flinders deals with the alienation that women have experienced not only from themselves and each other, but from the sacred. She finds inspiration in the story of 14th-century mystic Julian of Norwich and her direct experience of God, in India's legendary Draupadi, who would not allow a brutal physical assault to damage her sense of personal power, as well as in Flinders's own experiences as a meditation teacher and practitioner. Flinders reveals that spirituality and feminism are not mutually exclusive at all.

Carol Lee Flinders has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from U.C. Berkeley, where she has also taught writing and mystical literature courses. She is the author of Enduring Grace and Little Book of Women Mystics. For the past twenty-five years she has lived in a spiritual community in Northern California.

'In the spirit of Women Who Run with the Wolves and Reviving Ophelia, this book has the potential to change women's lives.' Publishers Weekly An eloquent meditation on spirituality. When Flinders convinces us that spirituality and feminism are part of the same truth... the book takes on unbelievable power. Give yourself time to absorb the many complexities of At the Root of This Longing. Then await the profoundly life-altering conclusions you take away.' San Francisco Chronicle