The Religious History of American Women: Reimagining the Past

American The Religious History of American Women: Reimagining the Past. Edited by Catherine A. Brekus. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2007. Pp. x, 340. $59.95 clothbound; $19.95 paperback.)

Forty years ago there was little writing on the history of women in religion. But in recent decades there has been an enormous outpouring of research that has demonstrated how central women are in the actual practice of religions, especially in Christian congregations. In spite of the ample availability of excellent studies on women and religion, Catherine Brekus, professor of the history of Christianity at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, finds that women still continue to be ignored in mainstream histories of America. History is seen as primarily about elite men in public life. Women, non-elites, and people other than white Protestants are still marginalized. Religion also is marginalized. Women historians share...