White Fire: A Portrait of Women Spiritual Leaders in America

Rating:
Summary: Authentic, exciting, substantial, celebratory
Review: Freud asked what women really want. Rabbi Malka Drucker asks what both women and men want and need, spiritually, today. The answer is individual expression within a community, a fellowship, that supports each of us to bring goodness (divinity, God) into the world. The book functions as biography, history, and inspiration all at once, as it introduces the remarkable women--some widely known (Marianne Williamson, Dr. Elaine Pagels), some locally known (Dr. Nahid Angha, Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis)- whose stories it tells. I disagree with "Publishers Weekly" reviewer that Rabbi Drucker's personal comments are intrusive. To the contrary, they enliven and bring immediacy to the spiritual biographies she presents and encourage the reader to bring his or her own experience to meeting these leaders. Though the book could be used for study or the classroom, its personal approach is anything but "textbookish." It's substantial, accessible, authentic, exciting and celebratory. A must-read if you are investigating or committed to matters of the spirit.

Rating:
Summary: surprising and inspiring
Review: Many of my friends have read and suggested this books because of its great expressions of faith and how women are changing the face of religious leadership. They represent a new way of seeing God and a new community of leadership. Never before have so many women served the holy with earthly authority; it's a new paradigm and they might change the destructive and violent energy so prevalent in our time.