The Preacher's Wife

Starred review from July 15, 2019
Bowler (Everything Happens for a Reason), professor at the Duke Divinity School, explains in this excellent analysis how some evangelical women have managed to become mega-ministry celebrities by transforming the limited roles allotted to women in evangelical culture into positions of power. Framing these women’s work as that of wives, mothers, homemakers, and teachers—rather than pastors or business leaders—Bowler reveals how figures including Joyce Meyer, Beth Moore, and Victoria Osteen wield enormous power in their husbands’ ministries, both on stage and behind the scenes. As the subtitle suggests, this incisive work’s primary emphasis is on evangelical women who have worked out a “delicate dance between professed submission to men and implicit independence from them.” But Bowler’s argument is strengthened and deepened by including the parallel struggles faced by mainline Protestant women who take on formal institutional roles (including the ordained ministry) but continue to find their leadership opportunities limited by the “stained-glass ceiling.” By contrast, evangelical celebrities have gained power and influence by professionalizing roles such as counselor, or even beauty queen and singer. Based on interviews with dozens of these celebrities and anchored in the expectations the American ministry has placed on pastor’s wives, Bowler’s wonderful work provocatively considers what women gain and lose in becoming “market-ready” for evangelical communities.

August 1, 2019

Historian Bowler (Duke Divinity Sch.; Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel) examines the place of celebrity women in Christian evangelical culture since the 1960s. During the second half of the 20th century, women in most mainline Protestant denominations won the right to be ordained into ministry. Though a significant achievement, this formal access to spiritual authority did not eliminate the "stained glass ceiling" that left women less likely to be called into positions of leadership. In contrast, while most evangelicals continue to limit the formal power of women, the culture and structure of Christian megaministry has created alternative roles for women in leadership. In five thematic chapters, Bowler draws on one-to-one interviews and a wealth of public-facing performances, past and present, to explore the constrained authority of high-profile evangelical women as they negotiate their roles as (lay) preachers, homemakers, talents, counselors, and beauties. Many of the women discussed will be familiar: Tammy Faye Bakker, Serita Jakes, Beverly LaHaye, Beth Moore, Victoria Osteen, Ruth Peale, Arvella Schuller. Appendixes provide demographic data that will be useful to future scholars. VERDICT This study is a fascinating examination of the way conservative Christian women wield power in an ultimately patriarchal faith.--Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Massachusetts Historical Soc., Boston

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