Gospel Bearers, Gender Barriers: Missionary Women in the Twentieth Century

American Society of Missiology

by Dana L. Robert (Editor)

A fascinating look at the lives of women who bore the heat of day in Christian mission, but who were often forgotten by history until now.

264 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

Mission history, the history of world Christianity, and mission theology intersect in the research and teaching interests of Dana L. Robert. She is the Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity and History of Mission. At Boston University she has directed over sixty doctoral dissertations, and former students hold teaching and ministry positions around the world. In 2011 she delivered a keynote address at the Global Christian Forum in Manado, Indonesia. In 2010 she delivered the Alexander Duff and the Henry Drummond Lectures in Scotland, the opening keynote lecture at the historic Edinburgh 2010 conference, and the Henry Martyn Lectures at Cambridge University. Her most recent books are Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), now in its sixth printing; and Converting Colonialism: Visions and Realities in Mission History, 1706-1914 (editor, Eerdmans 2008). She wrote the study Joy to the World!: Mission in the Age of Global Christianity for the 2010-2011 summer schools of mission for The United Methodist Church. With M.L. Daneel, she edits the book series “African Initiatives in Christian Mission” (University of South Africa Press). Robert received her BA from Louisiana State University and her PhD from Yale University.

http://www.bu.edu/cgcm/about-us/dana-...

Reviews

[Uchenna D Anyanwu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dana Lee Robert’s[1] Purpose and Thesis: This book is a reader – an anthology of literary pieces written by 15 mission historians, practitioners, and scholars. It is a collection of some of the papers originally presented at Boston University School of Theology Seminar Series – “Women and Missions in the Twentieth Century” – held between 1999 and 2000, convened and facilitated by the editor. Robert states that the purpose of this volume is “to promote scholarship on the history and practice of missionary women in the twentieth century”(Robert 2002, xii). It is “an attempt to place research on the work of women missionaries into a historical framework so that patterns of both their contributions and difficulties become visible”(Robert 2002, 4). Robert asserts that even though women outnumbered their male counterparts both as missionaries (by the end of the second half of the twentieth century) and in the global church, and that “Missionary women in the twentieth century were “gospel bearers” who rejoiced in the liberation they found, and shared with others, in Christ Jesus… yet the history of twentieth-century women in mission reveals numerous tensions, difficulties, and reversals of “gender barriers”(Robert 2002, 27-28). It is noteworthy to mention that historically, Christian women often outnumbered their male counterparts and the reasons for this phenomenon, particularly in the Greco-Roman world, have been advanced by Rodney Stark(Stark 1996, 95-128). Thus, in summary, the thesis is that during the twentieth century, western missionary women were motivated to serve cross-culturally, yet, irrespective of their outstanding contributions and cutting-edge involvement in non-western cultures, they faced great difficulties and tensions owning to gender barriers and limitations placed upon them by either their mission organizations, the indigenous churches they served or both.

Robert divides this anthology into two historical parts – Part 1 covering the period between 1925 and 1945, and Part 2 the period after World War II, 1945 to 2000. In Part 1, we see two fascinating studies illustrating missionary women who pioneered the training of local pastors in the Pacific Northwest and in China. The issue of devolution[2] of authority comes to the fore in the study by Melissa Lewis Heim. All through, the concept of “woman’s work for woman” – a significant gender-linked theory – seems to have prevailed in many mission fields in the 20th century (see also: (Robert 1996). In Part 2 we have the intriguing historical account of the impact Girls’ Auxiliary (GA) made by imbibing missionary vision in the hearts of young Southern Baptist girls. The contributions of Roman Catholic women orders were not left out in these studies (chapters 9 to 11). The analyses of the constraints Korean Women missionaries faced in the United States as well as those in Indonesia are not left out in this work.

Critical Reflection: What is missing is the perspective of the Protestant women missionaries in Africa. A small section in chapter 10 is devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Missionaries in Africa, but not much is said about the exceptional work of women missionaries like Mary Slessor in Nigeria – who labored to end the killing of twins and promoting the right of women.(Bonk 2002). Inus Daneel, Dana Robert’s husband, served in Zimbabwe for a number of years. Thus, one would have expected at least one article to focus on “woman’s work for woman” in that region of Africa.

Besides, the only contributor to this volume who is non-American is Kevin Xiyi Yao.[3] The lack of a broader pool of writers from the global South creates a lacuna in this volume, for the other fourteen scholars could not have written without avoiding their western lenses. These critiques do not in any way attenuate the value of this volume, for it serves as an eye opener to issues of gender barriers created, not only in the church, but also in the larger global society.


Discussion Question 01
One common tread seems to have run through this anthology – the manifestation of the old nature, the sinful nature, or the flesh in the missionary enterprise. How could this be linked to the struggles for control and the seeming reluctance toward “devolution” of authority and power?

Discussion Question 02:
Robert noted that: “Missions have taught that women are persons of eternal value. Conversion to Christianity gives new freedom in Christ that endures despite the church’s sins of not upholding women leadership and of putting into place bureaucratic structures that deny women’s freedom in Christ.”(Robert 2002, 27) Are there theological grounds to buttress the continued barriers against equal role of women in Christian missions? What might the future for women in mission in the twenty-first century?(Anderson, Phillips, and Coote 1993, 284-293)


Endnotes
[1] Dana Robert is Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity and History of Mission, Director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission. Her research and teaching interests include the fields of mission history, the history of world Christianity, and mission theology
[2] “Devolution” in this context is defined as: “the process by which foreign missions turned over decision-making authority and control of funds to the younger churched had founded.”(Robert 2002, 11)
[3] Dr. Xiyi Yao earned his doctorate from Boston University and at the time of writing of this present volume, he was a visiting fellow at the Institute of World Religions at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, China, but is presently an Associate Professor of World Christianity and Asian Studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts.

Bibliography

Anderson, Gerald H., James M. Phillips, and Robert T. Coote. 1993. Toward the Twenty-first Century in Christian Mission: Essays in Honor of Gerald H. Anderson, Director, Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut, Editor, International Bulletin of Missionary Research. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans.
Bonk, Jonathan J. Project Director. Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Overseas Ministries Study Center 2002.
Robert, Dana Lee. 1996. American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press.
Robert, Dana Lee. 2002. Gospel Bearers, Gender Barriers : Missionary Women in the Twentieth Century. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.
Stark, Rodney. 1996. The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.