I Grew Up in the Church: How American Evangelical Women Tell Their Stories

In ’I Grew Up in the Church’: How American Evangelical Women Tell Their Stories, Bethany Mannon studies the diverse and complex voices of women who have influenced the contemporary evangelical movement in North America. Women across the theological spectrum document fractures in evangelicalism and intervene in those debates using personal narratives that circulate in print and online. Drawing on feminist rhetorical theory and histories of evangelicalism in the United States, ’I Grew Up in the Church’ argues that these writers model alternatives to the conservative politics, rhetorics of certainty and combat, and rigid gender roles that have been hallmarks of the movement.

This book details the diversity of voices that comprise the evangelical movement today: orthodox evangelicals, ex-evangelicals, progressives, and leaders. By studying texts from 2008 to 2018, Mannon examines how women have responded to a decade when white evangelicalism waned in numbers and influence. She explores the rhetorical power that personal narratives hold for these various groups during that decade of decline. These voices show how, in a diversity of contexts within the evangelical movement, women speak against racism in their faith communities, navigate leadership positions, and pursue rhetorical activist opportunities in conservative settings.

’I Grew Up in the Church’ will challenge and change readers’ perspectives on American evangelicalism. The perspectives and stories of women from varying backgrounds uncover a side of the movement that is pushing back against deep-rooted power structures and redefining modern evangelical rhetoric.

Bethany Mannon is an Assistant Professor of English specializing in Rhetoric and Writing Studies at Appalachian State University.