A Map of the New Country: Women and Christianity

by Sara Maitland

Describes the experiences of Christian women during the past twenty years, looks at how feminism has influenced religious practice, and discusses the ordination of women

218 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Sara Maitland is a British writer and academic. An accomplished novelist, she is also known for her short stories. Her work has a magic realist tendency. Maitland is regarded as one of those at the vanguard of the 1970s feminist movement, and is often described as a feminist writer. She is a Roman Catholic, and religion is another theme in much of her work.

Reviews

[Karen Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maitland writes about feminism and Christianity, about women and the church. Inevitably talking about our disenfranchisement. This book was published in 1983, so that some of it is outdated, but at the same time it's troubling to see how much further women still have to go. Thirty years from the time the author is writing there are still churches (Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist, e.g.) that will not allow the ordination of women. As Maitland pointed out so many years ago, the language of our hymns, services and liturgies exclude women. And worst of all, the message of Jesus that the peacemakers are blessed, that we are all here to serve each other as he did, to feed people and heal them, was hijacked very early in the Church's history by those who proclaimed the church militant, and that they were soldiers in God's army, glorifying murder and killing in the name of Jesus. Jesus who told us that we were to turn the other cheek when attacked, to love our enemies and do good to those that hurt us. Baby, we haven't come such a very long way after all.