Neal, Lynn S. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. 245 + xii pp. $18.95 (USD). ISBN: 0-8078-5670-3.

[1] In this helpful monograph, Lynn Neal studies the devotional lives of evangelical Christian women through the lens of evangelical romance novels. Relying heavily upon interviews with readers and authors, Neal describes the ways in which the reading practices of her subjects both shape and reinforce their own practice of religion.

[2] After the Second World War, a number of evangelical leaders sought to transform Fundamentalism by encouraging conservative Christians to engage culture rather than shunning it: the “engaged orthodoxy” of evangelicalism (23). Neal places Christian romance novels in the context of this historical movement, noting that they, along with many other evangelical efforts in publishing and film, seek to mediate between the world of popular culture and evangelicalism’s required emphasis upon religious edification.

[3] Neal does not shy away from the fact that some observers, including many of her anticipated readers in the secular academy, might be quick to point out that such an attempted mediation between the realms of popular culture and conservative Christianity might tend to produce films, visual art, and, in this case, literature that are substandard by secular aesthetic standards. The chief strength of Romancing God lies, however, precisely in the tact and understanding with which Neal handles this tension. Neal does admit that literature produced by evangelical aesthetic standards is mediocre, but she nuances this description by explaining that the word “mediocre” originally indicated a “quality of condition of being intermediate between two extremes” (97). For Neal, mediocrity so defined is the necessary component of literature which functions to assist people in retaining an essentially optimistic faith in the midst of a not always pleasant world: a chief function of Christian romance novels.

[4] The women that served as subjects for Neal’s study are well aware of the reality of pain and suffering. While a desire for temporary escape forms a part of their motivation for reading, they chiefly read as a form of religious devotion. As a part of this process, women find themselves challenged to forgive an unfaithful spouse or to hold more firmly to their faith. Neal argues that given the context of a religious system in which political and cultural change is thought to come only through the regeneration of individuals, it would be unfair to condemn the reading of Christian romance novels as mere “childishness.” Neal resists with admirable consistency the temptation to criticize either her consultants or the phenomenon under study, choosing instead to practice religious studies as a discipline in which understanding, and not judgment, is the recognized goal.

[5] Even while refusing to pass judgment on a phenomenon which could easily be condemned as oppressive, Neal outlines the ways in which the communities of authors and readers of Christian romance form an alternative community of spiritual nurture that can succeed where male-dominated churches fail. Noting that the evangelical pulpit, for instance, is almost exclusively filled by men who preach sermons peppered by examples drawn from typically male experience, the author hints that even as her subjects affirm male headship in their homes and churches, they draw their actual spiritual encouragement and sustenance from romance novels and the women who write them. Neal has not allowed her desire to understand the phenomenon on its own terms to prevent a critical readings of that phenomenon. In short, Neal has succeeding in writing a study of popular religious practice which is neither naïve nor unsympathetic.

[6] The study’s lack of a fixed and satisfying definition of evangelicalism is one that the work shares with many other books on the subject. Neal cites several approaches to the problem in the prologue to the text, but admits that all of them emphasize belief at the expense of practice and thus fall short for the purpose of her study. Towards the end of the book, however, Neal claims that “forgiveness constitutes a vital component of evangelicalism” (148). This is undoubtedly true, although many mainline Christians (and even non-Christians) might object that forgiveness plays an equally important role in their own traditions. This is, however, not a serious flaw, and does not render the book any less useful or helpful for those with relevant interests.

[7] Students of contemporary evangelicalism will find the peek into evangelicalism as “lived religion” fascinating. In addition, students of women’s studies that have enjoyed the work of R. Marie Griffith will find scholarship here that is of the same genre and caliber. Those who are interested in the use of ethnography as a method in the study of American religion can find here a monograph in which a living and lived religion is treated both critically and respectfully. Finally, readers with a particular interest in the intersection of religion and popular culture will be fascinated by Neal’s discovery of the extent to which her subjects’ religious thought and behaviour is formed by their novel reading practices. This text offers an enticing description of a spirituality which has almost completely escaped the formal world of pew and pulpit, instead finding its home at the public library and kitchen table. It is to be hoped that further studies of contemporary American religion as it is lived and experienced will be executed with as much insight and compassion as was this excellent work.

Andrew Smith
Vanderbilt University
Andrew.C.Smith@Vanderbilt.edu