Library Journal Review

Chaves (research fellow, De Paul Univ.; visiting associate professor, Univ. of Chicago) provides a carefully researched and documented study of the 19th- and 20th-century ordination policies and practices of many Christian groups in the United States, including the Roman Catholic Church. He discovers that groups having strong sacramentalist or strong fundamentalist beliefs are the most likely to use restrictive views of women's roles in the church as a protest against modernism and liberalism. He also reveals that support for the ordination of women is associated with gender equality in the 20th century, that positions about women's ordination are not linked to clergy shortages, and that practice does not necessarily correspond to policy: women sometimes serve as unordained pastors when ordination is prohibited. Highly recommended for all libraries; essential for seminary libraries.‘Carolyn M. Craft, Longwood Coll., Farmville, Va. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.