The picture changes when scholars start to notice religious women.
Reviewed by Elesha Coffman | posted 6/12/2008 04:06PM
Ten years ago, historian Ann Braude threw down a gauntlet for her discipline, declaring in the title of a widely read essay, "Women's History Is American Religious History." She was frustrated that scholars who studied women and scholars who studied religion so seldom addressed each other, even though the majority of women in America have always been religious, and the majority of religious adherents in America have pretty much always been women.
Some solid work on religious women has appeared since 1997, but women's history and religious history continue to slide past each other with few nods of recognition. A new volume edited by Catherine A. Brekus urges the strangers to face each other and see what they have been missing. Contributions to The Religious History of American Women vary somewhat in strength, but the best of them amply bear out Brekus's claim that close attention to religious women unsettles standard narratives about both gender and faith in America.
Brekus begins the volume ...
To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
If you ARE a member of ChristianHistory.net…
Please login:
If you are NOT a member of ChristianHistory.net…
Please click here to see our membership options. As a member, you will be able to have access to all of the content on ChristianHistory.net.
