Beyond Nice

In this sensitive and discerning book, based on more than 100 in-depth interviews with girls from a variety of religious, ethnic and regional backgrounds, Davis shows how religion actually functions both to help and to hurt in girls' search for authenticity. As she characterizes girls' ideas about God, spirituality, sexuality and bodies, and violence, Davis's interviews convey how spirituality concerns girls' surmounting hurdles to ground and affirm what they become.

Adolescent girls are at particular risk in today's society. They struggle to establish a mature identity after childhood and are barraged with conflicting messages about what it means to be female. In an often hostile -- and sometimes lethal -- culture, they also are subject to being exploited, harassed, manipulated, or even abused physically and sexually. But where do religion and spirituality fit? Davis sees spirituality as the realm where girls' ultimate concerns intersect with their daily ones -- especially with relationships, lifestyle, and religious conviction. Here, based on more than 100 in-depth interviews with girls from a variety of religious, ethnic, and regional backgrounds, Davis shows how religion actually functions both to help and to hurt in girls' search for authenticity. Davis' interviews convey articulately and deeply how spirituality concerns girls' surmounting hurdles to ground and affirm what they become.