{"id":10864,"date":"2025-03-19T04:21:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T04:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=10864"},"modified":"2025-04-21T15:59:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T15:59:27","slug":"households-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/19\/households-of-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Households of Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Practice Makes a Family<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

A theologian re-envisions the highest ideal of family as Christlike devotion to those who share our space.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Review by Jake Casale<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

American Christianity of all shapes and stripes is very taken with the notion of an ideal blueprint for families and households\u2014nuclear structure, white picket fence, middle-income lifestyle, and significant autonomy. For many, however, such standards feel out of touch at best and downright harmful at worst. In Households of Faith: Practicing Family in the Kingdom of God<\/em>, theologian Emily Hunter McGowin seeks to articulate a Christian perspective on families that is expansive rather than restrictive, firmly grounded in the belief that the prevailing American Christian blueprint for family is a myth. Yet her aim is much broader than deconstruction. She invites consideration of the idea that the Christian God intends the purpose of any family to be apprenticeship to love (including outward-facing love) together, rather than a vehicle to self-actualization or an island of independence. This purpose is lived out through a regular dance of discernment and improvisation. McGowin unpacks her thesis over three parts: first, a recovery of a holistic Christian vision for households; second, meditations on various ways this vision is complicated by a fallen world but can be redemptively practiced amidst brokenness; and lastly, explorations of how specific practices and disciplines flowing from the Christian tradition can influence household rhythms.<\/p>

McGowin approaches each of these movements with remarkable consistency; she knows how groan-inducing and guilt-tripping the subject can be and deftly keeps focus on frameworks and principles instead of rigid prescriptions. One of her best differentiating perspectives comes early in her first movement, as she starts her exploration of the household not with the first chapters of Genesis, but with the life of Jesus Christ. In doing so, she purposefully sidesteps the stale calculus that works to read cultural assumptions about human relationships (such as gendered division of work) into the Biblical creation narrative and to cast these located norms as universally applicable. In rejecting this error, she doesn\u2019t go so far as to discard the creation text, but neither does she center it, instead offering Christ\u2019s embodied life as the foundational lens through which to understand family. McGowin makes sure that the subversive implications of this are front and center: Jesus Christ was a man who remained unmarried all his days and did life alongside a close group of friends. While Christ\u2019s example doesn\u2019t eradicate the significance of biological family ties, it does suggest a new framing for their priority that cuts against how most cultures view families. Centering Christ, the trajectory of the Gospels and New Testament claims that the most significant family ties are the bonds God establishes between members of the church, relationships built by God\u2019s Spirit rather than by blood.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

McGowin doesn\u2019t shy away from the importance of truth-telling about the forces within which families operate\u2014 from patterns of generational trauma to unjust economic and social systems.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

This redefinition of family ties provides the backdrop for McGowin\u2019s reflections on how apprenticeship to love finds expression in the warp and woof of everyday household life, where opportunities for mundane (and occasionally seismic) acts of faithfulness, care, and mutuality are plentiful, regardless of whether the household looks anything like the prototypical nuclear family. These reflections oscillate in scale and scope, particularly when she discusses how brokenness shapes households. McGowin doesn\u2019t shy away from the importance of truth-telling about the forces within which families operate\u2014 from patterns of generational trauma to unjust economic and social systems. She helpfully notes that family constructs have often been appropriated as a mechanism of upholding and spreading empires\u2014including those claiming to act in the name of Christ\u2014to violent and dehumanizing ends. In tracing out these dynamics, McGowin adds some of her most unique contributions to the conversation, even if they prove a bit unwieldy as she quickly hops between analysis of malformed dynamics internal to families and<\/em> those imposed on families by broad social influences. Nevertheless, these brief moments of structural inelegance do not derail the overall clarity of her multifaceted vision. She deftly communicates the profound power of familial spaces and relationships to harm and heal, returning often to grounded observations (her analysis of suburban impulses toward isolation and busyness stands out) that underscore the gravity of family as a zone of formation.<\/p>

In McGowin\u2019s later chapters, the practical reflection increases, and she sounds several points that I love. Children should be meaningfully influenced and raised by communities, not just parents! They\u2019re also real people with agency \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t erase how vulnerable they are! Single people should have pathways to give and receive deep intimacy and love too! <\/em>(She makes these points with whole chapters\u2019 worth of nuance, and fewer exclamation points.) Yet as I applauded, I found myself wishing for further development on one thread: intentional geographic stability. It struck me that her overall advocacy for interdependence and mutuality, not just within a given household but also between households, neighborhoods, and within the family structure of the church, would pose unique challenges to a community marked by transience versus one characterized by rootedness. I wonder if the latter, practiced through long-term creative engagement with the contours of specific places and particular communities, is necessary to truly achieve the cultural shifts that would loosen the hold of the family blueprint on the contemporary evangelical imagination. McGowin does gesture in this direction repeatedly, but I longed for deeper exploration.<\/p>

McGowin\u2019s prodigious theological imagination is most on display in her final chapters, where she enumerates specific spiritual disciplines that can shape household-based apprenticeship to love. The physicality of baptism infuses significance into caring for our bodies and places. The rhythms of the Eucharist manifest in sharing meals and practicing hospitality and reconciliation. Such habits of remembrance and honor flow from an attention to the spiritual weight of the physical world\u2014a world shared by all people and shared with a unique degree of proximity in household spaces.<\/p>

Indeed, this last section wonderfully illustrates the core strength of McGowin\u2019s work in Households of Faith<\/em>: a robust interest in the necessity of practicing love in the spaces where human beings dwell most intimately, without pedestalizing or valorizing specific structures<\/em> of practice to the exclusion of others. In this, she has offered a meditation that is both a helpful corrective and compelling fuel for the imagination, inviting a more creative response to love in the life of our households. I hope her words encourage many to embrace the path of discernment and improvisation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Jake Casale<\/b>\u00a0lives in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 2017 and has worked on public health\/health systems strengthening efforts both domestically and abroad. He currently works for digital health company Cohere Health.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Households of Faith <\/strong>was published by InterVarsity Press on January 28, 2025. Fare Forward<\/em> appreciates their provision of a review copy. You can purchase your own copy from the publisher\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A theologian re-envisions the highest ideal of family as Christlike devotion to those who share our space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":10865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-newsletter","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farefwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1742347912.jpg?fit=1500%2C1383&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10864"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10975,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10864\/revisions\/10975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}