Women, Sainthood, and Power: A Feminist Psychology of Cultural Constructions

by Oliva M. Espín

Overview

Women, Sainthood, and Power explores the life stories of an international gallery of female saints from the wide-angle lens of several intellectual disciplines and the close-up view afforded by keenly observed fine points of character. Oliva M. Espín combines multidisciplinary scholarly research with a novelist’s eye for detail to create vivid portraits of saints in their times and places. Using her own memories, Espín argues that there are lessons to learn today from the lives of these exceptional women. This book is recommended for scholars and students of psychology, religious studies, gender and women’s studies, history, cultural studies, and ethnic studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498581554
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	06/25/2021
Pages:	238
Product dimensions:	6.04(w) x 8.61(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Oliva M. Espín is professor emerita in the Department of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University and professor emerita of psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology of Alliant International University.

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsPreface: A Tale about Hope, Courage, and Saints Introduction: Fire and Gas: Women Saints over Five Centuries

Chapter 1: La Fabbrica dei Santi— How Politics and Culture Determine Who Is a Saint

Chapter 2: Political Saints and Saintly Politics: Joan of Arc and Catherine of Siena

Chapter 3: “Holy Anorexics” God, Agency, Women’s Bodies and Self-Starvation in Early Colonial Spanish-America: Rose of Lima and Mariana of Quito

Chapter 4: Las Santas Criollas: Rosa de Lima, Mariana de Quito, and National Identity in Colonial Spanish-America

Chapter 5: Teresa of Avila: The Love of God as Source of Authority

Chapter 6: Edith Stein: Paradoxes of a Jewish Saint

Chapter 7: Mystics of Political Resistance: Teresa of Avila’s and Edith Stein’s Visions of Womanhood

Chapter 8: Pain, Loss, and Psychological Distress in Thérèse of Lisieux, The ‘Little Flower’ who wanted to be a Priest

Chapter 9: Doctors but not Priests- Women Doctors in the Roman Catholic Church: Teresa, Catherine, Thérèse and Hildegard

Chapter 10: North American Saints: Cabrini, Seton, Drexel, Tekakwitha…But No Black American Saints Yet

Conclusion: Final Thoughts

References

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

In this extensively researched exploration of a selection of Catholic women saints, Espín, (emer., San Diego State Univ. and emer., Alliant International Univ.) considers how these women accepted and deviated from their specific patriarchal cultural contexts. After a chapter describing the Catholic Church's process for canonizing saints, Espín considers Joan of Arc and Catherine of Siena as political subversives. She then discusses how the hagiography of the anorexic ascetics Rose of Lima and Mariana Paredes influenced colonial South America. Following the report on Teresa of Avila and a masterful discussion of Edith Stein as mystics of political resistance, she considers the pain and psychological distress of Thérèse of Lisieux. Her reflection regarding women proclaimed Doctors of the Church—Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Hildegard of Bingen—clearly recognizes that this honor is a pretense of equality bestowed by an institution that enforces inequality. The author concludes with brief sketches of North American women saints Frances Xavier Cabrini, Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, Katherine Drexel, and Kateri Tekakwitha, and she identifies Henriette Delille, Mary Elizabeth Lange, Julia Greely, and Thea Bowman as African American women for whom a “cause for canonization” has been opened. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through graduate students.

CHOICE

Oliva M. Espín offers readers of Women, Sainthood and Power a window into a group of female saints who have impacted her personal development and spirituality. Their lives are stories of faith, spirituality, and a belief in the power of being a woman. Espin poignantly presents their path to a powerful relationship with the divine.

Mary Ann Gawelek

Women, Sainthood, and Power: A Feminist Psychology of Cultural Constructions is at once a deeply personal book and a scholarly analysis of a selection of Catholic, female, Catholic saints from the fourteenth to the twentieth century, ranging. The saints range from Catherine of Siena and Joan of Arc to Mariana of Quito, Tekakwitha, and Edith Stein. Oliva Espín uses interdisciplinary lenses of psychology, feminism, religious studies, and her own experience to weaves a fascinating tapestry of these women’s stories of faith, resistance, and even defiance. Across six centuries, Espín highlights figures relevant for consideration today.

Darleen Pryds

In this extensively researched exploration of a selection of Catholic women saints, Espín, (emer., San Diego State Univ. and emer., Alliant International Univ.) considers how these women accepted and deviated from their specific patriarchal cultural contexts. After a chapter describing the Catholic Church's process for canonizing saints, Espín considers Joan of Arc and Catherine of Siena as political subversives. She then discusses how the hagiography of the anorexic ascetics Rose of Lima and Mariana Paredes influenced colonial South America. Following the report on Teresa of Avila and a masterful discussion of Edith Stein as mystics of political resistance, she considers the pain and psychological distress of Thérèse of Lisieux. Her reflection regarding women proclaimed Doctors of the Church—Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Hildegard of Bingen—clearly recognizes that this honor is a pretense of equality bestowed by an institution that enforces inequality. The author concludes with brief sketches of North American women saints Frances Xavier Cabrini, Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, Katherine Drexel, and Kateri Tekakwitha, and she identifies Henriette Delille, Mary Elizabeth Lange, Julia Greely, and Thea Bowman as African American women for whom a “cause for canonization” has been opened. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through graduate students.

Choice Reviews

This volume will interest readers seeking to understand the interplay of psychology and history, secular as well as religious, on women's responses to oppression and power.

Psychology of Women Quarterly

In this extensively researched exploration of a selection of Catholic women saints, Espín, (emer., San Diego State Univ. and emer., Alliant International Univ.) considers how these women accepted and deviated from their specific patriarchal cultural contexts. After a chapter describing the Catholic Church's process for canonizing saints, Espín considers Joan of Arc and Catherine of Siena as political subversives. She then discusses how the hagiography of the anorexic ascetics Rose of Lima and Mariana Paredes influenced colonial South America. Following the report on Teresa of Avila and a masterful discussion of Edith Stein as mystics of political resistance, she considers the pain and psychological distress of Thérèse of Lisieux. Her reflection regarding women proclaimed Doctors of the Church—Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Hildegard of Bingen—clearly recognizes that this honor is a pretense of equality bestowed by an institution that enforces inequality. The author concludes with brief sketches of North American women saints Frances Xavier Cabrini, Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, Katherine Drexel, and Kateri Tekakwitha, and she identifies Henriette Delille, Mary Elizabeth Lange, Julia Greely, and Thea Bowman as African American women for whom a “cause for canonization” has been opened. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through graduate students.

Choice