A different kind of book review
Often feminists and non-feminists portray each other using vitriolic rhetoric, each side accusing the other of undermining true womanhood. Marie Griffith, then lecturer (now professor) of religion at Princeton, steps into this world of polarized forces and seeks to act as a bridge. Her goal: to explain the thinking and actions of a narrow slice of the evangelical pie in terms non-evangelicals can understand. She wants feminists to reconsider their assumptions about evangelical women and ultimately to help both sides “expand and refine feminism’s possibilities” (12). The process and conclusions of her work form the basis for her book, God’s Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission.
Rather than studying a specific denomination, Griffith examines an international parachurch organization, Aglow, which serves a segment of conservative, evangelical, charismatic Christian women. Her exploration includes a look at how religious practices operate in the everyday lives of Aglow members and relate to the broader social picture.
Beginning with full disclosure about her own place in the world of religion and a confession that, however affronted or dismayed by Aglow members’ beliefs or assumptions, Griffith says she found much to admire in their courage and love for one another. She then proceeds to explore Aglow members’ approaches to prayer, healing and transformation, secrecy and openness, various understandings of “submission,” and finally their metaphors of empowerment that include images such as “daughter” and “soldier.” In reaching her conclusions she draws on extensive private interviews and observations from public meetings complemented by rigorous research of Aglow literature, history, practices, and narratives.
The mostly middle-aged women Griffin observes have rejected mainstream feminism in favor of a theology that embraces female submission to male authority. This comes as no surprise. Where the author covers new ground, however, is in showing how these same women simultaneously denounce male abuses of power and find liberation through prayer. The result, she says, is the exposure of “radical renegotiations of power in these networks of praying women and the reshaping of personal identity that results from such shifts” (13).
Like their feminist sisters, these evangelicals do challenge status quo standards, and in this way both groups are subversive. But the Aglow women’s pro-woman emphasis is not as much on male abuses of power as on elevating what they view as women’s innate strengths. Both secular feminists and these evangelicals espouse the need for personal freedom, but the evangelicals—Griffith demonstrates—find freedom in submission to authority. Rather than pushing for a change of circumstances, they generally espouse, instead, the acceptance of circumstances. Readers should not, however, view this as being synonymous with powerlessness. Aglow members find empowerment not in challenging social structures but in their belief that God hears and answers their prayers.
The word “submission” itself carries a rich variety of meanings often unacknowledged in traditional feminist works critical of the concept. And in showing how the word’s meaning has changed within Aglow in the decades following second-wave feminism Griffith also shows how greater cultural forces have influenced how the women think about themselves and their marriages.
Though Griffith’s work is not always complimentary of the women she portrays she does them a great service in challenging stereotypes about them. Her thorough work offers empathy for her subjects without falling into step with them, allowing the reader a sympathetic and respectful look that has the potential to open dialogue in a conversation that sometimes ranges from shrill to non-existent.