A bold but balanced interpretation of the biblical concept doulē or handmaid, lifting it from servility before men to faithful servant-hood to God alone, to community leadership and to comradship with God his creative and redemptive work. The discussion of Mary as Handmaid centers on the role of women in Catholic theology, so she becomes the vehicle for examining the role of the second-class citizen assigned to women in the Church, then and now. Drawing from textual and oral history, the book reinterprets in a liberative manner female names both from the Igbo tradition as well as Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savanna.