Holy Women, Wholly Women

Book excerpt: In Holy Women, Wholly Women, Elaine J. Lawless continues her work with women in American religion, and explores the life experiences of women in parish ministry in several Protestant churches--including the United Methodist, Christian Church-Disciples of Christ, American Baptist, Episcopal, and Unitarian churches. Applying an approach, which she calls reciprocal ethnography, Lawless collects and interprets the stories of ten women ministers and examines their public and private lives, their ministries, their images of God, and their negotiations of sexuality and the religious life. Throughout, she retains much of the dialogue, which developed between herself and the participants; the voices of the women are clearly distinguishable from Lawless's words and from each other's. These women are ordained in different denominations, yet their deep-seated beliefs about spirituality, God, and ministry are surprisingly similar. Denominational affiliations are less critical for them than is the maintenance of a theology of wholeness and well-being for all humans. By employing an ethnographical approach informed by feminist theory, Holy Women, Wholly Women contributes to our understanding of women in the ordained ministry. It will be of compelling interest to students and scholars in folklore, women's studies, and religion.