The Author
Carol Lee Flinders received her doctorate in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley and is currently adjunct faculty at the Sophia Center in Culture and Spirituality, Holy Names University, Oakland, California.

A Companion Volume
Enduring Lives is a companion volume to her bestselling book Enduring Grace which examined the lives and spiritual contributions of St. Clare of Assisi, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Catherine of Siena, Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Genoa, Therese of Lisieux, and Teresa of Avila. The author reveals how these seven women mystics used their personal experiences of God to enlighten and enrich the lives of others.

Emblems of Vernacular Spirituality
In Enduring Lives, Carol Lee Flinders has selected four modern emblems of what she calls "vernacular spirituality" who, like their medieval forebears, are women of extraordinary courage, conviction, and talents. They are:

1. Etty Hillesum, a Dutch Jew who practiced psychotherapy and grief counseling until her death at Auschwitz just before her thirtieth birthday and left behind a moving diary;

2. Jane Goodall, the world-famous scientist and environmentalist who has taught us so much about chimpanzees;

3. Tenzin Palmo, the daughter of a London fishmonger who went to India and became a Tibetan Buddhist nun;

4. Sister Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun and renowned crusader for the abolition of capital punishment.

Heroines All
Flinders writes: "I find it fascinating that as each of these women moves along the trajectory of her own life, she becomes more incontrovertibly and idiosyncratically herself." We see in the diary writer, the animal lover, the champion of solitude and silence, and the advocate for criminals on death row the same intensity of commitment, the same ability to forge ahead despite the criticism of men, and the same creative spirit that opens new doors.

Enduring Lives teaches us the important legacies of these extraordinary women of spirit.