OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Rise Catholic Women" by sarah harding.]

Rise Catholic Women: You Hold the Key is a non-fiction book by Sarah Harding.

This book is primarily about the exclusion of women in the Catholic Church. The author is an older woman who talks about traditional Catholic values and what she was taught growing up. From this perspective, she advocates for adapting to the new age while also learning from the past. The root of all of the Catholic Church’s problems, as she sees it, is that women are kept out of the decision-making process. She gives her views and suggestions on certain matters, like allowing priests to be married without taking away their clerical status. She stresses the importance of women in leadership roles so that men and women can work together in a more balanced fashion. The ultimate goal of all of these changes is to bring more souls to salvation without so many hindrances.

The book is written in a very personable way, but the author has a tendency to inject too much of her personal life into the book in ways that seem like tangents. She references many articles and provides quotes and citations. She also uses Bible verses and excerpts from letters written by popes. There are numbered lists, statistics, and historical facts as well. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is that the author has changed her opinion over the years on a variety of topics, thanks largely to the Internet. For instance, she used to believe wholeheartedly that priests should be celibate but now has a more open mind about such matters.

The author recounts her experience of her eyes being opened by many of the texts that she references throughout the book. She felt the need to share these new insights with the world, via writing this book. She does start to jump around without it always being coherent or straightforward. The book is mostly written in the fashion of how people tend to think: one thought randomly leading to another and then another. By the end, you have a difficult time remembering what even began this train of thought in the first place.

Most of the book contains her reaction to the things she has read, how she was inspired and hopes to inspire the reader as well. I did feel at times that it became a series of advertisements to read all of these books that she has read. After a while, it seemed that the author was basically saying the same thing over and over again with a lot of unnecessary, disjointed filler. The book often strayed from the specifics of changing the Church, which are well outlined in the introduction. I expected that these topics would be thoroughly expanded on in subsequent chapters.

The book started off strong, clear, organized and gradually. However, it became hard to follow at times when the author failed to thoroughly explain her thoughts or see a topic fully through.

I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. For the most part, it wasn’t as focused as it began and as it needed to be. I’m not Catholic, but I have always been fascinated by the topic of organized religion, both in its historical context and how it is applied in modern-day society. The execution of this book was rather disappointing, but it was informative and well intentioned. I would recommend this book to Catholic readers who are interested in the gender politics of their faith.

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Rise Catholic Women
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Like Tanaya's review? Post a comment saying so!

Nice, insightful review. I considered selecting this review book, so it was especially interesting to read your opinions. You brought up many good points about the execution of the book.

Nice review. I can take away a lot from your review.

I enjoyed reading your balanced and fair critique of the book. Very well done.

Very interesting review, Tanaya. I am Catholic, although not church-goer. I take religion rather as a moral guidance than faith. Although I haven`t read the book yet, I think I understand what the author tried to tell us about Catholicism. However, nowadays it largely depends on the country. Italy, Ireland or Poland differ considerably from, say, Croatia. I read somewhere that in Croatia Catholic priests can marry. Anyway, your review is very informative.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. It always pains me to have to write a negative review. But for a book of this nature, I especially feel that it'd be more effective if it were more polished. It does have an inspiring message and I wish the author all the best on her spiritual mission.

It sounds like it could be a pretty good book with a bit more structure to give it less of a stream-of-consciousness vibe. Thank you for this honest review, Tanaya.

Yep, exactly. Thanks for the comment.

I have also considered selecting this review book, but decided not to. It isn't my cup of tea.
Thank you for the lovely review.

This book is particularly interesting to me because I am presently studying Catholic feminist theology and I find myself in possible agreement with some of the things the author advocates for (but I will still have to read the book first to confirm this.) However, most of the books and articles I have read regarding this matter have tended to be heavy and academic. This sometimes makes me feel tired of reading. This book sounds like a personal take on my topic of interest and can possibly offer me a much needed break. I just hope that the execution of the writing, as the review mentions, isn't too poor.

This sounds like the right book for you. It's more so the structuring than anything else that I had a problem with. But I would recommend that you give it a try, based on your circumstances. I know how you feel wanting a break from heavy, academic writing. This is definitely a lighter read with some interesting ideas in it.

I really enjoyed reading your review. It seems like the book has potential, but needs more "polishing." I'm not Catholic, but many members of my family are, and I do believe that women should take a more active role in the Church and that priests should be allowed to marry. I suppose that the author's message is sound, but the delivery could be better.

Thank you for a thoughtful review. I see that I would have to disagree with some of the writer's opinions. Having been a Catholic since my conversion in 1995, I don't feel that women are excluded from church leadership. I know some women feel that way, and that's their right. I'm content to let a man be the Vicar of Christ on earth, and to let bishops also be men. Women have important, maybe even more important things to do. "Adapting to the new age" sounds like a risky business to me, since we know who the ruler of this age is, and he doesn't have a halo.

Your review is very insightful Tanaya. This book sounds full of interesting information. It could be hard to leaf through all those book advertisements though. Hope the author doesn't post any links along with it.

Thanks for the comments. It's interesting to see different takes on the matter.