April 2013

Jane Hirshfield, Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women

Jane Hirshfield, Women in Praise of the Sacred : 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, Call Number 808.819 Wom 1994, collects mystical poetry written by women from a variety of religious traditions starting with Enheduanna, a Sumerian priestess who lived in 2300 B.C.E. and wrote, on cuneiform tablets, about the powerful vengeance of her moon-goddess, Inanna. A thousand years later, Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, praised a more peaceful Hebrew deity designated as Lady Wisdom. Hirshfield presents excerpts from Buddhist, Taoist and Christian mystics throughout the Middle Ages, as well as Native American poems. One of the final poems is by Nelly Sachs, a refugee from Nazi Germany, who writes, hopefully, :

“Someone
will take the ball
from the hands that play
the game of terror.”

Although it uses translations, this is a powerful collection of spiritual poetry with many applications to contemporary concerns. 

Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer

Christian Wiman is a West Texas boy who has taught literature at numerous prestigious universities and served as the editor of Poetry magazine. His new book, My Bright Abyss : Meditation of a Modern Believer , Call Number 814.54 Wim 2013, is the personal record of his return to religion after a struggle with a rare form of cancer. Wiman is a poet, not a theologian, aand his meditations can be rambling. The cental theme of his book is that “faith” is much greater and more mysterious than “belief” in a particular religious dogma or a literal “belief” in certain Scriptural events. This is a challenging book for contemporary Christians struggling with outdated expressions of religious belief.