Since I started following Jesus more than thirty years ago, I have had one mentor. One. This might be because I have a strong personality and other women wrongly assume I don’t need input. It might be because I’ve always been part of churches with a younger demographic. But I think the actual reason is that most of the women who fit the criteria simply don’t have time. This has been seriously disappointing.

It’s not that I don’t have anyone to speak into my life. I am blessed with many godly peer friendships. We discuss the latest N. T. Wright book. We pray. We press in together. And because I married later than most of them, they were the ones I turned to with all of my parenting dilemmas and questions. Again and again, they resourced and encouraged me. Which is exactly what I have been hoping for in a spiritual mentor.

And then last month, half-way through Karen Swallow Prior’s fabulous biography on Hannah More, I realized I do have spiritual mentors: they just happen to be authors—many of whom are dead.

Perusing my bookshelves, I find Corrie ten Boom, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Saint Therese of Lisieux, Madeleine, L’Engle, Flannery O’Connor, Hannah Hurnard and I remember how many times these and other writers have spoken into my life. How many times they fed me manna or directed me when I felt lost.

Hannah More unequivocally fits into this category. I was primed for this book. During the last few years, I have experienced a deepening conviction regarding the equality of men and women. While some of you might have emerged from the womb carrying that certainty, those of us born before 1980 received a contradictory message on this topic. As recently as last week, I was told—in no uncertain terms—that as a woman, I was less than. Far too often, I have simply swallowed that lie and subsequently been torn by the hook as it slips down my throat.

If Hannah More was told this lie, she clearly did not believe it. She was perhaps the most remarkable woman you’ve never heard of. Abolitionist, reformer, educator, philanthropist, and poet/writer/author. During her lifetime (1745-1833), women, particularly good Christian women, seldom stepped over the invisible lines that aimed to restrict their sphere of influence. Miss More ignored the arbitrary boundaries.

“A woman of exceptional intellectual gifts and literary talent, Hannah More was above all a person whose faith compelled her both to engage her culture and to transform it.”* And transform it she did. More allowed her relationship with Jesus to shape her passions and guide her life. Long before feminism was popular, she dared to believe that women were equal to men and chose to engage with them as peers. She taught entire communities how to read, served the poor, labored for years to bring an end to the slave trade, and worked to reform animal welfare.

How could I—how could anyone—not find courage and sustenance in the life and works of such a woman?

I doubt I’ll ever stop longing for mentors. Sometimes, I greedily hold onto a chance meeting, hoping to prolong the hour. Even as I wait and hope for more of these encounters, I will continue to pull books off my shelves knowing that the voices of women who have gone before me will be there to faithfully guide and teach me.

If you need more convincing, check out the trailer by Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Just to clarify, Karen Swallow Prior, who wrote this biography, is definitely not dead. She is one of the most gifted, thoughtful writers of our time. You can find more of her work over at the Atlantic, Her.meneutics, or by reading her previous book, titled, Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me.

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*This quote is from Thomas Nelson’s summary.