Thirst of God

Wendy Farley is Director of the Program in Christian Spirituality and Rice Family Professor of Spirituality in the Graduate School of Theology of the University of Redlands.

"The Thirst of God heals the isolation we feel when the divine love we encounter is more expansive than the traditional modes of expressing it. Farley assures us that the tradition of 'God is Love' is as ancient and complete as any that diminishes and qualifies its boldness. We may embrace all the radical potential and acceptance that statement is-without exception or skepticism when we read this book and the theologians she covers in it. Our congregation introduced this book along with the contemplative practices of the women it covers in a retreat with fifty women and also a weekly class of thirty men and women. People who have kept the institutional church at arm's length and those who have served it for a lifetime felt a new spiritual desire awakened and claimed to be parched quite a long time for divine love expressed this way. They delighted that in Marguerite, Mechtild, Julian and Farley there was both an ancient and a future vessel to quench the thirst of a modern believer." -Beth Waltemath, Copastor, North Decatur Presbyterian Church, Decatur, Georgia "Mechthild, Marguerite, and Julian are some of the neglected treasures of Christian theology. Accept Farley's invitation to journey with them into the depths of God's love!" --Amy Plantinga Pauw, Henry P. Mobley Jr. Professor of Doctrinal Theology, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary "In an age where disillusionment with the institutional church is rampant and the message that 'love wins' is thought to be a new idea, Wendy Farley invites us into the minds and hearts of three mystics who, centuries ago, lost their lives in service to this very conviction. Farley explores the thought and passions of Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite de Porete, and Julian of Norwich, inviting her readers into their belief that, though the teachings of the church are of some value, our experiences of the Trinity's capaciousness override any doctrines of sin, salvation, and judgment that compromise on the unconditional love of God. I know of no work circulating today that more ably and beautifully reclaims 'heretical' ideas from the past as remedies for the hatefulness and hypocrisies of the present. In my view, Farley in this book joins hands with these three courageous and faithful women in the healing work of Lady Love." -Cynthia L. Rigby, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary "While historians have recovered these great Beguine mystics, Wendy Farley is the first constructive theologian to channel these women's wisdom from their medieval context into ours. She reads them so glowingly, so tenderly, so needfully, that she lures the reader--whether undergraduate, seminarian or scholar--into a contemplative activity: a loving adventure of love itself." --Catherine Keller, Professor of Constructive Theology, Drew University, and author of The Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement "Written in an engaging, available style, Wendy Farley's The Thirst of God ushers us into the worlds of three women theologians from the Middle Ages-Marguerite Porete, Mechthild of Madgeburg, and Julian of Norwich. It also tells the story of the Beguines, lay sisterhoods that began in the 12th century whose communities were called 'schools of love.' This ground-breaking book just might make you think differently about the hard-edged dogmatism that has often characterized Christian thought. It might encourage you to engage in contemplative practices. Most of all, it invites you to reclaim the most essential of all theological truths-that we are loved by God. Even the footnotes in this book are not to be missed!" -Joanna Adams, Presbyterian Minister "This fierce and tender book enacts the teaching of great medieval writers on divine love-of Mechthild, Marguerite Porete, Julian of Norwich. We call these writers "mystics," but it would be better to recognize them as story-tellers of every passionate life with God. Certainly Wendy Farley tells their teachings with passion, giving her voice-giving her compassionate desire-to their inheritance." -Mark Jordan, Harvard University