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Lori G. Beaman. Shared Beliefs, Different Lives: Women's Identities in Evangelical Context. St. Louis: Chalice, 1999. Pp. ix + 161. $21.99 (Paper).
Lyons, William L.
Lyons, William L.
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BR34.pdf
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"Shared Beliefs, Different Lives challenges popular cultural and academic misconceptions about modern evangelical Christian women. While many issues are addressed, the author highlights two important items. First, evangelical Christian women are not a monolithic entity marching en masse to a subcultural beat. Rather, they are endlessly diverse and vibrant in the expression of their faith within their own worlds. Second, these women who choose to live in a patriarchal context are not "mindless doormats" or "submissive servants" (Beaman's words) as some who do not espouse the evangelical world view might suppose. They are purposeful agents negotiating the implications of their faith within their daily lives, not resisting traditional patriarchal dogma outright nor accepting it at face value. Reading Shared Beliefs, Different Lives may be a broadening experience for many readers as Beaman affords them an honest and compelling glimpse into another world. [2] Beaman's book began while she worked with the "Religion and Violence Research Team" at the Murial McQueen Fergusson Center for Family Violence Research in eastern Canada. Many of her co-workers were evangelical Christians who graciously shared their ideas and beliefs with her and allowed her to enter their world via their conversations. The data which forms the basis of Beaman's book were collected over a two-year period from a variety of sources including thirty "focus groups" with evangelical women (research via small group discussion), ninety-four in-depth interviews with women drawn primarily from the focus groups (interviews averaging about ninety minutes), and numerous questionnaires and interviews with evangelical clergy (both men and women). Beaman says that it was through these groups that she learned the vernacular of the evangelical world and was able to negotiate her way in what was to her a foreign land. The land (the culture of evangelical women) is unfamiliar to Beaman because, as she notes, she writes as an outsider. She is a feminist sociologist who is trying "to learn the language of this community of believers . . . to recognize their material culture and to distinguish the necessary from the optional in their faith-related practices" (1-2). Beaman's vantage point offers a fresh perspective of evangelical women that is different from discussions of "Christian life" written by insiders. This study attempts to understand how evangelical Christian women utilize their faith to guide their relationships with husbands, children, faith communities, and the outside world. It is an attempt to discover how these women "interpret, react to, shape, and incorporate church teachings into their daily lives" (8)."(pg 1)
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2000
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With permission of the license/copyright holder