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Sex, Sin, and Our Selves
Encounters in Feminist Theology
and Contemporary Women’s Literature
Anna Fisk
Sex, Sin, and Our Selves
Encounters in Feminist Theology and Contemporary Women’s Literature
Copyright © 2014 Anna Fisk. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Pickwick Publications
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199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
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isbn 13: 978-1-62564-068-0
eisbn 13: 978-1-63087-296-0
Cataloging-in-Publication data:
Fisk, Anna.
Sex, sin, and our selves : encounters in feminist theology and contemporary women’s
literature / Anna Fisk.
xx + 200 pp. ; 23 cm—Includes bibliographical references.
isbn 13: 978-1-62564-068-0
1. Feminist theology. 2. Feminist literature. 3. Roberts, Michèle—Criticism and interpretation. 4. Maitland, Sara—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
BT83.55 F57 2014
Manufactured in the USA
For Nanny and Papa,
“. . . for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life . . .”
—George Eliot, Middlemarch
(London: William Blackwood, 1874).
Acknowledgments
This book owes its existence to three remarkable women: Sara Maitland, Michèle Roberts, and my PhD supervisor Heather Walton. I am deeply grateful to Sara and Michèle for their writing, which has been such a fruitful area of research, and in which I still take great pleasure in reading. I would also like to thank Sara for her interest in my work, her hospitality, and conversation when I visited her in Galloway. I am indebted to Heather’s groundbreaking work on literature, feminism, and theology, but I want to thank her most of all for overseeing my doctoral project: I could not have wished for a better student-supervisor relationship.
Special thanks also goes to David Jasper and Nicola Slee, my doctoral examiners, who provided insightful critique as well as support that has continued long after the viva.
Others to whom I owe my thanks are:
Conversation-partners, readers, and friends: Alana Vincent, Dawn Llewellyn, Elizabeth Anderson, Jennifer Reek, and Mark Godin.
Those who gave of their time and attention to proofread earlier versions of this text: Andrew Macdonell, Jamie Heit, Katie Nail, Michael Mooney, and Robert Viney.
My inspiring, infuriating, and much loved siblings: Bethan Fisk, Sam Fisk, and Thomas Fisk.
The family and friends whose love and generous financial and practical support this book could not have been written without: Pip Fisk, Colin and Ethel Hasler, Peter Fisk, Carol Fisk, and Chris Pout.
Those who over the years have been there during the hardest times: Andrea Baildon, Jaime Grier, Lauren Probert, Maddy Hughes, and Sequoia Taylor.
Those whose friendship during recent difficult months has enabled the completion of this text: Agnes Marszalek, Antje Karl, and Robin Davis.
With tongue only ever so slightly in cheek, the last shout-out goes to Alyosha.
Abbreviations
Works by Sara Maitland
3TT Three Times Table. London: Virago, 1990.
AAM Angel and Me: Short Stories for Holy Week. London: Mowbray, 1995.
ABS A Book of Silence. London: Granta, 2008.
AM “About Me.” No pages. Online: http://saramaitland.com/about_me.html.
AT with Michelene Wandor. Arky Types. London: Methuen, 1987.
BFG On Becoming a Fairy Godmother. London: Maia, 2003.
BG A Big-Enough God: A Feminist’s Search for a Joyful Theology. New York:
Riverhead, 1995.
BJ Brittle Joys. London: Virago, 1999.
BSP A Book of Spells. London: Methuen, 1987.
DJ Daughter of Jerusalem. London: Pan, 1978.
FF “The Future of Faith.” Cross Currents (Spring-Summer 2000) 154–56.
FN Far North and Other Dark Tales. London: Maia, 2008.
FWP “A Feminist Writer’s Progress.” In On Gender and Writing, edited by Michelene
Wandor, 17–23. London: Thorsons, 1983.
GI with Peter Matthews. Gardens of Illusion. London: Cassell, 2000.
HT Home Truths. London: Sceptre, 1993.
IBB “Sara Maitland.” In The Way We Write: Interviews with Award-Winning
Writers, edited by Barbara Baker, 102–11. London: Continuum, 2006.
IJB Interview with Joan Bakewell. Belief. Radio 3. March 20, 2010.
LMC “Is There a Link Between Madness and Creativity?” Intervoice. No pages.
Online: http://www.intervoiceonline.org/2181/voices/personal-experience/
sara-maitland.html
MNC A Map of the New Country: Women and Christianity. London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1983.
PP “Passionate Prayer: Masochistic Images in Women’s Experience.” In Sex and
God: Some Varieties of Women’s Religious Experience, edited by Linda
