Book Review: Songs of a Housewife by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Theology of Home II: The Spiritual Art of Homemaking by Carrie Gress, Noelle Mering
Theology of Home II: The Spiritual Art of Homemaking
This is the companion book to Theology of Home I. It is written by two Roman Catholic ladies and filled with beautiful and peaceful photography. It’s a picture book for grownups. ☺ This book had some wonderful replacement. It didn’t just say feminism is wrong and stop there. It sought to say if this is wrong, what is right? What does it mean to be a woman?
I loved that they started out by saying being a woman is to be fruitful and immediately followed that with two examples of childless women. It made me cry. It would have been so easy for them to tack childless women on the end, in the parentheses, or on the side. That’s where we usually end up. But in this book they put us front and center as the first example of how all women are to be fruitful, not just mothers. That was encouraging to my heart.
I also appreciated how they dealt with worry. They showed the sin of worry but then followed it up with what is the good that is happening that we’re turning into sin. Again, it was that replacement. Yes, we’re not to worry, but worry is actually a sinful expression of gifts we’ve been given as women to see and plan and care.
The general tone of the book, like the first book, was peaceful, beautiful, quiet, gentle and mothering (in a good way). It was a calm oasis in my day to stop and read a chapter at lunch.
There are some things I struggled with. Many of the examples used were either nuns, or women who raised nine kids, work, and started charities or such. I think this subtly communicated a “you can do it all” mindset. There are truly epic women out there, but many of us don’t want to live at this high rate of franticness or can’t. When you read about women like this it can make you feel like a failure for only raising 2 or 4 kids, or like you have 7 kids and homeschool but that’s not enough. You also need to start a charity for orphans, what is even wrong with you? You must be lazy. I understand giving these amazing women their just due for all that they have done, but it would have been nice to have one or two normal women just raising their kids, tending their homes, and serving their churches.
Like the last book, for a book titled Theology there was a huge lack of Scripture and a heck of a lot of Mary.
In general, I enjoyed this book and felt very satisfied by its overall aesthetic and beauty. It’s the type of book that makes one feel happy and settled to be a woman and a homemaker. In many ways, I liked it better than the first because of the replacement of the wrong with the right.
My main difficulty is that when I’m trying to clearly highlight the main points and arguments, I can’t. It’s more of a vibe then a specific truth that I now grasp. I imagine much of this stems from our vast theological differences.
Good book in general, and if you’re relatively theological grounded, I would recommend it. If you aren’t theologically minded, I wouldn’t. You could end up in some pretty deep heresy without ever realizing that this book honoring home and women and motherhood led you the wrong way with pretty pictures.
Songs of a Housewife
I stumbled on this book while looking for pro-homemaking quotes to share in our groups both on MeWe and Facebook. Not surprisingly, it’s out of print, but I found an older copy on ThriftBook. The poems did not disappoint. The love and delight, humor and struggles of keeping a home are all here and all honored. This whole book was refreshing. It was like meeting a soul-sister you didn’t know you were missing. I’m not a big poetry reader. I love poetry, but don’t often pick up a book of poems to read. I’m so glad I read this one. I read just one or two every day and they served as a reminder of the joy of home and homemaking and of a time when that joy was valued. The preface and introduction were both encouraging too. If you love the noblization of the vulgar, delight in the ordinary, and love being a homemaker, read this book.
Also, this will make you want to plant flowers, shell peas, hang your wash on the line, go berry picking, and bake pies. You have been warned.
