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book reviews
Kate Bowler,The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women
Celebrities(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019). 338 pp. $29.95 hard-
cover.
Kate Bowler’s work on evangelical women in ministry adeptly covers the roles that women have played in evangelical church circles and parachurch orga- nizations. The title implies that the focus will be on the wives of preachers, however she often includes discussions of women such as Joyce Meyer who are not married to pastors, but who compensate for this in their complemen- tarian worlds by frequently reminding their fans of their husband’s approval of their ministries. The five-chapter book is organized around the roles that these ministerial celebrity women play within the church world from preach- ers to homemakers to counselors, and to represent the talent and beauty of the church. The work also includes six appendices that break down the involve- ment of pastors’ wives and women on staff in megachurches as well as the roles of women in conservative seminaries. These appendices are well-organized and may actually be one of the most important parts of this work for scholars seeking to expand research in this field.
Although this book is organized topically, the author still provides some- thing of a chronological framework. She begins by discussing the historical work of women in these organizations which was often focused around mis- sions, either as women went to the mission field themselves or ran societies that supported mission works. Here she relies on the previous work of scholars who have covered much of this in regard to particular denominations such as Anthea Butler’s work on women in the Church of God in Christ. By the 1970s and 1980s, in part due to a backlash against second wave feminism, the center of women’s power in the church had shifted to the pastors’ wives. From that point, women who had influence in evangelical circles were typically women who had a remarkable talent, who could stand in as a counselor, even with no formal training, relying instead on their life experience, or who could promote Christianized beauty and Biblically framed sexuality. In the process, the woman as a senior or administrative pastor lost a place in evangelical circles.
One of the strengths of Bowler’s work is that she does not abandon the dis- cussion of women in the mainline churches even though her focus is on the evangelical women. This helps the reader to see where the evangelical move- ment is unique. Women from mainline organizations, she argues, are more likely to be hired to run the church and to be in positions of authority within their organizations, but because celebrity culture is either unacceptable or too costly of a commitment in time and resources in these denominations, women in mainline ministry positions rarely achieve the notoriety to which evangelical
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© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/15700747-04301014
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women rise. In evangelical circles, celebrity is expected and accommodated, and while an evangelical woman would rarely be hired as the senior pastor of the church, if married to the pastor of a large congregation or involved in parachurch ministries, the structure of those organizations might enable her to expand her platform.
In addition, Bowler uses a broad sample of evangelical megachurches.This is not a book about white evangelical women alone. The author includes women from Black churches as well as Latinas, and she does so in a way that does not constantly “other” these women, taking care to include specific examples of Latinas and Black women as part of the conversation when they make the same choices as white women, but also discussing when and why these women have to make different choices. The author’s work here is most evident in the third chapter where she discusses the ability of women to succeed in the Christian entertainment industry. The roles of Black women are more frequently subject to being sexualized, and they make choices accordingly, knowing they will be scrutinized.
This book has room for expansion in two areas: the inclusion of Asian women and a discussion of material culture. To the former: Bowler acknowl- edges the existence of Asian (mostly Korean) megachurches but does not see women in those churches as taking on celebrity roles. She also mentions that some Asian women have had success in crossing over into other churches, but the reader is left wishing this were more developed. The career of spoken word artist Hosanna Wong who has recently made inroads into public speak- ing at Baptist events when billed as an artist or merely as a teaching pastor would fit well in this discussion. The author does have a start to a discussion of material culture, but at times, particularly with the discussion of clerical garb in the first chapter, this discussion falls short. And while there is no need to rehash discussions of Tammy Faye Bakker’s make-up for the umpteenth time, the chapter on beauty could have done with a more nuanced discussion of Vic- toria Osteen’s church fashion shows or the rise of the department store Altar’d State.
This book is worth reading to understand women in evangelical power cir- cles. However, because the focus is on megachurches and celebrity culture, the reader is cautioned not to read the author’s conclusions to apply to the wider swath of evangelicals. There are some organizations, including those with the Independent Fundamental Baptists and the white and Latino Oneness Pente- costal churches that would probably fit the author’s definition of evangelical, but that would not share the same beauty culture as other evangelicals. Because they do not have as many megachurches, their positions are not represented in this work. Overall though, this is a book well-worth reading if one wants a
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broader understanding of the many evangelical movements as a whole and the rise of the religious celebrity.
Andrea Johnson
California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, California, USA [email protected]
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