Abstract
Much of the work that has been done on gender and the role of women in evangelicalism focuses on the macro system of patriarchal power. Most work has acknowledged the direct role of the patriarchy in the subordination of women and sometimes, though not always, vilified Christianity in the process. Liz Cooledge Jenkins’s book, Nice Churchy Patriarchy, provides us with a different, necessary, and refreshing examination of patriarchy in evangelicalism. Cooledge Jenkins defines patriarchy as “all the ways men hold more power than women and are valued more highly” (1). The author examines how patriarchy manifests itself even in friendly, nice, and well-meaning evangelical churches (complementarian and egalitarian). Cooledge Jenkins shares her own interactions in these spaces while also calling attention to their reflection of the larger systems of power. In this way, this text is a self-described part memoir, part feminist manifesto. While some, including myself at times, may throw out the baby of evangelicalism with the bathwater of patriarchy, Cooledge Jenkins calls for systemic change in the church in order to build more equitable faith communities.
Cooledge Jenkins breaks up the book into two major parts. Part I, entitled “Naming Misogyny’s Face” is comprised of five sections (each with three chapters of their own) which examine how the patriarchal structure manifests within “nice” evangelical church spaces. This first half of the book is focused on providing detailed examples of how sexism and misogyny are at work in conservative, middle ground, and even egalitarian church spaces. The five main sections are titled “The Subordination,” “The Reduction,” “The Uneven Ground,” “The Dismissal,” and “The Low Bar.” In each of these chapters, Cooledge Jenkins provides real-life examples of the implicit and explicit ways men are valued over women and given more power.
In the first chapter, “The Subordination,” Cooledge Jenkins describes the first time she recognized these power dynamics. In a college group, the leader “Dave” was asked why the church does not let women lead if they want to. He replied, “giving people what they want isn’t always best for them” (16). Cooledge Jenkins reflects on this experience, connecting it back to power inequality between men and women. Small experiences like this one, and the plethora of others the author provides throughout Part I detail how women are consistently infantilized in these spaces. The subsequent chapters provide relatable and thoughtful examples, all supporting one of the main contributions, that “the friendlier, gentler faces of misogyny are still faces of misogyny” (5). Some of these supporting conclusions are: men thinking they know what is best for women (chapter 1), gender roles, expectations, and soft complementarianism (chapters 2, 3, and 14), the objectification of women (chapters 4 and 6), the lack of access to places of power (chapters 5, 8, 9, and 10), and the relegation of “women’s topics” to a lower tier of theology, one debated about for sport (chapter 7).
Part II of the text is a mirror of the first in terms of structure, but quite different in its approach. This second half of the text takes a biblical, theological, and historical approach to presenting a better way to do Christianity that is not ladened with misogyny. Part II is entitled, “Dismantling Misogyny’s Power,” and has five sections, with two to four chapters in each section. The five sections are titled, “Demasculinizing Scripture,” “Expanding Theology,” “Erasing History,” Reclaiming Agency,” and “Reimagining Authority.” The first half of the text demonstrated Cooledge Jenkins’s lived experiences as a woman in evangelicalism. The second half demonstrates the depth and breadth of their theological knowledge as well as their commitment to challenge this complex system of power.
Cooledge Jenkins begins to pave this better way for Christianity at the place where patriarchal religion finds its justification: the Bible (chapters 17 and 18). Like many other topics in this book, she does not supply us with a reductive and simplistic answer. She takes common passages wielded to subordinate women, such as I Corinthians 14:34-35, and demonstrates various ways to interpret them, while contrasting them to other passages that often are overlooked. Cooledge Jenkins does not deny the presence of these passages or use hermeneutics to arrive at the “enlightened” egalitarian, context-only interpretation of them. Rather, the author concludes that the bible is full of contradictions, and while there are passages which do connote a lesser view of women, so too there are passages that are egalitarian and those that show women preaching, proselytizing, and holding equal standing to men. Further, Cooledge Jenkins calls for a de-masculinization of scripture, which sees women in their fullness in scripture, rather than the object of lessons men need to learn (chapters 18, 19, and 20).
Further in part II, Cooledge Jenkins challenges theologians, and Christians in general, to examine their bookshelves, podcasts, and other forms of theological knowledge and begin diversifying the voices they learn from (chapter 21). The author also challenges us to lean into the femme God, embracing feminine language, characteristics, and imagery when talking about God (chapter 22 and 23) as well as un-erasing women’s role in church history (chapters 24 and 25). Cooledge lands the book by empowering people with agency (chapters 26-28) and challenging us to rethink authority (chapters 29-32). These concluding calls to action are optimistic in their approach to making systemic change in an institution so driven by power, as is the evangelical church. However, like every moment in this book before it, Cooledge Jenkins does not reduce the problem to a simple cause and simple remedy but rather notes the challenge in addressing the misogyny embedded within the church and shares again the many times the author tried yet was shut down for doing so. Still, she emboldens readers with hope and strategic pathways to push against the power system to advocate for more equitable religious communities.
In this way, Nice Churchy Patriarchy is a masterfully accessible book which weaves together Cooledge Jenkins’s own experiences in Evangelical Christianity’s patriarchal structure, while calling for change within the church. The author doesn’t dismiss or villainize the church or men within the church, but rather calls attention to implicit, subtle, and often unconscious manifestations of misogyny. Cooledge Jenkins’ writing, in this way, provides scholars with a more nuanced and complex view of how religion upholds patriarchy. She notes the major structure manifestations of patriarchal power but is refreshing in the ability to also provide clear, concrete examples of the ways this power shows up in micro, everyday interactions.
Further, Cooledge Jenkins’s work provides a thoughtful approach to critical analysis of gender and religion in a reflexive way. In the introduction, she provides direct acknowledgement of her own intersectional identities and privilege as a white woman. She also practices continual reflexivity of other identities, particularly their whiteness and cisgender identity at key points. One particular instance of this that I continue to think on is a reflection and analogy to the 2020 Vice Presidential debate (chapter 16). Cooledge Jenkins likens herself to the debate moderator, Susan Page, in that fact that both are privileged in some ways in society but disadvantaged in other ways (154-155). She acknowledges that their perspective is only one piece of the patriarchy power puzzle, and as a white woman, it is a perspective which has throughout history, upheld systems of oppression. Cooledge Jenkins calls for BIPOC women and non-binary voices to be included and centered in this conversation, rather than these voices needing to point to white women on how they have been gatekeepers of feminism. She does not simply call for white women to address their history of oppression; she practices it in the knowledge created through this book. The author is intentional with the additional voices included in the analysis throughout, citing near-exclusively women and many women of color, including Brittney Cooper, Roxanne Gay, Ruby Hamad, Mikki Kendall, Rachel Held Evans, along with many others.
Thus, Cooledge Jenkins provides an intentional, critical, and highly necessary perspective to all those who study power in Christianity, while simultaneously opening the door for further conversations with people at different intersections than their own. Further, in engagement with scripture, history, and liturgy, presenting a more equitable and just evangelicalism, Cooledge Jenkins provides readers with a bit of hope for what Christianity could be, as elusive as that possibility may seem.
