Bookstore Borderlands: Christian Romance Novels and the Boundaries of Evangelical Identity

Since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, researchers have begun to question who makes up the voting bloc of evangelicals, 80% of whom voted in support of the president. While scholars have pursued this group through separate studies of masculinity, race, or religious identity, this scholarship tends to exclude a significant portion of this voting bloc: women. The study of the print media marketplace, particularly through Christian romance novels, offers a new lens into this analysis.

This poster seeks to address the boundaries of “who is an evangelical,” by looking at the borderlands of the evangelical marketplace within the space of the Christian bookstore. Recent scholarship has argued that the Christian bookstore is the best place to understand the marketplace of ideas that make up this identity. A new application of borderlands theory to the Christian bookstore allows the contour of this identity to appear: who is included, who is excluded, and for what reasons? Focusing on bringing the voices of women to the discussion of the Christian Right, this project will center this analysis on a genre made by women for a primarily female audience: Christian romance novels.

This poster will visually demonstrate the borderlands of the evangelical identity located in Christian bookstores in three ways: marketplace data, a marketplace timeline, and an analysis of three ideological borderlands. The marketplace data will be presented in graphs, demonstrating the high sales numbers and marketplace significance of Christian romance novels. The second visual element, a marketplace timeline, will highlight the creation of the Christian book marketplace, featuring key authors and publishing turning points, since its origins in the 1950s. The final area, three ideological borderlands, will address Christian romance novels by Mormons, Catholics, and people of color. This area creates the central argument of this poster by tracing the boundaries of who is included and excluded from this marketplace of ideas. This project will mirror the products women are consuming by highlighting books, films, and the culture of celebrity that follows the creation of these topics.

By addressing the Christian bookstore as a borderland, this poster project seeks to identify the boundaries of the evangelical identity through Christian romance novels. Visually highlighting marketplace data, a timeline of the Christian bookstore marketplace, and addressing three ideological borderlands, this project argues that race, gender, and religious identity must be taken seriously in order to better understand “who is an evangelical.” Addressing stories within women’s history that are highly visual, through books, films, and pop culture, this project lends itself naturally to the medium of the poster.