Motherhood and God -Op/45

by Margaret Hebblethwaite

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0225663848
• ISBN13: 9780225663846
• Release Date: December 1984
• Publisher: Continuum
• Length: 147 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Taking the discipleship of women seriously

I logged on to order this book for a friend, and am posting this review because this book should not be out of print. It appeals to a very limited audience, but is supremely valuable for women in that audience. It will appeal to women educated in theology, probably what most people would regard as "egg-heads", who are engaged in deep spiritual and intellectual reflection over their discipleship. This book was the first thing I ever discovered that took seriously the condition of mothers in the tradition of the universal church. Written by an erudite woman with a Jesuit theological education, married to a former Jesuit, she searches, without polemics, into the image of God as mother as a way to find images which will help such women "prosper through" the devaluation of the role of mother in the catholic (with a small "c") tradition. A profoundly feminist book, deeply rooted in Ignation spiritual thought, it is hilarious and heart-breaking by turns. It changed my life, and helped me see that "putting family aside," as we are all called to do by Christ, must mean something a bit different when you have shared bodily existence with someone, as mothers have. The voice of those women has not had a forum, in the past. It should. Those familiar with the theology of Joseph Fuchs will particularly value this book. Fuchs' theological position rests on his conviction that only the "man on the ground" has the most objective data for the exercize of epikeia in any moral decision-making context. This book makes clear that only mothers will be able to "surface the data" needed for the exercize of epikeia in the context of motherhood. I am a better mother, and a better disciple, because of this book. The church universal would be a better church if it read it.