Women Choosing Silence: Relationality and Transformation in Spiritual Practice

ISBN-13: 9781138574601 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 284 str.

Alison Woolley

Opis

This book investigates chosen practices of silence in the lives of a cohort of Christian women today, evidencing its potential for enabling profound relationality and empowerment within their spiritual journeys.

Recenzje

‘Based upon research which engages with women’s mutlifacetted spiritual experiences of silence this illuminating book respectfully challenges feminist readers to rethink their ‘noisy’ approaches to theological practice. We are enabled to recognize silence as a place full of intimate presences generating deep, relational wisdom. We also encounter silence as profound absence, self-loss and separation from the divine. This is a challenging place in which another kind of loving knowledge is born that has the potential to be both spiritually renewing and socially transforming.’ – Heather Walton, Professor of Theology and Creative Practice, University of Glasgow, UK.

‘Alison Woolley's book makes an important contribution, not only to existing research on the faith lives of women and girls, but also to wider debate within feminist and practical theology, the broader world of Christian spirituality, and within wider religious traditions.　 Fascinating and compelling,　her detailed analysis of　women's chosen practices of silence　challenges feminist theology's neglect of silence as a positive source of women's liberation and agency. The depth and care of her data analysis and the richness of the material on which it is based　add significantly to previous studies of silence.’ – Nicola Slee, Director of Research at The Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, UK and Professor of Feminist Practical Theology (the Queen's chair) at The Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands

‘In this beautifully crafted work, Alison Woolley offers a feminist appraisal of the spiritual significance of silence, and considers how and why women choose practices of silence to resource their relationship to God, self, others, and their personal transformation. Not only is this a sensitive portrayal, but Woolley opens up new and creative ways to hear women’s faith stories, and in doing so reveals the generative power of silence for her participants and for researchers.’ – Dawn Llewellyn, Senior Lecturer in Christian Studies and Deputy Director of Gender Studies, University of Chester, UK.

‘Ground-breaking, thought-provoking, and not just for women but for anyone who wants to understand more about encountering God in silence! Alison Woolley thoughtfully and carefully gives voice to the silence surrounding women’s spiritual practices of silence. Setting her research within the history and understanding of attitudes towards silence, with rigorous methodology and with personal honesty, she allows women to reflect on their experiences of silence-based prayer, relating these to wider questions about the nature of silence itself and to different distinctions between meditation and contemplation. The voices of the women are powerful, addressing not only their experience of God but how silence transforms their self-understanding and their engagement with others. Woolley’s conclusion is a creative challenge on the need　to incorporate apophatic contemplation and divine union into feminist discourse.’ – The Very Reverend Dr David Ison, Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, UK

Spis treści

1 Beginnings in Silence  2 Silent Threads: Explorations of Silence from Interdisciplinary Perspectives  3 Learning to Hear: Developing Methods for Listening to Women’s Experiences of Silence 4 Mapping Silence  5 Silence and Relationality with God  6 Silence and Relationality with Self  7 Silence and Relationality with Others  8 Silence in Transformation

O autorze

Alison Woolley completed her PhD at The Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education through The University of Birmingham, UK. She combines her role as Director of Seeds of Silence, offering training, workshops and advice in both developing and supporting people’s spiritual discipline of silence with her work as a spiritual accompanist and music therapist.