Beyond Nice (Paperback)

~ (Author) "A girl's spirituality is never separate from the environment in which she grows..." (more)
Key Phrases: Roman Catholic, Youth Sunday, African American (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this denuded dissertation, Davis eschews sustained analysis and engagement with relevant scholarship in favor of excerpting interviews she conducted over four years with adolescent girls about church and spirituality. Reading more like an extended journalistic feature than qualitative research, this book targets an audience of church workers seeking a better understanding of adolescent girls. Five topically organized chapters feature quotations from girls about God, their churches, sexuality and violence. In the first chapter, Davis explains that her responsibilities as an interviewer include sharing girls' insights without putting her own spin on them. This may explain why she does little more than quote and rephrase what informants tell her. Unfortunately, this strategy does not erase her influence, but rather allows it subtle power. For example, her chapter about violence highlights a tendency she has noticed among adolescent girls to protect others but not themselves. While Davis does voice some concern about this, her troubling admiration of such self-abnegation is evident as well. She seems to be rewriting an old feminist story, in which women are equal parts noble, innocent, victimized and wise. For a book that transcends these clich s in its exploration of girls coming of age in spiritual communities, see Carol Lakey Hess's Caretakers of Our Common House. Davis's book may serve her fellow church workers adequately, but her shallow valorization of girls does not, despite its title's promise, venture far beyond nice. (Dec.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

Adolescent girls are at particular risk in today’s society. They struggle to establish a mature identity after childhood and are barraged with conflicting messages about what it means to be female. In an often hostile—and sometimes lethal—culture, they also are subject to being exploited, harassed, manipulated, or even abused physically and sexually. But where do religion and spirituality fit? Davis sees spirituality as the realm where girls’ ultimate concerns intersect with their daily ones—especially with relationships, lifestyle, and religious conviction. Here, based on more than 100 in-depth interviews with girls from a variety of religious, ethnic, and regional backgrounds, Davis shows how religion actually functions both to help and to hurt in girls’ search for authenticity. Davis’ interviews convey articulately and deeply how spirituality concerns girls’ surmounting hurdles to ground and affirm what they become.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Fortress Press (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800632567
• ISBN-13: 978-0800632564
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,136,563 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)