Through the Eyes of a Woman
Through the Eyes of a Woman: Insight to Pastoral Care/A Book Review.
In her introduction Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner along with Maxine Glaz edited the first major collection of articles on pastoral care by and about women. Tells of how the writers 19 women) of this book met for a period of four years to share their vision of caring for and with women. The focus is on seeing with new eyes, a new way of seeing the world community, a new perspective on suffering, a new way of looking at self
Through the eyes of women is divided into three sections. Section one entitled The eyes of Understanding, suggest the image of the ”living human web” as a metaphor for the experience of a person in connection with other persons, family, society, institutions and ideologies. Being part of the living human web is vital in understanding the experience of women in culture. Being female friendly as a pastoral care giver to women in a wider society is explored in this section as well as the experience of Afro American women and the perspective of women in ministry
The five chapters in this section explores some of the context in which the pastoral care of women is done. I found this section to be most helpful. Bonnie McLemore, in a chapter on pastoral theology at the turn of the century, develops a very powerful assessment of where the field is and how it has been informed by a feminist perspective. The other four chapters include a constructive proposal by Carolyn Stahl Butler about a “female friendly” pastoral care which includes twelve concrete suggestions for that care; another important article by Teresa E. Snorton discusses the spiritual and social implication of the stereotyped images of African American women; other contributors to this section were Mariam Glover-Weatherington and Pamela Couture. Section two entitled “Insights for Pastoral Care,” contains contributions on specific aspects of the experience of women.
This section is the largest part of the book, containing nine articles primarily focused around particular issues or problems for which women might need care. The first two articles” The Healing Power of Anger” by Carrol Saussy and Barbara Clark and “Aggression, Gender and the Construction of Justice” by Kathleen Grieder address the importance of healthy anger in women’s lives. The articles are followed by a healthy discussion by Joretta Marshall on the key issues in the care of lesbian women. Martha Robbins explores the issues of grief in women when the lose their mothers through death. Following this are three articles that deal with woman’s health issues: concerns about eating disorders by Jane Dasher; women’s identity in relationship to the experience of hysterectomies written by Beth Ann Estock; and the care of women who have had mastectomies by Irene Henderson.
Amelia Stinson Wesley’s article about the care of women who have experienced rape is a thorough and sensitive look at the crisis of rape and the needs for pastoral care during the recovery period. Emma Justes article ends the section on pastoral care with older women and their secrets of survival. Section three, “Vision of Home,” is the final section. Section three contains four chapters which brings the text to a end. These chapters primarily deals with important spiritual and theological issues to be considered in providing pastoral care to women. Elizabeth Liebert develops a comprehensive and systemic statement of the theoretical and theological issues of women’s spirituality.
Brita Gill-Austern’s article is on the problems for women’s lives when love is understood as self-denial and self-sacrifice. The last section also explores some of the pitfalls and perversions that happens when a woman is treated as an appendage to a man or is forced to choose having self or a relationship. The book ends with a conclusion by Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner who looks at the theological issues in the two “Samaritan” stories of the Old Testament and reinforces the important of hearing the “good news” through the eyes of a women. I believe this book should be read by all pastors, who seek to understand the experiences of women.
