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More than a generation after the rise of women's history alongside the feminist movement, it is still difficult, observes Catherine Brekus, to locate women in histories of American religion. In this collection of 12 essays, contributors explore how considering the religious history of American women can transform our dominant historical narratives. Covering a variety of topics--including Mormonism, the women's rights movement, Judaism, witchcraft trials, the civil rights movement, Catholicism, everyday religious life, Puritanism, African American women's activism, and the Enlightenment--the volume enhances our understanding of both religious history and women's history. Taken together, these essays sound the call for a new, more inclusive history.
Cotton Mather called them "the hidden ones." Although historians of religion occasionally refer to the fact that women have always constituted a majority of churchgoers, until recently none of them have investigated the historical implications of the situation or v the role of woman in the church. But the focus of church history has been moving toward a broader awareness, from studying religious institutions and their pastors to studying the people—the laity—and the nature of religious experience. This book explores the many common elements of this experience for women in church and temple, regardless of their differences in faith.
A fundamental and well-illustrated reference collection for anyone interested in the role of women in North American religious life.
"This book is a nuanced discussion of contemporary feminist thought in a variety of religious traditions. It draws from both academic and popular writings and offers a rich selection of books to pursue on one's own." -- Re-Imagining "This remarkable book examines American women's religious thought in many diverse faith traditions.... This is a cogent, provocative -- even moving -- analysis." -- Publishers Weekly This study of the fruits of many different women's religious thought offers insights into the ways women may be shaping American religious ideas and world views at the end of the twentieth century. At its broadest, this book presents a multi-voiced response to the question: "When women across many traditions are heard speaking theologically, publicly and self-consciously as women, what do they have to say?"
In this contribution to the study of women and religon, Westerkamp analyzes how the Holy Spirit empowered women inPurtanism and evangelicalism. she argues that "these women, socially and politically subordinate according to custom and law, expreinced the Holy Spirit during their lives and discoved their own charismatic authority." Focusing on prominent women, like A. Hutchinson, J. Lee, and N. Towle, Westerkamp explores the interactions between gendre and religion in Purtanism, the First Great Awakening, Methodism, and voluntary associations.
Pundits on both the right and the left often portray religion and feminism as inherently incompatible, as opposing forces in American culture. Transforming the Faiths of Our Fathers seeks to dispel that notion by asking sixteen well-known religious figures to tell the story of how they became involved in the women's movement. Their work-much of it ongoing-has helped transform the way religion is practiced in this country. They have worked for the ordination of women, for inclusive language and liturgy, for new interpretations of scripture, theology, and religious law, and for an end to religious teachings that contributed to destructive gender stereotypes. Authors include Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, Evangelical, and goddess feminists. The personal stories of the fascinating contributors include watershed events in American religion and society over the last forty years. Each one of the women inTransforming the Faiths of Our Fathers has made history and seen it made, and gives her own version of what she has witnessed and experienced. They demonstrate the roots of their feminist activism in religious commitments, and the significance of struggles within religious arenas for expanding women's possibilities in society and culture.
An in-depth history of selected New Religions that highlights the roles of women in their founding and continual practice Women in New Religions offers an engaging look at women’s evolving place in the birth and development of new religious movements. It focuses on four disparate new religions—Mormonism, Seventh-day Adventism, The Family International, and Wicca—to illuminate their implications for gender socialization, religious leadership and participation, sexuality, and family ideals. Religious worldviews and gender roles interact with one another in complicated ways. This is especially true within new religions, which frequently set roles for women in ways that help the movements to define their boundaries in relation to the wider society. As new religious movements emerge, they often position themselves in opposition to dominant society and concomitantly assert alternative roles for women. But these religions are not monolithic: rather than defining gender in rigid and repressive terms, new religions sometimes offer possibilities to women that are not otherwise available. Vance traces expectations for women as the religions emerge, and transformation of possibilities and responsibilities for women as they mature. Weaving theory with examination of each movement’s origins, history, and beliefs and practices, this text contextualizes and situates ideals for women in new religions. The book offers an accessible analysis of the complex factors that influence gender ideology and its evolution in new religious movements, including the movements’ origins, charismatic leadership and routinization, theology and doctrine, and socio-historical contexts. It shows how religions shape definitions of women’s place in a way that is informed by response to social context, group boundaries, and identity.
This landmark collection of newly commissioned essays explores how diverse women of African descent have practiced religion as part of the work of their ordinary and sometimes extraordinary lives. By examining women from North America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Africa, the contributors identify the patterns that emerge as women, religion, and diaspora intersect, mapping fresh approaches to this emergent field of inquiry. The volume focuses on issues of history, tradition, and the authenticity of African-derived spiritual practices in a variety of contexts, including those where memories of suffering remain fresh and powerful. The contributors discuss matters of power and leadership and of religious expressions outside of institutional settings. The essays study women of Christian denominations, African and Afro-Caribbean traditions, and Islam, addressing their roles as spiritual leaders, artists and musicians, preachers, and participants in bible-study groups. This volume's transnational mixture, along with its use of creative analytical approaches, challenges existing paradigms and summons new models for studying women, religions, and diasporic shiftings across time and space.
A fundamental and well-illustrated reference collection for anyone interested in the role of women in North American religious life.
The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History provides an affordable and accessible reference to over 750 outstanding individual women and women's organizations in American religious history.--From publisher description.