In essays on topics ranging from Teresa of Avila's sixteenth-century mysticism to the politicized spirituality of postmodern women writers, the contributors to Things of the Spirit chronicle the development of women's spiritual writing as a context for defining, challenging, and changing women's experiences in the world. They explore the nature of the sacred and women's relationship to the sacred in the writings of women poets, diarists, autobiographers, and fiction writers.
"Kristina Groover's collection of essays on women spiritual writers, Things of the Spirit, uncovers a rich vein of lesser known women mystics or women writers who have not previously been read as spiritual writers. This volume discloses a new way of looking at spiritual experience and writing from a women's perspective." —Rosemary Radford Ruether, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California
"This is a rich and valuable resource for anyone interested in understanding the importance of women's literature as an expressive fund of women's spirituality." —Amanda Porterfield, Florida State University
"The strength of the collection is that it chronologically demonstrates how women over time, in various contexts, have tested the limits of religious language, expanded and embodied the sacred." — North Dakota Quarterly
"These thirteen by women scholars 'chronicle the develoment of women's spiritual writing as a context for defining, challenging, and changing women's experiences in the world. They explore the nature of the sacred and women's relationship to the sacred in the writings of women poets, diarists, autobiographers, and fiction writers." — Theology Digest
". . . . Both Groover's Introduction to Things of the Spirit and these thirteen feminist-focused essays on women's spirituality provide important insights into the nature of the sacred as seen over many years through the female consciousness." — Christianity and Literature