Sisters and Saints: Women and American ReligionOxford University Press, 2007 M11 21 - 144 pages "Women are the backbone of the church," says an old African-American aphorism. Since the 1660s, women have made up the majority of members in almost all American religious groups. They have provided essential financial and social support and worked tirelessly in the background of church-based activities. Throughout American history, women have raised money for churches and synagogues, embroidered altar cloths, taught Sunday school, prepared parish meals, and sung in the choir. They have educated their children in their beliefs and taken them to their places of worship. Yet it is primarily men who have historically occupied the high rungs of church hierarchy and made the important decisions affecting their congregations. Ann Braude examines the central role of women in American religious history, focusing on their efforts to achieve greater recognition and equal rights, their recent admission to religious leadership, and the emergence of feminist theology in the late 20th century. Colonist Margaret Winthrop, African-American preacher Jarena Lee, Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, and Zionist leader Henrietta Szold are among the women discussed in these pages who have made major contributions to the spiritual and material growth of religious organizations in America. |
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Page 2
... God and from religious communities when they could get it nowhere else. As they buried infant children, sometimes one after another, they relied on religious faith for the power to endure what would otherwise be unendurable. And when ...
... God and from religious communities when they could get it nowhere else. As they buried infant children, sometimes one after another, they relied on religious faith for the power to endure what would otherwise be unendurable. And when ...
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... God wanted society to be ordered. For the first century and a half after the founding of the United States, for example, Americans believed that women did not need to vote because God had placed a husband at the head of the family as a ...
... God wanted society to be ordered. For the first century and a half after the founding of the United States, for example, Americans believed that women did not need to vote because God had placed a husband at the head of the family as a ...
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... also shared John's dream of establishing a new society based solely on the will of God. But her pregnancy and that of her daughter-in-law required that they stay behind while 4 CHAPTER ONE: Planting Religious Households.
... also shared John's dream of establishing a new society based solely on the will of God. But her pregnancy and that of her daughter-in-law required that they stay behind while 4 CHAPTER ONE: Planting Religious Households.
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... God's order among his creatures. As Protestants, they rejected the Catholic Church's belief that celibacy is the highest spiritual state. Instead, they saw marriage as the most godly state for adults. Their God was a God of order. The ...
... God's order among his creatures. As Protestants, they rejected the Catholic Church's belief that celibacy is the highest spiritual state. Instead, they saw marriage as the most godly state for adults. Their God was a God of order. The ...
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... God. “My sweet spouse, let us delight in the love of eache other as the chiefe of all earthly comforts,” John wrote to Margaret. He believed that even greater comforts wait beyond this world, where the righteous would enjoy God's glory ...
... God. “My sweet spouse, let us delight in the love of eache other as the chiefe of all earthly comforts,” John wrote to Margaret. He believed that even greater comforts wait beyond this world, where the righteous would enjoy God's glory ...
Contents
1 | |
4 | |
When the Spirit Moves Women | 28 |
Mothers and Daughters Maintain the Home | 48 |
Organized Womanhood | 69 |
Old Faiths in New Times | 94 |
CHRONOLOGY | 121 |
FURTHER READING | 124 |
INDEX | 128 |
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African American women Angelus Temple Anne Anne Bradstreet authority Baptist became believed Bible biblical bishops century Christ Christian convention conversion experience culture Daly daughters death denominations divine Episcopal evangelical exclusively faith father female feminists God’s Hadassah Henrietta Szold hijab human husband Hutchinson immigrant inspired Jarena Lee Jesus Jewish Jews Kaddish kashrut Katharine Jefferts Schori kosher Lady of Guadalupe leadership lived male Margaret Winthrop marriage Mary Daly men’s Methodist ministers missionary societies moral Mormons mother movement Muslim nuns one’s ordain women ordination of women Palestine Paul’s Pentecostal preach priests prohibited Protestant women Puritans Quaker reform religion religious groups roles for women salvation served Shabbat Shakers sisters slave slavery social spirit Stowe Szold teachings tion traditions Uncle Tom’s Cabin United Vatican II vote WCTU wife witch witchcraft wives woman women’s missionary women’s orders women’s rights women’s roles Zionist Zionist Organization