Conceiving Parenthood: American Protestantism and the Spirit of Reproduction

by Amy Laura Hall

Genetic manipulation. Designer babies. Prenatal screening. The genomic revolution. Cutting-edge issues in reproductive bioethics grab our attention almost daily, prompting strong responses from various sides. As science advances and comes ever closer to “perfect” procreation and “perfectible” babies, controversy has become a constant in bioethical discussion.

Amy Laura Hall seeks out the genesis of such issues rather than trying to divine their future. Her disturbing finding is that mainline Protestantism is complicit in the history and development of reproductive biotechnology. Through analysis of nearly 150 images of the family in the mainstream media in the twentieth century, Hall argues that, by downplaying the gratuity of grace, middle-class Protestants, with American culture at large, have implicitly endorsed the idea of justification through responsibly planned procreation. A tradition that should have welcomed all persons equally has instead fostered a culture of “carefully delineated, racially encoded domesticity.”

The research in  Conceiving Parenthood  is new, the theory provocative, and the illustrations exceptional. The book is replete with photos and advertisements from popular magazines from the 1930s through the 1950s --  Parents', Ladies' Home Journal, National Geographic , and so on. Hall's analysis of these ads is startling. Her goal, however, is not simply to startle readers but to encourage new conversations within communities of faith -- conversations enabling individuals, couples, congregations, even entire neighborhoods to conceive of parenthood in ways that make room for families and children who are deemed to be outside the proper purview of the  right  sorts of families.

Genres: Theology, Parenting, Sociology, Nonfiction, Family

464 pages, Hardcover

First published December 21, 2007

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an ambitious, powerful, and ground-breaking book. Amy Laura Hall examines attitudes toward parenthood and families among Protestants in the United States (especially white, middle- to upper-class, mainline Protestants in the early- to mid-twentieth-century) and the theological and ethical underpinnings of these attitudes. She pays particular attention to the impact of rhetoric and images in shaping attitudes toward families classified as "other." The chapter that hit me the hardest was Hall's appraisal of mainline Protestant complicity in the eugenics movement.

One of the things I like about Hall's work is that she doesn't leave anyone unchallenged. She self-identifies as progressive, evangelical, feminist, and pro-life, and those commitments are clear in her passionate writing. She has definitely impacted my thinking about what it means to create a family and a hospitable home. I hope her voice will be heard in the evangelical and mainline churches in the decades to come, and I look forward to more of her writing on theological ethics.

[Haley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have only read the introduction, but so far this looks to be the perfect follow-up to the bio-ethics book I just finished. The book, written by an ethics professor at Duke, explores the changing perspectives on parenting and family planning as influenced by both the mainline evangelical church and the wider cultural, political, and economical environments over the last several decades.

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I gave this book 4 stars overall, but I want to break down the rating on a few levels (out of 5 stars):

Scholarship: 5
Perspective & Thesis (as in, how much did I like the thesis of the book and the author's perspective): 5
Overall Readability: 3
Readability on a Kindle: 2
Writing Style: 3

I love my Kindle, but this is a book that needs to be read 'in real life.' The whole book relies on breaking down images from ad campaigns, magazines, etc, and often in the Kindle version the images did not line up with the critical text. This was a huge distraction and detractor for me as I read. I also found the book to be a bit tedious at times -- too many examples of the same thing over and over -- but I found it much harder to skim on a Kindle, versus the ease of flipping through pages in a real book.

Those small grievances aside, this book was striking, challenging, and right up my alley. I read the concluding chapter on a plane and it was all I could do to keep myself from standing up, pumping my fist in the air, and shouting "Amen sister!" Amy Laura Hall dissects the culture of upper-middle-class white American parenting over the last 3 generations with a surgeon's precision but a pastor's heart. Most of it is pretty ugly, quite honestly. But the conclusion and resounding point of the book makes it worth slogging through page after page of sickening ad campaigns from the 50s. It is a wake-up call for those who claim to know Christ to dare to reject the messages that have long polluted our culture (and our churches), by living as though every single life matters. We live in a society that worships an idea of "normal" which has been sold to us in a variety of different packages throughout the last century. But the theology of the cross, of the incarnation, of the resurrection, is utterly incompatible with such worship. Christ did not come for the "normal", the socially acceptable, useful, clean, genetically appropriate, and properly domesticized. He came for all -- and therefore we, his people, are similarly called to love all, care for all, and deem all as worthy in the kingdom.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't get to finish it before it was due back to the library, but it was a bold wake up call to the subtle ways in which church practices can contribute to the marketing of our bodies, namely women's bodies, in ways that are anything but practices Christ called the church into being to do. Hall has a way of making the reader sit in the midst of an issue we might rather forget about -- like how lysol came to be a common household item (but was first marketed as a "freshener" for women's bodies). The details can be overwhelming, as Jean Bethke Elshtain wrote in her review of the book in The Christian Century, but I found it helpful to pick apart the marketing campaigns as Hall did. I hope to finish it some day, but until then, have a better understanding of how my parents and grandparents genereations faced unprecedented challenges to the reality of their bodies -- what should go in, come out, and how to "scientifically" do so.

[Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by a self-proclaimed evangelical feminist, this book does one thing very well: punch presumptive Protestants in the face. The subtitle of this work explains the overall theme of the piece: American Protestantism and the Spirit of Reproduction. In it, Hall covers a plethora of issues from a our diminished view of adoption, to the eugenic precursors of the American birth control movement. She challenges the cultural pressures forced upon couples to have the "perfect" family, and gives us historical perspective on much of what we take for granted today. I believe much of her diagnosis of the problem here is right, but I find much of her remedy lacking in theological depth. Either way, it is definitely worth a read...

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great starting out discussing advertising and the effect it had on motherhood. However, later on it just seemed to rehash in an academic way various advertisements...for me personally just got old and heavy.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I learned a lot. It is an academic book, but when I was finished I felt empowered to question to the norm and able to see the contradictions in many of our cultural practices.

[Jessica Pratezina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some parts were quite fascinating and I like her clear style. Her perspective seemed pretty Evangelical, some may like that but it irked me at points. The most valuable parts to me were when she discussed the idea of salvation through participation in a certain type of "Christian" family.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave me a lot to think about, both in terms of parenting and about whether science is ever "pure."

[Stan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review here:

http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/inde...

[Shannon]

Interesting, but ultimately unfinished.