Desire : Awakening God's Woman
Pymble
:
HarperCollins Australia
,
2008
Z1489822
2008
single work
autobiography
'This is the story of how God's Callgirl evolved into God's Woman.
'After the international publication of her sensational memoir, former nun-turned-prostitute Carla van Raay settled back to a quiet life as a housekeeper. Celibate for twelve years, she was unprepared for the reappearance of a past love. Aaron had been nineteen when they met; Carla was thirty-four, married, with a baby, a dark past, and some serious growing up to do...
'Desire: Awakening God's Woman is a frank exploration of this sexual, emotional and spiritual connection. Told with the unswerving honesty that made Carla's first book, God's Callgirl, a bestseller, it charts the ecstasy, the agony, and the price of passion.' (Publisher's blurb)
'The celibacy of Catholic “women religious”, or nuns, presents a dilemma for familiar narratives about the 1960s and 1970s as Australia’s “liberation decades”. In this article, I analyse an important oral history archive, not previously considered for this purpose, to explain how women religious “made sense” of their sexuality in relation to the social and institutional transformations of this period. I argue that women religious in Australia redefined celibacy as mature heterosexuality, and by doing so, they identified as ordinary women even as they held to their special status within the Catholic Church.' (Publication abstract)
'The celibacy of Catholic “women religious”, or nuns, presents a dilemma for familiar narratives about the 1960s and 1970s as Australia’s “liberation decades”. In this article, I analyse an important oral history archive, not previously considered for this purpose, to explain how women religious “made sense” of their sexuality in relation to the social and institutional transformations of this period. I argue that women religious in Australia redefined celibacy as mature heterosexuality, and by doing so, they identified as ordinary women even as they held to their special status within the Catholic Church.' (Publication abstract)
