The stranger's voice
Subtitle: Julia Kristeva's relevance for a pastoral theology for women struggling with depression
By: Carol L. Schnabl Schweitzer
Series: Practical theology -- vol. 1; Practical theology (New York, N.Y.) -- v. 1.
Publisher: Peter Lang
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 210
ISBN-13: 9781433108846
Subjects: Frauenseelsorge; Mental Depression; Psychoanalyse; Feministische Theologie; Feminist theology; Pastoral counseling of; Frau; Church work with women; Christianity; Seelsorge; Depression; Women
Description: The Stranger's Voice examines some of Julia Kristeva's major psychoanalytic texts which focus on themes of women's depression, feminine idenity, motherhood, and the need to believe as these themes relate to the power of religious language in a therapeutic relationship. The central thesis of the book is that attention to critiques of religious discourse offered by those (in this case, Julia Kristeva) in the psychoalytic tradition will facilitate a more fully nuanced approach to an interdisciplinary model for pastoral theology.

"The Stranger's Voice is a beautiful testimony to what Julia Kristeva has to offer depressed women when her writings are framed and presented by a thoughtful pastoral theologian. Carol L. Schnabl Schweitzer makes a compelling case for the role of the denial of the mother's voice in the development of a woman's self-alienation and resulting depressions, and she does so without resorting to maternal images formed under the aegis of a patriarchal Christianity. She also makes wonderful use of Kristeva's understanding of "for-giving" to envision prospects for healing and renewal. To write knowledgeably about Julia Kristeva's work requires a sophisticated mind, but to make her work truly and genuinely accessible to other women is a pastoral gift. Some women who are experiencing depression will find this book inherently therapeutic while others will find the encouragement they need to seek a counselor who will help her discover the life that is already stirring within them. Men.

Especially those who have sensed that the denial of the mother's voice has played a critical role in their own self-alienation and its melancholy moods, will discover that this book has much to offer them as well." Donald Capps, Princeton Theological Seminary --Book Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-206) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: About Kristeva; title: Kristeva: Selected Writings; title: About the Work that Follows; title: ch. One A Crisis in Religious Discourse; title: A Crisis Defined; title: Models in Pastoral Theology; title: Models: Scientific and Religious; title: Model to Metaphor and Back Again: McFague; title: Metaphor: A Knowledge-in-Process; title: A Kristevan Metaphor: The "Subject-in-Process or on-Trial"; title: Conclusions; title: ch. Two The Stranger in Our Midst: Sin, Abjection and Self-estrangement; title: Introduction; title: Sin: A State of Self-estrangement; title: Abjection: Women's Experience of Self-Estrangement in Christianity; title: Abjection: A Feminine Boundary of Alienation and Self-estrangement; title: Abjection: Alien Language or the Root of Women's Depression; title: Abjection and the Maternal: From Filth to Sacred Defilement; title: Abjection: From Sacred Defilement to Sin; title: Abjection: From Sin to Religious Rituals of Purification; title: A Woman's Liberation from Self-Estrangement: Recognition of the Stranger Within.; title: Contents note continued: Woman: A Silent Stranger in a Foreign Land; title: Foreigners: Representation of a Facet of Violence; title: The STranger as Pilgrim and the Reality of Estrangement; title: From Pilgrim to Voyager; title: The Stranger Within: An Uncanny Strangeness; title: On Recognizing "The Stranger's Voice"; title: ch. Three Struggle Against the Sun: The "Melancholic-Depressive Composite" in Women; title: Feminine Identity; title: "Women's Time" or Women's Place?; title: Melancholia and the Maternal Tongue; title: Melancholia; title: -"A Sun That Remains Black"; title: Conclusion; title: ch. Four The Splitting of the Woman-Mother in Western Christianity: The Need for a Maternal Discourse; title: The "Woman-Mother" or the Splitting of Motherhood; title: Stabat Mater; title: -Discourse of Maternal Jouissance; title: Conclusion; title: -The Need for a Third Generation Feminism; title: ch. Five The Power of the Word; title: The Word as Love; title: Agape: Language of Unconditional Love; title: Agape: Love of Self or Selfish Love?; title: Agape: Loving Desire and the Therapeutic Task.; title: Contents note continued: Agape: Will Maternal Metaphors Blossom?; title: The Word as Forgiveness; title: Forgiveness: "Hearing True Into Speech"; title: Forgiveness: Defining Possibilities in This World; title: Forgiveness: "The Third Way"; title: Forgiveness: A Timelessness Which Restores Meaning; title: Forgiveness: Aesthetic Experience; title: Forgiveness: A Suffering With and Affection for the Stranger; title: Forgiveness: Regression or Reformation?; title: The Word as Cure; title: The Crisis of the Subject-in-Process Revisited; title: Cure: The Possibility of Telling One's Story; title: Cure: The Fulfillment of the Word; title: Cure: A Reciprocal Relationship between Friends; title: Conclusion; title: ch. Six An Incredible Need to be Heard and Believed; title: Introduction: Speaking is Believing; title: Believing and the Search for Self; title: Belief and Practice; title: Forgiveness; title: Forgiveness: A Central Tenet of Christian Faith; title: Forgiveness: A Therapeutic Process; title: For-giving: A Listening in Suffering; title: The Speaking Cure.; title: Contents note continued: Conclusion: A Reprise or Re-presentation, and a Representation.