Tending the Garden:
A History of Christian Mysticism
Mysticism in an ancient and important aspect of the Christian faith, yet it is highly misunderstood. Due to obscure language and concepts, not to mention occasionally eccentric personalities, the mystics can be difficult to approach. Once you peel back the layers of insider language, however, one begins to see a highly relatable group of people who were, first and foremost, concerned with tending to a personal and loving relationship with God.
Tending the Garden provides the reader with a basic definition of and clarity around several terms and practices of Christian mysticism, as well as analyzing the lives and writings of important Christian mystics. Jennifer Wojciechowski proposes some ways in which we, as modern people living in an industrialized and disenchanted society, can benefit from knowing Christian mystical history and engaging in spiritual practices related to Christian mysticism. The book's aim is to demystify the mystics by making them understandable and relatable to modern believers.
In this era of disenchantment and religious decline, Tending the Garden will introduce Christians to a rich and vibrant history of mystical prayer and relationship with God in order to spark curiosity and inspire a deeper spiritual life. The book will serve as an accessible introduction to and thematic historical overview of Christian mysticism.
Women and the Christian Story
"This is a story about Christian women. It is a story of martyrs, mystics, missionaries, leaders, preachers, theologians, saints, and prophets."
For most of its two-thousand-year history, Christianity has told its stories from the perspective of men, mostly powerful men, and almost always men in control of the "official" narrative. These masculine narratives tell only part of the story because they obscure the rich and essential contributions, large and small, of Christian women throughout time. If the stories of women have been overlooked generally, stories of women from outside the Western tradition have been even more seriously overlooked.
In this exciting, readable, and fresh new history of Christianity, Jennifer Hornyak Wojciechowski foregrounds the story of Christian women for a new era. Be they powerful or nameless, saintly or flawed, women across two millennia and six continents are lifted up and allowed to speak fully to their part in the spread of the faith.
Wojciechowski's book works perfectly as a classroom text while welcoming general readers of all backgrounds and interest levels.
