This is Our Message
Women’s Leadership in the New Christian Right. By Emily S. JohnsonThe Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities. By Kate Bowler
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8201358 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sophie Bjork-Jame (0000-0002-9196-1952, Vanderbilt University, corresponding author), Sophie Bjork-James (Vanderbilt University) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 88 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 594-599 |
| Publication date | 2020-05-23 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7189 • E-ISSN: 1477-4585 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jaarel/lfaa006 |
| OpenAlex | W3014055381 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
How can a patriarchal religion survive a feminist and sexual revolution? As two recent books on women in conservative Christianity in the United States demonstrate, it turns out that it must rely on women’s voices to defend the patriarchy. In a seemingly ironic twist, defending the patriarchy can also radically reshape religious gender norms and create an expanded platform for women to achieve influence, if not overt power. These two books show us that for patriarchy to survive such tumult, it must be flexible. Although evangelical Christianity has almost across the board denied women the role of preachers (at least not preachers who can minister to men), evangelical women have found forms of authority through other means. Emily Suzanne Johnson’s This is Our Message: Women’s Leadership in the New Christian Right and Kate Bowler’s The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities both take on the apparent paradox of why so many women have achieved national platforms of influence in a conservative Christianity that celebrates female submission to men. Johnson’s focus is on women’s national leadership in the New Christian Right whereas Bowler focuses on evangelical female celebrities. In both studies, conservative women operate in a seemingly contradictory way: saving patriarchy by rejecting the notion of gender equality while carving out more public space for conservative women. Both authors engage historical methods, although they take different approaches to their craft. Johnson employs a more traditional approach, primarily analyzing a print archive of material written by conservative, Christian women. Bowler adds to this print archive analyses of websites and online media along with interviews.
Christianity · Patriarchy · Political science · Power (physics) · Sociology · Wife · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Catholicism and Religious Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |