Rewriting God: Spirituality in Contemporary Australian Women's FictionWomen are rarely if ever mentioned in commentaries upon Australian Christianity and spirituality. Only exceptional women are recognized as authorities on religious matters. Why is this so? Does it matter? Don't people from the same religious tradition share similar experiences of the divine, regardless of their gender?Rewriting Godasks whether women have been writing about the divine and whether their insights are different from those contained in malestream accounts of Australian Christianity and spirituality. An analysis of the writings of popular theologians and religious commentators over the last twenty years suggests that the most popular form of spirituality among Australian theologians is Desert Spirituality. An analysis of women's autobiographical writings, however, suggests that the desert is irrelevant to many women's spiritual experiences. This book, through a close investigation of the fictions of Thea Astley, Elizabeth Jolley and Barbara Hanrahan, attempts to posit alternative forms of women's spirituality and to signal ways in which this spirituality is already being expressed.From the evidence gathered here, it becomes obvious that traditional expressions of Australian Christianity and spirituality are gender-specific and that they have functioned to deny women's religious experiences and to silence their claims to equality in the sight and service of the divine. It becomes obvious, too, that women have been developing their own forms of religious expression and that these may be expected to supplant gradually withering images of Desert Spirituality. Whether this new imagery will strengthen Australian Christianity or whether it merely marks a decline in the authority of Christianity remains a moot point. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 66
Page i
Spirituality in Contemporary Australian Women's Fiction Elaine Lindsay. • 9 Spirituality in contemporary Australian women's fiction This One 5281 - SDR - PP78 Cultures Readings in the Post / Colonial Literatures in English. Rewriting God.
Spirituality in Contemporary Australian Women's Fiction Elaine Lindsay. • 9 Spirituality in contemporary Australian women's fiction This One 5281 - SDR - PP78 Cultures Readings in the Post / Colonial Literatures in English. Rewriting God.
Page ii
Spirituality in Contemporary Australian Women's Fiction Elaine Lindsay. Cultures Readings in the Post / Colonial Literatures in English 45 Series Editors : Gordon Collier ( Giessen ) Hena Maes - Jelinek Geoffrey Davis ( Liège ) ( Aachen ) ...
Spirituality in Contemporary Australian Women's Fiction Elaine Lindsay. Cultures Readings in the Post / Colonial Literatures in English 45 Series Editors : Gordon Collier ( Giessen ) Hena Maes - Jelinek Geoffrey Davis ( Liège ) ( Aachen ) ...
Page ix
... culture and social experience . And yet when I read the words of women talking about God and the life of the spirit ... cultural comment , however , I found that , apart from Veronica Brady , women's voices were absent . After read- 1 ...
... culture and social experience . And yet when I read the words of women talking about God and the life of the spirit ... cultural comment , however , I found that , apart from Veronica Brady , women's voices were absent . After read- 1 ...
Page xi
... culture . I hope to prove that at least some Australian women fiction writers are seriously concerned with questions of theology and spiritual- ity and that , although their contributions have not been recognized by theologi- ans and ...
... culture . I hope to prove that at least some Australian women fiction writers are seriously concerned with questions of theology and spiritual- ity and that , although their contributions have not been recognized by theologi- ans and ...
Page xii
... cultural frame through which we look at it , it attempts to get at the experience itself , highlighting it by setting it in an unfamiliar context , in its own fictitious world.5 Novels are not life , but a culling of life in accordance ...
... cultural frame through which we look at it , it attempts to get at the experience itself , highlighting it by setting it in an unfamiliar context , in its own fictitious world.5 Novels are not life , but a culling of life in accordance ...
Contents
5 | |
11 | |
20 | |
32 | |
38 | |
Womens spirituality | 57 |
Spiritual models | 82 |
a life a character | 91 |
Elizabeth Jolley and formal religion | 156 |
Intimations of a spiritual presence | 162 |
Resurrection and transfiguration | 195 |
In conclusion | 211 |
Towards a spiritual auto biography | 220 |
Works of the spirit | 236 |
spirituality of the everyday | 250 |
Rewriting God and religion | 257 |
Spirituality in Thea Astleys fictions | 99 |
Supporting and subverting expressions of Christianity and spirituality | 134 |
Reading Thea Astley | 142 |
In conclusion | 154 |
In conclusion | 276 |
213 | 294 |
Other editions - View all
Rewriting God: Spirituality in contemporary Australian women’s fiction Elaine Lindsay Limited preview - 2021 |
Rewriting God: Spirituality in Contemporary Australian Women's Fiction Elaine Lindsay Limited preview - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Aboriginal Adelaide Albatross Muff Anglican Annie Magdalene Antipodes artist Astley's books Austra Australian Christianity Australian spirituality Australian Theology Australian women Barbara Hanrahan belief Catholic characters Christ Church Claremont Street commentators critical culture David Malouf David Millikan death Desert Spirituality divine Effects of Rainshadow Elizabeth Jolley evil experience Explorer expressed faith Father female Feminism feminist Feminist Theology garden Girl God's human Hunting the Wild images Interview Jesus Jolley's Jolley's Fiction Kewpie Doll Kindness Cup Kunapipi land landscape literary lives male Meanjin Melbourne Milk and Honey moral nature Newspaper of Claremont novels Orchard Thieves Palomino Patrick White Peach Groves Penguin Raining in Mango Rainshadow religion religious Review Ringwood Scent of Eucalyptus Scobie's Riddle sense sexual Slow Natives society St Lucia Stockton story Sugar Mother suggests Sydney Morning Herald Thea Astley theologians Thornhill tion Veronica Brady Victoria Wild Pineapple woman women's spirituality writing
Popular passages
Page 194 - For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts ; even one thing befalleth them : as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath ; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast : for all is vanity. All go unto one place ; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Page 194 - Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, "Why hast thou made me thus ? " Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Page 167 - Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
Page 190 - And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Page 1 - Thus, when a woman comes to write a novel, she will find that she is perpetually wishing to alter the established values — to make serious what appears insignificant to a man, and trivial what is to him important.
Page 194 - And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel : for as a prince hast thou power with God and with man, and hast prevailed.
Page 194 - Can a woman forget her sucking child, That she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, Yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands ; Thy walls are continually before me.
Page 194 - Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion : for who shall bring him to see what shall SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY.
Page 194 - There is a path which no fowl knoweth, And which the vulture's eye hath not seen: The lion's whelps have not trodden it, Nor the fierce lion passed by it.