667 - Sensuous Spirituality: Outfrom Fundamentalism

Sensuous Spirituality: Outfrom Fundamentalism
By Virginia Ramey Mollenkott
New York, Crossroad, 1992. 204 pp. $12.95.

Someone recently asked, "Why are evangelical feminists not writing theology?" Virginia Mollenkott is.

Sensuous Spirituality, despite the subtitle, is not an autobiography. From time to time, she does recall her fundamentalist past and her coming out story, but the book is primarily a series of theological reflections drawing on her extensive knowledge of the Bible and English literature, her wide reading in biblical and theological scholarship, her participation in inter-religious dialogue, and her study of the Course in Miracles.

Using the "generic feminine" throughout, even for the deity, Mollenkott offers fresh and provocative insights about heteropatriarchy, gender, justice, the roles of "les-bi-gay" Christians, inclusivity, interpretive communities, abortion, and the church. Mollenkott's fundamentalist and evangelical friends will be startled by some of her conclusions. Her emphasis on the divine unity of all things has already led to charges of monism. Read with an open mind, however, this book has much to offer women and men seeking a more inclusive theology for the twenty-first century.

Nancy A. Hardesty
Greenville, SC.