Perspective

Sue Monk Kidd is a successful evangelical Christian writer and lecturer who has begun to expand beyond the confines of the Southern Baptist tradition before beginning to discover how she suffers from a "Feminine Wound." Married to a Baptist chaplain and teacher, Sandy, Kidd is not unduly oppressed, outwardly submissive, or controlled, but comes to see the need to perform a "Feminine Critique" of her life. She struggles with giving up the comforts of Christianity as the psychical and spiritual pain it causes grow too deep, to identify and die to patriarchal strictures, to be reborn with a feminist soul, to embrace a Feminine Divine, and to stand her ground firmly and share the good news of her discoveries. Even those who reject her ultimate theology can fault her sincerity and good will. She demolishes the straw men of patriarchy by pathos.

Kidd has the advantage of being...