Life in Language
Mission Feminists and the Emergence of a New Protestant Subject
Published on 22. March 2025
Book
Hardback
192 pages
978-0-226-83829-8 (ISBN)
Description
A new anthropology of Protestant feminism, anchored by the language experiments of one Lutheran community.
The language of the Bible is a powerful lens through which many Protestants understand themselves and their world, and its prohibitions on women's speech pose complicated challenges to women. Nevertheless, women frequently serve as vocal leaders in Protestant organizations, including the early twentieth-century Norwegian Mission Society. In Life in Language, Ingie Hovland offers a unique biography of Henny Dons, a leader of the society's so-called mission feminists, that grapples with ways Protestant women crafted innovative, expansive self-understandings through Christian language. More than their male peers, the mission feminists turned to religious speech to express material, as well as heavenly, desires for paid work, voting rights, and more, and Hovland argues that these experiments in women speaking, reading, writing, and listening paved the way for a new way of being in the world.
The language of the Bible is a powerful lens through which many Protestants understand themselves and their world, and its prohibitions on women's speech pose complicated challenges to women. Nevertheless, women frequently serve as vocal leaders in Protestant organizations, including the early twentieth-century Norwegian Mission Society. In Life in Language, Ingie Hovland offers a unique biography of Henny Dons, a leader of the society's so-called mission feminists, that grapples with ways Protestant women crafted innovative, expansive self-understandings through Christian language. More than their male peers, the mission feminists turned to religious speech to express material, as well as heavenly, desires for paid work, voting rights, and more, and Hovland argues that these experiments in women speaking, reading, writing, and listening paved the way for a new way of being in the world.
Reviews / Votes
"Hovland's Life in Language is one of those books that manages to challenge convention through careful attention. In her portrait of Henny Dons, a mission feminist from Norway, Hovland gives us a new way to understand Protestantism as a religious tradition, one in which the body-the material-matters much more than often claimed. A must-read for all serious students of Christianity, gender, language, and things." -- Matthew Engelke, Columbia University "Hovland's brilliant book is both a biography and a reflection on the work that language does in making and not just describing lives. The result is an illuminating and important reflection on feminism, materialism, and the multiple ways in which anthropologists must rethink their understandings of the links between Protestantism, interiority, and modernity." -- Simon Coleman, University of TorontoMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
399 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-83829-8 (9780226838298)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ingie Hovland is assistant professor of religion and women's studies at the University of Georgia and author of Mission Station Christianity: Norwegian Missionaries in Colonial Natal and Zululand, Southern Africa 1850-1890.
Content
Introduction Unlearning Protestant Dematerialization
Chapter 1 Listening
Chapter 2 Speaking
Chapter 3 Writing
Chapter 4 Reading
Conclusion A Material-Discursive, Multiple Protestantism
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
Chapter 1 Listening
Chapter 2 Speaking
Chapter 3 Writing
Chapter 4 Reading
Conclusion A Material-Discursive, Multiple Protestantism
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index