At the Root of This Longing

March 2, 1998
In an intriguing combination of personal and scholarly prose, Flinders (Enduring Grace) works through the details of her attempt to reconcile the conflicts she found between her "commitments to feminism" and her "spiritual path and practices." Living most of her adult life in a "spiritual community" with author and meditation teacher Eknath Easwaran, Flinders has contemplated the works of women mystics including Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila and Clare of Assisi. But how can these women's (and her own) experiences of peace and God jibe with the often angry feminist Flinders finds herself to be? In historical context, she examines today's sexism and violence against women--the legacy of patriarchy that, she says, is not a natural condition at all--and uncovers parallels between Gandhi's Indian revolution against British colonialism and the challenges facing Western women today. Flinders concludes that reclaiming the ancient "sacred feminine" is not at odds with political feminism, but rather necessary for it. In the spirit of Women Who Run with the Wolves and Reviving Ophelia, this book has the potential to change women's lives. $30,000 ad/promo; author tour.

February 1, 1998
On turning 50, Letty Cottin Pogrebin observed, "I stood on a fault line, feeling the world rearranging itself beneath my feet." For Flinders (literature, Berkeley), the shifting sands of 50 have less to do with beauty lost or opportunities missed than with as simple (and as nebulous) an issue as reconciling her own tensions between spirituality and feminism. A member of a northern California Hindu spiritual community for more than 20 years, she categorizes Western women as "cultural orphans...barely connected to a living ethnic tradition." Of her own emotional reconstructive work, Flinders claims closure and lobbies hard for American feminism to craft its own meaningful spiritualities and rituals outside the purview of traditional orthodoxies. Although her work is somewhat limited--by her own admission, it is personal and local in scope--spiritual questers and students of meditation will find a kindred spirit within. Recommended where interest is high.--Sandra Collins, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Lib.