Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Ordained women pose a revolutionary challenge to traditional Christian beliefs about God and male-female relationships. Virulent and ingrained discrimination against these pioneers thrives in many Christian denominations. So argues Sentilles (Taught by America), a former aspirant to ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church. After interviewing Protestant (and, to a much lesser extent, Catholic) women of diverse denominations, races, ages and ordination status, Sentilles contends that sexism is woven through Christian practice, distorting everything from worship to creeds to human relationships. Fueled by empathy and appreciation for the women whose stories she narrates, deep disillusionment with the established church and a search for meaning in the wreckage of her own vocational discernment process, the volume is alternately sobering, deeply disturbing and hopeful. It is unclear, however, whether the writer bothered to converse with those who might have challenged the inevitably one-sided perspective of the women she portrays as victims. The book is also marred by the author's polemical tone and personal agenda, which often make it read more like a crusade than an analysis. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Sentilles (Taught by America: A Story of Struggle and Hope in Compton), who has a divinity degree from Harvard University, was a onetime candidate for ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. Here, she interviews ordained women as well as women who sought ordination until the process was ended by their own or others' peremptory actions. Through numerous examples, she reveals Christian sexism as pervasive, systemic, and long affecting not only ordination processes and responses to women ministers, but also theology, religious language, and biblical studies. She considers not just church judicatory processes and mentorship but the local church environment; not just inclusive language and appropriate vestments or other clothing but dating difficulties among single straight women, gay women, and transgendered ministers or potential ministers; not just mainstream Protestant women but Roman Catholic women and those of the Womenpriest movement. Finally, she discusses issues of justice and equality that she feels can transform the church so that the word minister, instead of merely implying power and position, comes to mean service. This challenging and thought-provoking book is essential for seminary and large public libraries and is highly recommended for women's studies and prophetic justice collections as well.--Carolyn M. Craft, formerly with Longwood Univ., Farmville, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
