Sor Juana Press:  Book Titles

Ohtli Encuentro: Women of Color Share Pathways to Leadership
(Sor Juana Press, 2005)
Ohtli Encuentro tells the story of a remarkable gathering of African-American, Native-American, and Latina Women organized by the San Antonio-based Intercultural Development Research Association with support from the Kellogg Foundation. Written by Elise D. García, drawing on the words of the participating women, the book shares the women’s powerful reflections and insights on spirituality, justice, education, history, language, culture, and community.

Titles in the Dominican Women on Earth series include:

Earth Spirituality: In the Catholic and Dominican Traditions
by Springfield Dominican Sharon Therese Zayac, OP
Director of Jubilee Farm
(Issue No. 1; June 2003)
Observing that “many Christians struggle with an Earth-centered spirituality (ecospirituality), a spirituality that places humans within the context of creation and not at its apex,” Sharon Zayac, OP, traces Catholic social teaching and the history of Catholicism and finds that our Catholic Christian faith “provides a rich heritage of Earth spirituality.” She notes that as a modern culture, “we have lost the understanding of our relationship to the rest of creation, an understanding that was common to all just a few short centuries ago.… Reclaiming our image of an immanent God bound up with everything on this planet must become our metaphor, if life is to survive.”

Permaculture: Finding Our Own Vines and Fig Trees
by Adrian Dominican Carol Coston, OP
Co-Director of Santuario Sisterfarm
(Issue No. 2; August 2003)
Carol Coston, OP, tells the story of her own journey in religious life during the second half of the past century into an awakening to an ecological consciousness and ecospirituality. She describes “permaculture,” a term coined by Australian Bill Mollison in the early 1970s, as “an Earth ethic that embraces the inherent mutuality between the one who sits and the plants that provide in the Scriptural passage about the vine and fig tree.” Carol describes the way she is putting this Earth ethic into practice on a seven-acre farm in the Hill Country of south central Texas and through the nonprofit she co-founded and co-directs, Santuario Sisterfarm, which is dedicated to “cultivating diversity: biodiversity and cultural diversity.”

Earth, Our Home: Biblical Witness in the Hebrew Scriptures
by Adrian Dominican Sarah Ann Sharkey, OP
Professor of Sacred Scripture at Oblate School of Theology
(Issue No. 3; February 2004)
Sarah Sharkey, OP, opens her book by observing that the current “ecological crisis puts before us a moral challenge and responsibility for decision-making that has far-reaching implications.” Sarah notes that in recent years the Bible, especially the creation narratives in Genesis, “has come under criticism for contributing to our ecological woes.” She writes that “we are called upon to engage in a radical shift in the way we see ourselves in relationship with the rest of creation,” saying, “we have little choice but to adjust our theological and spiritual outlooks.” In re-reading the pages of Scripture in “an informed manner,” Sarah says, “we may well be struck by how profoundly the ancients regarded the interrelatedness of all aspects of creation and appreciated creation’s intrinsic integrity.” We get a glimpse of this through Sarah’s “informed re-reading” of selected passages from Genesis, the Psalms, and the Wisdom and Prophetic traditions.

Encountering Mystery in the Wilderness:
One Woman's Vision Quests
by Margaret Galiardi, OP
(Issue No.4; April 2004)
Margaret Galiardi, OP, takes the reader to Death Valley with her, as she recounts an extraordinary experience of “going into the desert to fast and pray” that reawakened her childhood memories of being at home in the natural world and ignited a spiritual hunger to feel at home on Earth, once again. In Encountering Mystery in the Wilderness: One Woman’s Vision Quest Margaret writes: “While it was deeply enriching for me to live outdoors for an extended period of time, that kind of intensive exposure to the natural world is neither necessary nor always possible. What does seem indispensable to me, however, is that we create spiritual practices that will help us regain a sense of intimacy with the natural world and that will awaken in us its revelation of the Divine.” She adds, “Religious experience in these opening years of the twenty-first century simply must be seen as inclusive of the natural world if we are to preserve our Earth-Mother from destruction.”

Where the Pure Water Flows:
The New Story of the Universe and Christian Faith
by Margaret Galiardi, OP
Never losing sight of this critical moment, when we are living in the midst of a human-induced extinction, Margaret Galiardi, OP accompanies believers as they grapple with what science is now telling us about our common origin story, Christian faith, and the future of life. Replete with the hard questions that arise from earlier understandings of the Christian tradition, this book invites the reader to embrace a worldview that is at home with both the best of what science has to offer and an understanding of Christianity appropriate for the 21st century. Poetry and personal reflection experiences also help guide the reader to the urgency of adopting an ethic of protecting the self-revelation of God which is Earth. Margaret Ormond, OP, former coordinator of Dominican Sisters International, calls this book, “A must-read for all of us who endeavor to be faithful to our calling at this moment in history.”
Order through www.homecomingearth.org

 

Crucible for Change: Engaging Impasse Through Communal Contemplation and Dialogue
Edited by Nancy Sylvester, IHM and Mary Jo Klick
(Sor Juana Press, 2004)
Crucible for Change offers the stories of twelve women who engaged in a yearlong process of communal contemplation and dialogue to engage the impasses they encountered in church and society. The women share the insights awakened in them through participation in the “Engaging Impasse” circles organized by Nancy Sylvester, IHM and a team of facilitators. In her introduction to the book, Nancy describes the origin and fulfillment of the Engaging Impasse project in the context of the tensions between old and new paradigms in our world today.
Order through: http://www.engagingimpasse.org/newbook.html