Eerdmans Publishing Co
The Story of Ruth: 12 Moments in Every Woman's Life
The Story of Ruth: 12 Moments in Every Woman's Life
In this beautiful book best-selling author Joan Chittister and celebrated artist John August Swanson together reclaim the ancient story of Ruth as a model for contemporary women seeking a fully spiritual life. In concert with Swanson's rich and evocative art, Chittister's graceful prose explores, through this powerful biblical story, a series of twelve defining moments in every woman's life ― moments of loss, change, transformation, aging, independence, respect, recognition, insight, empowerment, self-definition, invisibility, and fulfillment. A lovely blend of art and text, The Story of Ruth offers inspiration for women seeking wholeness and presents compelling devotional images for eyes and mind alike.
What Readers Say...
"Writing a book that blends spirituality, inspiration and feminism is no easy feat, but Joan D. Chittister has accomplished it with rare sensitivity..."
—Parade Magazine
"The best book on Ruth thus far may be Joan Chittister's creative, gorgeously illustrated exploration of the famous Moabitess as archetype for all women."
—Publishers Weekly
"Occasionally one finds a book so powerful and beautiful that it needs to be purchased and shared with many people! The Story of Ruth is such a book."
—Lutheran Women Today
“With characteristic wit and spitfire, Joan Chittister tells the story of Ruth for anyone challenged by loss, change, aging, or invisibility.”
—Barbara Brown Taylor
Reader Resources
Read an Excerpt
The Book of Ruth is a woman’s story about a woman’s life. Written thousands of years ago—anywhere from 500 to 1000 B.C.E., depending on which linguistic clues we choose to follow—it is nevertheless, a perennial. Composed, faith tells us, under the inspiration of the Divine, it calls us to reflect in every generation on what it means to be a whole woman, a spiritual woman, yet today. It models what every woman alive lives still. It is an icon of what it means to be a woman of God, to live under the impulse of the Spirit, to be a creative part of God’s creative power. One moment at a time it teaks us from one life moment to another to show us how God works is us all, to remind us to what God calls us all, whatever the period, whatever the place. It is a silhouette of every woman’s life frozen in time and held up for reflection.
Life, it seems to me in retrospect, is only incidentally made up of chronological pieces specific to this person in this place at this time. Instead, life its substance and meaning, is really made up of a series of defining moments—moments of loss, risk, change, transformation, relationship, and survival—that mark every woman’s passage through time in a way separate from the men around her and that shape her as she goes. All of them stand stark and unadorned in Ruth, pared to the marrow and clear in their challenges. The way we deal with each of these moments determines who and what we really are, who and what we are intended to be, who and what we can become both spiritually and socially.
Naomi and Ruth have something to say to each of us, even yet, even now as we face loss and change and risk the unfamiliar in our own lives and the eternal debate over God’s will for women. The Book of Ruth is a treatise on the spirituality of womanhood.
Discussion Questions
Engage in meaningful discussions, think critically, and explore deeper insights with these thought-provoking questions.