The Religious Experience of Women in Antebellum America: Oppression or Self-Definition? (original) (raw)
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Women, Gender, and Religion in the Early Americas
History Compass, 2010
The historical study of women and religion in the early Americas has garnered substantial scholarship in the last 30 years. The influence of women's history and feminist studies has generated great interest on the topic of gender and religion. Scholars have analyzed women's religious history using indices of race, class, and gender to produce nuanced histories. This work has shown the complex contours of female spirituality in the early Americas. Female laity both accepted and questioned male religious leadership and sought meaningful spiritual experiences in myriad contexts, such as the sanctuary, household, and community. Studies have been done on a wide range of topics relating to women and religion, such as conversion, preaching, mysticism, speech, healing, domesticity, monasticism, witchcraft, sexuality, and the body. Women in Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish traditions have been examined, as have Native American, African American, and mixed race women in Spanish, French, and British America. Their historical experience reveals an ongoing tension between religious hierarchy and female pursuits of piety. Scholarly literature on 'women religious', that is, Catholic nuns, demonstrates that they exercised power, even while working under a male-dominated ecclesiastical authority, in both North and South American settlements from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Female members of radical Protestant groups, such as the Quakers, Shakers, and Moravians, participated in communities that promoted gender ideologies divergent from the dominant culture. The study of women's religious history will continue to ponder the multiple meanings and interactions of spirituality, gender, and power within early American societies. In the spring of 1781, a Philadelphia Quaker named Anne Emlen attended a Methodist meeting out of spiritual interest. When the meeting ended, Emlen's curiosity prompted her to ask the minister about the status of women in his church. Inquiring why 'a young woman, who had been so wrought' upon by the spirit, could not speak in meeting, she was told that Methodists were undecided about female speech in public. 1 Although Emlen came from a religious tradition that allowed women this right, her query to the Methodist cleric reflects an important theme within early American women's religious history: the dynamic between a male-dominated church hierarchy and leadership versus the extensive participation of women-female believers who both adhered to religious tradition and yet contested conventional practice. Throughout the early Americas, women embraced official theology while forging their own definitions and rites of popular religion. 2 They also probed, and, at times, reformulated (along with some men) traditional gender roles. The power of religion to contain conserving and liberating ideologies simultaneously is borne out in the religious history of women in North and South America. American women were fully engaged spiritually, as stalwart believers and as religious innovators. Whatever their faith, they attended worship, engaged in household piety, educated children, donated money, kept spiritual journals, wrote religious works, and performed community service. But they also challenged ecclesiastical hierarchies, defied male leaders, critiqued ministerial skills, exhorted publicly, enacted religious rituals, and led their own sects. 3 Religious orthodoxy was imposed on women from above, yet they
1999
ONE TASK IN the ongoing struggle for human liberation is the critical historical analysis of various moments in that struggle for the purposes of understanding the origin and development of present social relations, identifying resources and strategies for current struggles, and, perhaps, avoiding some of the pitfalls of previous efforts. This task can be neither simply the glorification nor solely the debunking of the efforts of those who came to the struggle before us. Rather, it must be a clear-eyed rendering of the strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures of the women and men who sought, within the limits of the material, intellectual, and moral resources available to them, to establish a more just social order. Since part of the struggle for human liberation is the establishment of just relations among women and men, this task of critical historical analysis must include investigation of the ways in which such relations have been ordered, the alternative orders that hav...
2021
This project would not have been possible without the help of many people. 1 owe a special debt to Roger Simpson, my church family at Holy Trinity, Vancouver, John McClennan, and Ruth Gill, as well as untold others for their moral, spiritual, and financial support. Special mention is due to John Enns of Prairie Bible College, who introduced me to the school archives, and, more importantly, to the diaries of Dorothy Ruth Miller. Research librarian Flora Forbes also proved invaluable, arranging access to the archives, coordinating interviews, and organizing my accommodation while in Three Hills. Brian Wiggins of the Christian and Missionary Alliance archives, as well as library staff at the Alliance University College in Calgary were also of great help. I am also grateful to my supervisors and teachers. I owe a particular debt to my initial advisor, Esther Reed, who steered me to ask the right questions of my own heritage, and from whom I learned much about the art of teaching. I am especially grateful to Alan Torrance and John Clark, who together guided this work to completion. John cheerfully oversaw my introduction into the world of historical research, and read and commented upon numerous drafts of this work in the process. Alan's confidence in me and his unfailing enthusiasm for this project even when unforeseen events delayed its submission have been invaluable sources of strength. Thanks are also due to George Marsden, who, during his short sojourn in St. Andrews, helped fill in many of the gaps in my knowledge of American evangelical history. List of Figures vi Chapter One Introduction: Female Ministry and Evangelical Spirituality 1 Chapter Two 'An association, of one mind and aim': Fraternity and Unity at Midland
Believing in Women? Examining Early Views of Women among America’s Most Progressive Religious Groups
Religions, 2018
This paper examines views of women among the most prominent “progressive” American religious groups (as defined by those that liberalized early on the issue of birth control, circa 1929). We focus on the years between the first and second waves of the feminist movement (1929–1965) in order to examine these views during a time of relative quiescence. We find that some groups indeed have a history of outspoken support for women’s equality. Using their modern-day names, these groups—the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and to a lesser extent, the Society of Friends, or Quakers—professed strong support for women’s issues, early and often. However, we also find that prominent progressive groups—the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the United Presbyterian Church—were virtually silent on the issue of women’s rights. Thus, we conclude that birth control activism within the American religious field was not clearly correlated with an overall feminist orientation.