Transforming Fire: Women Using Anger Creatively

Anger is not the opposite of love, but an intrinsic element of loving well. This book explains anger as a complex reality with physical, intellectual, cultural, and spiritual components. Women are shown how to understand anger by naming it, choosing to feel it, then integrating it with love. Instead of suppressing anger, they are shown how to transform its fire, find its creative spiritual power, and direct its energies toward life-giving ends. Drawing from psychology, from science, and from major religions, the author addresses issues key to any honest look at anger. Just a few of these include self-esteem, boundaries, conflict, loss, societal expectations, and intimate relationships. She also examines violence against women, powerlessness, and forgiveness, considering examples from contemporary events around the world. With questions, exercises, and a meditation, this is powerful help both for individual and for group use, for the layperson and for the professional, for psychological and for spiritual healing. It's also a valuable resource for classes in women's spirituality and feminist studies. †

Kathleen Fischer is a theology professor, a counselor, and a spiritual director in Seattle, Washington. Her most successful books include Autumn Gospel and Women at the Well. With her husband Thomas Hart she has also written Christian Foundations, The First Two Years of Marriage, and Promises to Keep.