Wise Women: Over 2000 Years of Spiritual Writing by Women

Introduction Testimonies of Ancient Cultures The Near East Hymn in Praise of the Goddess Ishtar of Babylonia The Goddess Isis of Egypt / “Isis, Queen of Heaven” North American Indian The Creation of Spider Woman Judaism The Story of Ruth and Naomi The Story of Judith and Holofernes Lady Wisdom / From The Book of Proverbs Eishet Chayil / Proverbs 31 / E. M. Broner The Song of Songs A Portrait of Wisdom Buddhism Therigatha / Songs of the Nuns Greece Sappho / Fragment / Prayer to Aphrodite Antigone Christianity Mary The Middle Ages Rabi’a / Prayers Kassiane / Mary Magdalene Hildegard of Bingen / From “Scivias” / Liturgical Song Sun Bu-er / Projecting the Spirit Mahadeviyakka / Song Mechthild of Magdeburg / From “The Flowing Light of the Godhead” Marguerite Porete / From “The Mirror of Simple Souls” Julian of Norwich / From “Showings” Catherine of Siena / From “The Dialogue” Christine de Pisan / From “The Treasury of the City of Ladies” Margery Kempe / From “The Book of Margery Kempe” Joan of Arc / From the Transcript of the Trial of Joan of Arc The Early Modern Period: The Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries Mirabai / Song Teresa of Avila / From “Interior Castle” Anne Hutchinson / From the Transcript of Her Trial Anne Bradstreet / From “Mediations Divine and Moral” Margaret Fell / Letter to the Quaker Women’s Meeting Glückel of Hameln / From the Memoirs Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz / “Divine Love” Sidqi / Ghazel Ann Lee / Shaker Hymn / From the Shaker Bible The Nineteenth Century The Grimké Sisters: Sarah Grimké / Letter to the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society Angelina Grimké / “An Appeal” Rebecca Cox Jackson / From the Diaries Sojourner Truth / From “Narrative of Sojourner Truth” Elizabeth Barrett Browning / From “Sonnets from the Portuguese” Qurrat al-‘Ayn / Ghazel Elizabeth Cady Stanton / Introduction, “The Woman’s Bible” George Eliot / From “Middlemarch” Florence Nightingale / Letter / From “Cassandra” Emily Dickinson / Poems Christina Rossetti / Poems Annie Besant / From “The Spiritual Life” The Twentieth Century I. Voices of Faith, Imagination, and Protest Willa Cather / From “The Song of the Lark” Florida Scott-Maxwell / From “The Measure of My Days” Eleanor Roosevelt / From “The Moral Basis of Democracy” Dorothy Sayers / From “Unpopular Opinions” Dorothy Day / From “Selected Writings” Iris Origo / From “Images and Shadows” Hannah Arendt / From “The Human Condition” Mother Teresa of Calcutta / From “Life in the Spirit” Tillie Olsen / “Dream-Vision” Etty Hillesum / From “An Interrupted Life” Natalia Ginzburg / “The Little Virtues” Madeleine L’Engle / From “A Circle of Quiet” Iris Murdoch / From “The Sovereignty of Good” Amy Clampitt / “A Slience” Catherine de Vinck / “Venus - Aghia Sophia” / “The Womanly Song of God” Denise Levertov / “O Taste and See” / “Work That Enfaiths” Flannery O’Connor / Letters from “The Habit of Being” Kabita Sinha / “Ishwarke Eve” (Eve Speaks to God) Audre Lorde / “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” Lucille Clifton / Poems from “The Book of Light” June Jordan / “Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathan: One Love” Marge Piercy / “The Common Living Dirt” Rosemary Radford Ruether / “A Wise Woman” Paula Gunn Allen / “Kopis’taya (A Gathering of Spirits)” Marian Wright Edelman / From “The Measure of Our Success” Nancy Mairs / “God’s Will” Patricia Hampl / From “Virgin Time” Linda Hogan / From “Department of the Interior” Kathleen Norris / “Ghosts: A History” Rita Dove / “Gospel” bell hooks / From “Breaking Bread” Anne Lamott / From “Operating Instructions” Rigoberta Menchu / “The Bible and Self-Defense: The Examples of Judith, Moses and David” II. New Insights: The Goods of the Spirit According to Shamans, Scholars, Witches, and Theologians Starhawk / From “Dreaming the Dark” Carter Heyward / From “Touching Our Strength” Judith Plaskow / “Spirituality and Politics: Lessons from B’not Esh” Dorothee Sollë / “Mary Is a Sympathizer” Riffat Hassan / “ ‘Jihad Fi Sabil Allah’: A Muslim Woman’s Faith Journey from Struggle to Struggle to Struggle” Diana Eck / From “Encountering God” Joan Halifax / “The Way of Compassion” from “The Fruitful Darkness” Phyllis Trible / “Eve and Adam: Genesis 2-3 Reread” Angela Tilby / “Quantum Mechanics: God’s Dice” from “Soul” Pema Chodron / “Joy” from “The Wisdom of No Escape” Suggestions for Further Reading Permissions Acknowledgments Index About the Editor