Welcome to episode sixty-four of New Creation Conversations. I’m delighted to be joined in today’s conversation by Dr. Susan Harris Howell. Susan is Professor of Psychology at Campbellsville University in Kentucky, where she has taught for twenty-eight years. She is an alum of Campbellsville and has both a master’s degree and a doctorate in Education (with emphases in counseling and development) from the University of Louisville. She recently wrote and published a book entitled, Buried Talents: Overcoming Gendered Socialization to Answer God’s Call (published by IVP Academic).
The book emerges out of a couple of decades of Susan’s research and teaching on gender and gender socialization. In it she argues that the small percentage of women in parish ministry is not just the result of theological problems, but it is also the consequence of a broad intersection of social formation connected to gender, and its implications. The book is not just a fascinating analysis of how gender socialization happens through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, but it also offers helpful and practical ways for us to reflect the new creation in the ways we relate to and encourage one another as men and women. I found the book not only helpful for young women who are wrestling with God’s call upon their lives, but a beneficial book as a church leader, a parent, and mentor to both young women and young men. It is a great book and an important conversation.