Title Details

Donna Freitas is a professor of spirituality at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, and the owner of an enviable shoe collection. Her research and speaking center on pop culture and women’s spirituality.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

Bridget Jones: Not Your Average Spiritual Sage.

1. The Confessions of a (Neurotic) Diary-Keeper
Why Telling Our Stories Is a Spiritual Act.

2. Real Feminists Don’t Wear Pink—or Do They?
Making Spirituality Fit for Chicks (in Kitten Heels).

3. “Oh God, Why Am I So Unattractive?”
Understanding the Body as Spiritual Temple, Not Grotesque Obstacle.

4. “Forgive Us Our Trespasses!”
When It Comes to Vice, We Shall Flourish as Tulips!

5. “Am Irresistible Sex Goddess! Hurrah!”
When Shagging and Snogging Are Divine.

6. “Up the Fireman’s Pole”
Career as Spiritually Liberating or Bane of Existence?

7. Bread and Wine Among Friends
Finding Spiritual Community at a Local Bar.

8. “Have You Noticed Anything Odd About Your Mother?”
Facing Family, Martyr Mums, and Smug Marital Obsessions on the Road to Enlightenment.

9. Tick-Tock Goes the Biological Clock
Is Chick Mummyhood a Divine Fantasy or Just Religious Fiction?

10. All Goddesses Have a Romantic Side (or Ten)
Love, Mr. Darcy, and Loving Mr. Darcy.

11. “Human Beings Are Like Streams of Water”
Self-Help, Inner Poise, and Spiritual Epiphany.

Epilogue.

Laughing All the Way to My Debutante Ball.

A Reader’s Guide to the Heroines of Chick Lit.

The Syllabus You Won’t Find in a Course on Feminist Studies.

Kindred Spirits.

Conversations with Some V. Cool Real-Life Chicks: Katrina Markoff, Meg Cabot, Amy Richards, and Jennifer Baumgardner.

Notes.

The Author.

For the increasing base of 20- and 30-somethings (particularly of the single variety) who have forged their circle of friends into substitute families, created social events of television series finales and count fictional characters among their role models, here is the perfect book on spirituality. Donna Freitas, a professor of spirituality, has, like an increasing number of the new crop of Ph.D.s, found a way to legitimize our pervasive pop culture. For years, Madonna has been the subject of college classes and the Simpsons have had a recent spate of publishing attention--why not Bridget? Freitas’s impressive collection of resources includes everyone from St. Augustine (Confessions) to Dorothee Soelle (Thinking About God), Grace Jantzen (Becoming Divine) to Peter Brown (The Body and Society). Directed at a generation of women born of women who marched in the streets in a desperate escape from their June Cleaveresque mothers, she emphasizes that the "challenge today is to anchor our personal journeys toward Inner Poise within the communities that already surround us, exploring the spiritual possibility in the rituals we already practice and the spiritual leaders we already are." Throughout, Freitas delights with her Bridget-inspired voice (the Bridget-speak is fun, but over the top) while seamlessly showing her prowess as a student and teacher of spirituality. (Oct.) (Publishers Weekly, September 13, 2004)“With interesting insights and an engaging voice that draws readers in, Donna Freitas entertains at every turn.  I laughed as I learned.”
--Kristin Gore, author, Sammy’s Hill: A Novel

“Spiritual enlightenment by embracing your inner Bridget?  Donna Freitas made a believer out of me!”
--Meg Cabot, author, The Princess Diaries and Every Boy’s Got One

“Donna Freitas validates the modern woman’s quest for spirituality and a joie de vivre lifestyle.  Find spiritual awakening and balance in the love of fashion, food, nature, and chocolat--without the guilt!”
--Katrina Markoff, founder and executive chef, Vosges Chocolates

“Bridget Jones has soul! If you love Chick Lit but worry that this means you’re shallow, fear no more.  Donna Freitas makes easily missed connections between the Chick Lit heroines’ quests for happiness and spirituality.”
--Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, coauthors , Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future