Extravagant Affections

Susan A. Ross is Associate Professor of Theology and former director of women's studies at Loyola University, Chicago.

"Susan A. Ross raises questions that no sacramental tradition can ignore...The book is rich both in its constructive proposals and in the conversations Ross conducts with Protestant and Roman Catholic scholars of sacramental and liturgical theology, ritual theory, psychoanalysis, ethics and moral theology." - Christian Century; "[Ross] shows how feminist theological concerns make a difference, and can transform the way in which we understand the relationship between God and the human being manifest here." - Currents in Theology and Mission; "All women, especially women in pastoral ministry will find the last chapter...very helpful for understanding the current status of the liturgy and women's role in it. College instructors in sacramental theology courses will find their students challenged to think critically and to be nurtured in their spirituality through reading and reflecting on this book...Extravagant Affections deserves a wide audience." - Sisters Today; "Ross invites us to imagine new possibilities for communal worship that would open us more fully to God's 'extravagant affections.' If other sacramental theologians pursue her suggestions, we may yet feast on the full banquet of the liturgy. We've survived too long on saltines and tap water." - Commonweal"

• Introduction; Part I: Women and the Sacraments: Method and Criteria; 1. Sacraments and the Need for a Feminist Perspective; 2. Feminist Theology and Sacramental Theology; 3. Women, The Sacraments, and Ambiguity; Part II: Family as Embodied Context for Sacramentality; 4. Body and Gender in Sacramental Theology; 5. Women, Sacraments, and the Symbolic; 6. Women, Sacraments, and Ethics; 7. Women, Worship, and the Sacraments: Toward a Feminist Theology of Worship; Index.