Abstract
It was not at all surprising to learn that the impetus for this book came from a class lecture by a female professor. Women in the Mission of the Church fills a gap that is most acutely felt by female academics, students, and ministry leaders. It begins to answer the frustrating question experienced by most female seminarians, “Where are the women?”
Dzubinski and Stasson have made an important contribution to our understanding of church history by highlighting the contributions of women in every major historical period. Most American Christians are unaware that Christianity spread around the world largely through the efforts of women, regardless of their social status, language, ethnicity, or tradition. Women were active in all spheres of society and the church, including as nuns, martyrs, queens, and mystics, pastors’ wives and mothers, single and married female missionaries, teachers and nurses, and indigenous evangelists and Bible women. Using ample historical evidence and a plethora of scholarly sources, this book makes it clear that women are not an addendum to church history. Rather, their experiences, ministries, passions, and lives were critical for the survival and development of Christianity.
The introduction of this book is small but mighty. It confronts the main themes that students should know when delving into Christian history—in particular, the absence of women in the historical record. Perhaps most important, the authors quickly dismantle widespread assumptions about women in ministry that are pervasive in American churches today. Women in ministry is not a twentieth-century phenomenon, Christians are generally unaware of women historically because, whether intentionally or inadvertently, women have been left out of the historical record, although over time, women’s work in both public and private spheres has been equally important in advancing God’s mission in the world.
The book’s subtitle conveys an important theme running through this book: opportunities and obstacles. A fair reading of history acknowledges both. Women had opportunities to minister and indeed took them, but at the same time they were frequently restricted from doing so by either the prevailing society in general or specifically by male Christian leaders. However, in one of the great reversals of church history, women often used these very obstacles for even more effective ministry.
This book makes the useful decision to follow the contours of standard Western church history in its periodization: the early church, late antiquity, Middle Ages, and Protestant Reformation, and then it crosses the Atlantic to discuss the Western female missionary movement. Dzubinski and Stasson do include some brief details of women outside the West, such as Pandita Ramabai in India, unnamed Bible women in Asia and Africa, Chinese female evangelists (Dora Yu, Peace Wang), and female leaders in East Africa (Paulina Dlamini, Abiodun Akinsowon). From this perspective, this book is a perfect accompaniment to the standard church history textbooks found in most undergraduate and graduate classrooms. From another perspective, more work needs to be done to uncover the contributions of Christian women in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania, where two-thirds of all Christians live today.
Women in the Mission of the Church is more than a collection of stories of women in the past. It contains hope for women today that they, too, have the power to use obstacles for even greater impact in their churches, communities, and societies. The women of the past paved a way for women today, and women today continue to push against assumptions, myths, and preconceived notions of a “woman’s place” for the women of the future.