What do you think?
Rate this book
Generous Lives: American Catholic Women Today
Now in paperback, this "deep look into the hearts and souls of a fascinating group of American women" (Dan Wakefield, author of A Spiritual Journey) goes beyond theories to create a realistic and compelling portrait of the female soul of a living religion, the story of women who represent a changing Church--one that reflects a diversity of American cultures.
382 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1992
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 11, 2023
A SUMMARY AND PRESENTATION OF 110 WOMEN’S VIEWS
Author Jane Redmont wrote in the Prologue to this 1992 book, “American Catholic women… What does it mean to each of these women to be Catholic?... This book presents some of their answers. It examines how they vote, love, work, and pray. It is a book on ‘Catholic women in American society’ more than ‘women in the Church,’ but it does ponder the reasons why many women remain active, grateful members of the Catholic church and why many others choose to leave, quietly or slamming the door… In 1986 and 1987, I traveled around the … United States to interview Catholic women… I also conducted update interviews on the phone … in late 1989 and early 1990, and a few interviews n 1991. In all, I spoke with over 110 women… I tried to ask questions that were open-ended and allowed the woman I was interviewing to name the world in her own words. My sample of Catholic women is not systematic, but it is representative… I found that the lines between religious or political liberals and conservatives were not as clearly drawn as the media or our own hasty descriptions of each other would have us believe.” (Pg. 18-19)
She acknowledges, “‘Feminist’ means some woman who has the confidence… to stand up for what she believes in… I’ve never thought of myself as a feminist, but if that makes me a feminist, so be it… I think the Church is outdated in its practices of birth control. Especially now with AIDS. What are you supposed to do, abstain? I’m human and I’m not going to do that. And I’m not going to have a baby, either, at forty-three years old…. My heart tells me that it’s a crime to kill a baby and a fetus is a baby. My head tells me that it’s my body and that if I want to do it it’s my business. I don’t think anybody can dictate that to anybody. The Church tries. But I have a problem with it.” (Pg. 29)
She explains, “Not all the women I met lamented the hierarchical nature of the Church, the exclusion of women from the ordained ministry, or the use of exclusively male language in worship, though well over half were displeased with one or more of these areas. But virtually all wondered aloud whether they are viewed as fully adult human beings in their religious family.” (Pg. 32)
She notes, “Prayer is at least as intimate a reality as sex; for many people, it may be an even more delicate topic of conversation. Yet all the women I met spoke freely about God and prayer. Catholic women are people who pray. They are Christians. Their reference is Jesus much ore than the pope… All had rich inner lives. The few who did not pray… were socially or politically active women … I discovered that Catholic women share a set of assumptions about God and prayer, assumptions so basic that most take them for granted and do not articulate them…. The spiritual life, Catholic women believe, is real. God is accessible.” (Pg. 88-89)
She recounts, “Catholic women do not mention Catholic social teaching a great deal… but the values underlying the social documents of the Church are clearly a part of their world view. Human dignity was the social and moral priority Catholic women articulated most often, whether they were speaking about racism, abortion, violence against women, or access to decent housing. The dignity of the human person, for them, was an article of faith. In restating the Catholic teaching on the intrinsic worth of every human person, they expressed a kind of radical egalitarianism, which their American belief in democracy enhanced and reinforced.” (Pg. 121-122)
She reports, “Nowhere did I find more variety, ambivalence, and contradictions than in Catholic women’s opinions on the nature and role of women, feminism, femininity, and the relationship between women and men. There is often a kind of cosmology implicit in women’s understanding of the distinct roles of the sexes. Women’s relationship with men is, for them, intrinsically related to the order of the universe.” (Pg. 149)
She states, “Catholics who disagree with official church teaching about sexual matters are often described as ‘defying’ church teaching. This not how they define themselves. While I met many women who expressed such disagreement, not one considered herself in defiance of church teaching. Catholic women make their sexual decisions not out of defiance or revolt, but in the context of their relationships. Their search their consciences and test the truth of church teaching against the truth of their experience. The strongest motivating factor in their decisions is their desire to love well.” (Pg. 182)
She recounts, “When I asked women what they felt were the distinguishing characteristics of Catholic Christianity, their answers were brief and sometimes vague… Women’s answers were most heartfelt when speaking about the Eucharist…. Faith, for Catholic women, is something bodily, appealing to the heart and senses as much as the mind…Community is a central part of Catholic women‘s religious identity.” (Pg. 230-231)
She points out, “I met a growing number of women who… were no longer active Catholics; a few had joined other religious bodies. I also interviewed converts… The majority of the women I encountered, born and raised in the Catholic church continued to define themselves as Catholic. But they often did so on their own terms rather than those articulated by church leaders or by the Catholic church of their youth.” (Pg. 266)
She says, “Some Catholics have begun to view the new professional class of theologically trained laypeople as an elitist group of a new clerical class separate from the body of the laity. Laypeople in ministry---many of them women---do in fact have a mixed identity… They are professional church leaders who nevertheless remain part of the laity. Few of the ones I know see themselves as separate from the rest of the Church. There seems to be confusion among their critics between elitism and professionalism.” (Pg. 307)
In the last chapter, she explains, “Catholic women’s views on death, the afterlife, and the end and goal of human history reflect elements of the Church’s traditional belief about the resurrection of the dead, the survival of the whole person… and the survival of the human self after death. I heard more explicit talk about life after death than about resurrection…There is a confusion among Catholic women… between immortality and resurrection.” (Pg. 338)
This book will interest some Catholics looking for a variety of perspectives on the church and Catholicism.
Author Jane Redmont wrote in the Prologue to this 1992 book, “American Catholic women… What does it mean to each of these women to be Catholic?... This book presents some of their answers. It examines how they vote, love, work, and pray. It is a book on ‘Catholic women in American society’ more than ‘women in the Church,’ but it does ponder the reasons why many women remain active, grateful members of the Catholic church and why many others choose to leave, quietly or slamming the door… In 1986 and 1987, I traveled around the … United States to interview Catholic women… I also conducted update interviews on the phone … in late 1989 and early 1990, and a few interviews n 1991. In all, I spoke with over 110 women… I tried to ask questions that were open-ended and allowed the woman I was interviewing to name the world in her own words. My sample of Catholic women is not systematic, but it is representative… I found that the lines between religious or political liberals and conservatives were not as clearly drawn as the media or our own hasty descriptions of each other would have us believe.” (Pg. 18-19)
She acknowledges, “‘Feminist’ means some woman who has the confidence… to stand up for what she believes in… I’ve never thought of myself as a feminist, but if that makes me a feminist, so be it… I think the Church is outdated in its practices of birth control. Especially now with AIDS. What are you supposed to do, abstain? I’m human and I’m not going to do that. And I’m not going to have a baby, either, at forty-three years old…. My heart tells me that it’s a crime to kill a baby and a fetus is a baby. My head tells me that it’s my body and that if I want to do it it’s my business. I don’t think anybody can dictate that to anybody. The Church tries. But I have a problem with it.” (Pg. 29)
She explains, “Not all the women I met lamented the hierarchical nature of the Church, the exclusion of women from the ordained ministry, or the use of exclusively male language in worship, though well over half were displeased with one or more of these areas. But virtually all wondered aloud whether they are viewed as fully adult human beings in their religious family.” (Pg. 32)
She notes, “Prayer is at least as intimate a reality as sex; for many people, it may be an even more delicate topic of conversation. Yet all the women I met spoke freely about God and prayer. Catholic women are people who pray. They are Christians. Their reference is Jesus much ore than the pope… All had rich inner lives. The few who did not pray… were socially or politically active women … I discovered that Catholic women share a set of assumptions about God and prayer, assumptions so basic that most take them for granted and do not articulate them…. The spiritual life, Catholic women believe, is real. God is accessible.” (Pg. 88-89)
She recounts, “Catholic women do not mention Catholic social teaching a great deal… but the values underlying the social documents of the Church are clearly a part of their world view. Human dignity was the social and moral priority Catholic women articulated most often, whether they were speaking about racism, abortion, violence against women, or access to decent housing. The dignity of the human person, for them, was an article of faith. In restating the Catholic teaching on the intrinsic worth of every human person, they expressed a kind of radical egalitarianism, which their American belief in democracy enhanced and reinforced.” (Pg. 121-122)
She reports, “Nowhere did I find more variety, ambivalence, and contradictions than in Catholic women’s opinions on the nature and role of women, feminism, femininity, and the relationship between women and men. There is often a kind of cosmology implicit in women’s understanding of the distinct roles of the sexes. Women’s relationship with men is, for them, intrinsically related to the order of the universe.” (Pg. 149)
She states, “Catholics who disagree with official church teaching about sexual matters are often described as ‘defying’ church teaching. This not how they define themselves. While I met many women who expressed such disagreement, not one considered herself in defiance of church teaching. Catholic women make their sexual decisions not out of defiance or revolt, but in the context of their relationships. Their search their consciences and test the truth of church teaching against the truth of their experience. The strongest motivating factor in their decisions is their desire to love well.” (Pg. 182)
She recounts, “When I asked women what they felt were the distinguishing characteristics of Catholic Christianity, their answers were brief and sometimes vague… Women’s answers were most heartfelt when speaking about the Eucharist…. Faith, for Catholic women, is something bodily, appealing to the heart and senses as much as the mind…Community is a central part of Catholic women‘s religious identity.” (Pg. 230-231)
She points out, “I met a growing number of women who… were no longer active Catholics; a few had joined other religious bodies. I also interviewed converts… The majority of the women I encountered, born and raised in the Catholic church continued to define themselves as Catholic. But they often did so on their own terms rather than those articulated by church leaders or by the Catholic church of their youth.” (Pg. 266)
She says, “Some Catholics have begun to view the new professional class of theologically trained laypeople as an elitist group of a new clerical class separate from the body of the laity. Laypeople in ministry---many of them women---do in fact have a mixed identity… They are professional church leaders who nevertheless remain part of the laity. Few of the ones I know see themselves as separate from the rest of the Church. There seems to be confusion among their critics between elitism and professionalism.” (Pg. 307)
In the last chapter, she explains, “Catholic women’s views on death, the afterlife, and the end and goal of human history reflect elements of the Church’s traditional belief about the resurrection of the dead, the survival of the whole person… and the survival of the human self after death. I heard more explicit talk about life after death than about resurrection…There is a confusion among Catholic women… between immortality and resurrection.” (Pg. 338)
This book will interest some Catholics looking for a variety of perspectives on the church and Catholicism.
Displaying 1 of 1 review