The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine

This is a transformative work of nonfiction which will stand the test of time due to its themes of seeking the spiritual inside us while searching for the sacred feminine that has been denied us.Sue Monk Kidd's gift lies in her ability to draw us into the drama of her awakening and its consequences for her authenticity. She takes us on her journey, which we are invited to share not as observers but wayfarers traveling the same rough path whose destiny is truth.It's a game changer for any woman struggling with her spirituality in the framework of patriarchy and mainstream religion.I strongly recommend Dance.

I read this book because I wanted to see how a Christian writer would come to terms with a divine Feminine. That concept is most usually a call away from all Judeo-Christian tradition into the more pagan regions of modern feminism. I found the book balanced, uplifting and very satisfying. I embrace the Divine Feminine also.

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter is the story of Sue Monk Kidd’s awakening from the deep, hypnotic sleep of patriarchy, particular within the Christian church that has sedated women throughout history. She is in search of the sacred feminine, what was largely unfindable in the church where she was groomed to be the good woman, good wife, good mother, which meant, do not challenge the system, be subservient, serve others. Afterall, it was Eve who ate of the forbidden fruit.She writes, “I came to realize that Eden is a wounded geography within women’s lives, that part of my journey would be returning to this painful inner ground and redeeming the snake in my own psyche (89).” Since Eden, woman have forfeited the power to shape their own lives, writes Kidd (55). The wound of Eden bleeds out as women “experience emptiness, self-negation, disillusionment, a deep-felt recognition of the limitation placed on women’s lives, especially her own (37).” I relate all too well to Kidd’s experience in the church. When I was in my mid-forties, I heard a woman preach for the first time and I plugged my ears. But I heard her voice and I started to hear my own; three years later, I enrolled in seminary, graduated, and broke all the rules of the conservative church—I became a pastor. Kidd’s story is in so many ways my own, as I had to reckon with the internalized “feminine wound or feminine inferiority so deeply, there’s little or no female authority and esteem to fall back on.” Like Kidd, embracing the sacred feminine is more than an awakening; it’s an unearthing, a recovery, a return to Eden, a new conversation with that snake. While I related to Kidd’s story, and I would recommend it especially to women who have been brought up to believe they are not as worthy as the men they serve, I found myself yawning through the parts about Greek mythology. I thought the book could be a third-shorter. Overall, though, I appreciated that she wanders through her dreams and dream state, her experiences with other women, and comes fully awake as she reconsiders God who is Father, Jesus who is Son, and the Holy Spirit who is Mother. “When I say my path is being in an awakened relationship with all that is, I’m referring to others, of course, but also to nature and earth, to myself, and to the One who holds us all in being (223).”

"The Dance of the Dissident Daughter" is a remarkable read. It tells the story of Ms. Kidd's journey of transformation, as she witnesses a conversation being held as her daughter is kneeling in a store. A conversation between two men who state, "Women belong on their knees". This statement triggered a response that made her look inside of herself and search for what was missing. In her search, she finds her voice and she finds herself in the feminine: A place of belonging.Her journey reveals her truth, authenticity, courage, and circumspect to fully fine the meaning of feminine spirituality. Kidd states, " I'd been an unconscious victim before my awakening began". Discovering her truth was wakening from victimization and it made it possible for her to move beyond it.Naomi Wolf states, "Women are not natural victims, but they sure are victimized". We come into a world that has already labeled us inferior. We have come into a world that continues to perpetuate a tradition that devalues, diminishes, rejects, and limits women and the feminine. Kidd dispels this.I have nothing but good things to say about the book. I truly recommend this book because I can see myself evolving into a new authentic me. No longer i am willing to accept what has been mandated for me and I have chosen the path to follow my path to my spiritual feminine and authentic me.

I first stumbled on Sue Monk Kidd when I read one of her novels. This book is a spiritual journey of the author herself. Her search for spiritual enlightenment. I found so much of it ring true in my experience. Well presented. A spirit guide to finding one's internal strength as a woman without spewing anger and condemnation at the patriarchy.

Sue Monk Kidd’s book spoke deeply to my own experience as a woman disassociating myself from fundamentalist Christianity’s treatment of women.

This book, and in fact all her books, have been instrumental in my deconstructing church experience. I went on a similar journey to discover the sacred feminine and found this book soooo helpful. Highly recommend.

This book is well written and sets out to challenge the reader, if they have not already gone down that road, to examine the patriarchy dominant in much of the US and the UK especially in Christian churches. Her story reminded me of my own although her route through the sacred feminine took a different turn than mine which led me into Celtic Christianity. Her last chapter on empowerment is vital to the whole story. Still relevant today although written 20 years ago

Although I enjoyed the honesty of Sue Monk Kidd's writing and the careful description of her spiritual journey and the historical and theological contexts she put it in, I was a bit surprised that it was published in 1997 because really I have been reading this sort of stuff for 20 years. I bought it because of the other reviews and I decided to write my own to say to others who are already well on the way with their spiritual and feminist journey that you won't find much new here. If you admire for instance, Diane Mariechild, Sara Maitland, Karen Armstrong, Pinkola Estes, Monica Furlong, to name just a few, then you will already know what the author is writing about. Maybe the most shocking thing for me was to realise that the success of this book must mean that there are still so many women buried in the traditional worlds of patriarchal Christianity and if this book gives them the courage to challenge that world, then that is great. However, I was a little disappointed.