In spite of her parent s, Mead joined the Episcopal Church shortly after her eleventh birthday. Nonetheless, their outlook and values had a Protestant cast both passed on to their brood the ideals of service and making the world a better place, the expression of which are abundantly clear in Mead’s career. T hough the elder Meads, both social scientists, came from Unitarian and Methodist stock, as parents they were decidedly non-religious. Coffman describes Mead’s parents’ academic and religious backgrounds to set up how Mead ’ s early home life would shape her intellectual and spiritual path. Of these chapters, Chapter 1 “Choosing Church,” is the most crucial in establishing Mead ’s formation as a person of faith. Faith was a lso point of connection for Mead and first husband Cressman, who was in seminary during their engagement, ordained into the Episcopalian priesthood the year they married, and left the faith shortly after their divorce. Chapter 4 reveals, for example, that Mead and Benedict wrote to each other using religious metaphors, with Mead likening herself and Benedict to Martha and Mary, respectively, while Benedict saw them as Ruth and Naomi (61). Throughout these chapters, Coffman offers ample evidence of Mead’s religiosity, from the young Mead’s decision to join the Episcopal Church to how faith figured into her romantic relationships.
Mead’s sexuality and love life are further explored in Chapter 4, which focuses on Mead and Ruth Benedict’s decades-long relationship.
The first two chapters look at Mead’s childhood, education, and marriage to Luther Cressman, while the third turns to Coming of Age in Samoa and Mead’s fateful meeting with Reo Fortune, her second husband.
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