
The Mystics Would Like a Word
Six Women Who Met God and Found a Spirituality for Today
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Narrated by:
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Shannon K. Evans
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By:
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Shannon K. Evans
About this listen
Discover a rich legacy of audacious women who forged a spirituality that is more inclusive, surprising, and empowering than we ever imagined.
“The feminist reading of women mystics I’ve wanted for ages . . . invites us into the hopeful possibility for communal healing that we desperately need right now.”—Sarah Bessey, bestselling author of Field Notes for the Wilderness and Jesus Feminist
Is there a Christian spirituality that embraces the entire reality of womanhood?
The answer, Shannon K. Evans suggests, is an emphatic yes. There is a spirituality that meets us in every part of our lives, developed by the women who came before us. Six mystics—Teresa of Ávila, Margery Kempe, Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena, and Thérèse of Lisieux—revealed a faith big enough to hold the female experiences of sex and desire, the yearning for bodily autonomy, the challenges of motherhood and identity, as well as life with male authority and—sometimes—violence. These women, self-determining, stubborn, and unapologetically themselves, asked questions in their time that are startlingly prescient today, and fought for women’s experiences to be heard, understood, respected, and recognized as holy.
In The Mystics Would Like a Word, listeners will discover the story of Christian faith and spirituality as told by these extraordinary and wise women, one that speaks directly to today’s unique experiences, and leads to wholeness, healing, and spiritual vitality.
©2024 Shannon K. Evans (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Performance
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Critic reviews
“In this lively, accessible account of some of my favorite women mystics, Evans shows how their lives can illuminate, uplift, and transform ours.”―Mirabai Starr, author of Wild Mercy and Ordinary Mysticism
“Evans’s down-to-earth truth-telling nourished my spiritual journey and strengthened my contemplative life. My hunch is that it can nourish your life, too.”—Sr. Simone Campbell, SSS, author of Hunger for Hope, former leader of Nuns on the Bus, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
“With humor and humanity, Evans guides us all with the particular wisdom of women, welcoming us into a larger, weirder, and more compelling spirituality than we commonly encounter today.”—K.J. Ramsey, therapist, and author of The Book of Common Courage
Empowering
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Both transcendent and ordinary
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Food for thought
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Hopeful Again
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Deeply spiritual, sensible, feminist, and so needed!
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More intellectual and thorough review of the feminine mystics with less daily living advice.
The author’s support for feminism in religion, spirituality, and daily life.
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