Jesus Girls

"Written by experienced women writers from diverse evangelical Christian backgrounds, the tales are honest, approachable and revealing. Each author has put aside her inhibitions about exposing the flaws of her home church--from power struggles to the indoctrination of shame--and takes evangelicalism to task for its 'carefully filtered' yet ambiguous conventions. Yet all of the authors tell of a more realistic, meandering faith, enduring even while rife with doubt. Readers will be inspired to re-examine their own beliefs and perhaps even create their own un-testimonies." -- Publishers Weekly



"OK, male Evangelicals . . . it's time: you need to listen to your sisters, mothers, and daughters. Their voices have been marginalized for too long, and as you'll see in these pages, they have some tremendous stories to tell (or 'testimonies to share').



"OK, female Evangelicals . . . it's time: spread the word on this amazing collection of essays. I've never seen anything like it, and I think you'll agree.



"OK, non-Evangelicals . . . it's time: if you thought all Evangelical women were sitting quietly in church or baking casseroles for the next pot-luck, all the while dreaming of the next election in which they can vote right-wing . . . here's a jolt and a pleasant surprise for you. Another great collection of deep feeling, honest thinking, and splendid writing from the folks at The Other Journal."

--Brian D. McLaren, author of The Secret Message of Jesus



"Since the Puritans, spiritual autobiography has thrived in the New World. These women show that the American conversion testimony is endlessly resilient, as they break and remake it again and again. There's a wild range of piety here, but the authors do believe in the possibilities of narrative. Intelligent and sensitive, their essays brilliantly shatter the born-again-bimbo stereotype!"

--Julia Spicher Kasdorf, author of The Body and the Book: Writing from a Mennonite Life



"A marvelous writer herself, Hannah Notess has gathered here a circle of riveting storytellers. Speaking from their own experience, these women reframe the ancient religious questions in contemporary language--questions about suffering, sin, and salvation, about the source and purpose and conduct of life. Above all they ask what Christianity meant to them when they were growing up, and what it means to them now. Their answers are as varied and rich as their voices."

--Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Private History of Awe



"Nothing sentimental or triumphant here. These essays peel back the veneer and speak the messy truth about evangelicalism's quirks and pieties, its hypocrisies and failures. Thoughtfully varied and inventively organized, this collection creates a rare space for young women to find the wit in witnessing and put testimony to the test. Evangelicals, beware--beware young women. They are watching, they think for themselves, and they will speak."

--Debra Rienstra, Associate Professor of English, Calvin College



"Jesus Girls offers a choir of welcoming voices that is much needed as we seek to understand the cultural and spiritual impact of evangelicalism on women in late twentieth-century America. These are testimonies of women who had embraced the music, slogans, T-shirts, and attitudes of a generation and now return those memories to us as readers in the twenty-first century. These are deep, honest reflections that will cause you to laugh, to cringe, to grow silent, and to possibly weep before God. As a father of three daughters, I recommend Jesus Girls as a deeply theological collection--a very human book that offers courage, whimsy, and humility for men and women alike."

--Jeffrey F. Keuss, Associate Professor of Christian



Ministry and Theology, Seattle Pacific University

"This book lovingly messes with the basic narrative of evangelical experience. Instead of the usual before and after testimonies, we get to hear interesting, funny, wild, and sweet stories of real women with bodies and un-conforming minds--women who slink and slide through the muck; free to raise their hands (or not) in worship, free to rethink what "Holy" even means. If you grew up in the evangelical subculture, you should read these stories. They'll make you wince and smile. They'll make you hopeful about the grace of God."

--Debbie Blue, House of Mercy pastor, and author of Sensual Orthodoxy and From Stone to Living Word.



"The quality of writing in these stories is unusual in Christian publishing . . . Getting to know them is a pleasure--I recommend it."

-- Anne Eggebroten, California State University

from Christian Feminism Today, Spring, 2010