Carol Lee Flinders


Carol Lee Flinders is a writer, independent scholar, educator, speaker, and former syndicated columnist. She received a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on medieval women's mysticism.
She is married to Timothy Flinders, and is the mother of screenwriter and filmmaker Mesh Flinders.
Beginning in the late 1980s, Flinders published a series of books on spirituality. The first, entitled The Making of a Teacher, was co-authored with her husband Timothy Flinders. It provided an oral history of the life and work of spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran, who had helped inspire the creation of Laurel's Kitchen.
In 1993, Flinders published Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics, a well-received collection of spiritual portraits of 7 Catholic mystics, 5 of them canonized as saints: Claire of Assisi, Mechtilde of Magdeburg, Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena, Catherine of Genoa, Teresa of Avila, and Therese of Lisieux.
Several additional books by Flinders have focused on various intersections of feminism, spirituality, and cultural and biological evolution.
At the Root of this Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst chronicles her struggle to reconcile the claims of a lifelong meditation practice with her emerging feminism. The book argues that both feminism and contemplative spirituality represent authentic, and complementary searches for truth. In Rebalancing the World she explores the historical and anthropological dimensions of the gender divide, and suggests ways that contemporary movements can restore an ancient harmony between the sexes.
In Enduring Lives: Portraits of Women and Faith in Action, a "sister volume" to Enduring Grace, Flinders raises questions such as: What would Saint Teresa of Avila or Saint Clare of Assisi do today? She examines the lives of four contemporary women spiritual activists: Jane Goodall, the primatologist and environmentalist; Etty Hillesum, the young Jewish mystic-philosopher murdered at Auschwitz; Jetsumna Tenzin Palmo, the Tibetan Buddhist teacher; and Catholic death-penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean.

Books on spirituality &/or feminism

Flinders has authored or co-authored books on spirituality and/or feminism that include
Flinders' coauthored books on vegetarian cooking include
Flinders published a syndicated newspaper column from 1978 through 1989, focused on vegetarian cookery. Entitled Notes from Laurel's Kitchen, it appeared in 20 newspapers in 1987.
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