God Who Looks Like Me: Discovering a Woman-Affirming Spirituality

By Patricia Lynn Reilly

Book Overview

"A wonderfully unique resource for women who are continually searching for new insights in the area of woman-affirming faith and worship." --Reverend Sharon Vandegrift United Methodist Chaplain Drexel University Childhood religious images of judgment, punishment, unworthiness, and shame, of male saviors, messiahs, and Higher Powers, pursue all women into adulthood. Many women realize they must leave behind these traditional concepts and images for a more authentic spirituality. Yet they find, to their dismay, that the male symbols of God are deeply rooted in their psyches and difficult to transform. In this book, the poignant personal memories of women of all ages and lifestyles are interwoven with the collective story of women buried in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Bible. Together, these women explore the lost glory of Eve, Lilith, and Mary. They teach us to plumb the depths of our relationships with our mothers, our bodies, and ourselves; our sexuality and vulnerability; and our journey into old age. Each chapter offers a rich tapestry of poetry, ritual, story, and meditation, a splendid invitation to join a circle of women in search of woman-affirming spirituality. "Patricia Lynn Reilly guides her readers towards solutions. . . .This book is an excellent map filled to overflowing with provocative exercises and concrete suggestions." --Gloria Karpinski Author of Where Two Worlds Touch- Spiritual Rites of Passage "It beautifully combines the best of the poignant with the best of the practical and the political." --Publishers Weekly

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345402332
• ISBN13: 9780345402332
• Release Date: February 1996
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

inspiring

I recommend this book to women of all religions that have questions and problems with religious dogma. The writer uses a lot of examples of abused women but, I think she is just expressing her own experiences and that is what makes this book so real. I actually had tears in my eyes when I read one prayer in this book, and I was on a public bus! I will read this book again and again for spiritual comfort. I think this book has something important to say for women - no matter how cynical they may be about organized religions!

Beautiful cover and intriguing title.....

First, I found out this book is being reprinted in November of 1999 and will be available in bookstores late November. Its a good book. I liked it and learned more about how I could embrace God and heal the deep religious wounds of my childhood. Thanks, Patricia, for taking the time to write this compelling and challenging book. I always thought that if there was a God, he/she would have to be bigger than the limited and unembracable god I learned about in catholic school. This book dosen't put down religion, it challenges each of us to see that a God crafted by men is a limited God. And to search for God and spirituality that will truly heal us.

Just the title gave me an option!

I really enjoyed this book and even gave it to our community library. The author does a great job of outlining the problems using stories from people in her groups, and then she shows how to put that behind you and find a God who you can really relate to. It was so refreshing to to read a well written book by an educated and knowledgable women on this subject. I went on to read all of her books and heard her speak. Every book continues to develop this theme of embracing a larger view of god and ourselves.

Changed My Life and The Power Dynamics In My Marriage!

I was led to Patricia's first book while reading Chapters 3 & 4 of her latest book Be Full of Yourself! the Journey From Self-Criticism to Self-Celebration. After exloring the theological orgins of my self-critical attitudes in those chapters, I longed for a systematic and supportive guide to sort through my religious past on the way to a personally defined spirituality in the present. A God Who Looks Like Me did all that and more. Her book inspired my husband and I to parent our children differently, to share power wihtin our relationship, and to clarify the kind of religious community we are looking for - one that celebrates "many names" of the divine and will support our daughters to be full of themselves!

A NEW VIEW OF RELIGION AND THE BIBLE

Wow, what a page turner! Could not put this one down! It reaffirmed my opinions of what a one-gender sided book of cosmology mythologized the Bible truly is! I wish everyone could put aside their Judeo-Christian beliefs and read this book with an open mind. All the bible is, is a male-dominated, priest-written collection of stories and stolen myths from other cultures and beliefs trying to explain how the universe came about and who would be in control and in charge of it!!! Please read this book, ladies. You'll not regret your decision, I promise!