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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
A groundbreaking, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary analysis of women's experiences in World Christianity Women in World Christianity: Building and Sustaining a Global Movement is the first textbook to focus on women's experiences in the founding, spread, and continuation of the Christian faith. Integrating historical, theological, and social scientific approaches to World Christianity, this innovative volume centers women's perspectives to illustrate their key role in Christianity becoming a world religion, including how they sustain the faith in the present and their expanding role in the future. Women in World Christianity features findings from the Women in World Christianity Project, a groundbreaking study that produced the first quantitative dataset on gender in every Christian denomination in every country of the world. Throughout the text, special emphasis is placed on women in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the period of Christianity's shift from the global North to the global South. Easily accessible chapters - organized by continent, tradition, and select topics - introduce students to the wide variety of Christian belief and practice around the world. The book also discusses issues specifically relevant to women in the church: gender-based violence, ecology, theological education, peacebuilding and more. This textbook: * Provides a balanced view of women's involvement in Christianity as a world religion and how they sustain the faith today * Introduces students to female theologians around the world whose scholarship is generally overlooked in Western theological education * Discusses women's essential contributions to Christian mission, leadership, education, relief work, healthcare, and other social services of the church * Complements the growing body of literature about Christian women from different continental, regional, national, and ecclesiastical perspectives * Explores the contributions of contemporary Christian women of all major denominations in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Oceania * Helps students become more aware of the unique challenges women face worldwide, and what they are doing to overcome them Women in World Christianity: Building and Sustaining a Global Movement is an excellent primary textbook for introductory courses on World Christianity, History of Christianity, World Religions, Gender in Religion, as well as undergraduate and graduate courses specifically focused on women in World Christianity.
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Seitenzahl: 978
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Women in World Christianity: Building and Sustaining a Global Movement
Gina A. Zurlo
This edition first published 2023
© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Zurlo, Gina A., author.
Title: Women in world Christianity : building and sustaining a global movement / Gina A Zurlo, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Description: Hoboken, NJ, USA : John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023000268 (print) | LCCN 2023000269 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119823773 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119874775 (epdf) | ISBN 9781119874782 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Women in Christianity--Textbooks. | Women in church work--Textbooks.
Classification: LCC BV639.W7 Z87 2023 (print) | LCC BV639.W7 (ebook) | DDC 270.082--dc23/eng/20230517
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023000268
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023000269
Cover image: Silence (The Worshipper), Nalini Jayasuria. Courtesy of The Overseas Ministries Study Center at Princeton Theological Seminary ©2001
Cover design by Wiley
Set in 9.5/12.5pt STIXTwoText by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd, Pondicherry, India
This book is for the women of my family who came before me,
Carmella Guerra DiMarco (1938–1994) Renée DiMarco Zurlo Ivette Carrion DiMarco
those journeying with me, Angela Carmella Silver Jacquelyn Mari DiMarco Joanna Morgan DiMarco
and those that will journey after me, Elisa Renée Bellofatto Ashley Ann Bodecker
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
List of Tables
List of Figures
Introduction: Why Women in World Christianity?
Gender and Quantitative Research on World Christianity
Women in the World Today
Is World Christianity a Women’s Movement?
Contents of This Book
Part I Women in World Christianity by Continent
1 Women in World Christianity
World Christianity, 1900–2050
World Christianity by Major Tradition, Family, and Denomination
Dynamics of Religious Change
Women in Christian History
Women in Social Scientific Research
Women in Theology
Conclusion
2 Women in African Christianity
Christianity in Africa, 1900–2050
Women in African Christianity: Past and Present
African Women in Theology
Conclusion
3 Women in Asian Christianity
Christianity in Asia, 1900–2050
Women in Asian Christianity: Past and Present
Asian Women in Theology
Conclusion
4 Women in European Christianity
Christianity in Europe, 1900–2050
Women in European Christianity: Past and Present
European Women in Theology
Conclusion
5 Women in Latin American and Caribbean Christianity
Christianity in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1900–2050
Women in Latin American and Caribbean Christianity: Past and Present
Latin American and Caribbean Women in Theology
Conclusion
6 Women in North American Christianity
Christianity in North America, 1900–2050
Women in North American Christianity: Past and Present
North American Women in Theology
Conclusion
7 Women in Oceanic Christianity
Christianity in Oceania, 1900–2050
Women in Oceanic Christianity: Past and Present
Oceanic Women in Theology
Conclusion
Part II Women in World Christianity by Tradition and Movement
8 Women in Catholicism
Catholics, 1900–2050
Women in Catholic History
Vignettes: Catholic Women Worldwide
Conclusion
9 Women in Orthodox Christianity
Orthodox, 1900–2050
Women in Orthodox History
Vignettes: Orthodox Women Worldwide
Conclusion
10 Women in Protestant Christianity
Protestants, 1900–2050
Women in Protestant History
Vignettes: Protestant Women Worldwide
Conclusion
11 Women in Independent Christianity
Independents, 1900–2050
Women in Independent Christian History
Vignettes: Independent Women Worldwide
Conclusion
12 Women in Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity
Pentecostals/Charismatics, 1900–2050
Women in Pentecostal/Charismatic History
Vignettes: Pentecostal/Charismatic Women Worldwide
Conclusion
13 Women in Evangelicalism
Evangelicals, 1900–2050
Women in Evangelical History
Vignettes: Evangelical Women Worldwide
Conclusion
Part III Women in World Christianity by Select Topics
14 Christianity and Gender-based Violence
Gender-based Violence and Discrimination Worldwide
Christianity and Gender-based Violence
Christian Responses to Gender-based Violence
Conclusion
15 Christian Women and Ecology
Global Ecological Challenges
Gendered Impacts of Ecological Challenges
Christian Responses to Ecological Challenges
Conclusion
16 Christian Women and Theological Education
Historical Vignette: Women and Theological Education in the United States
Women and Theological Education Worldwide Today
Conclusion
17 Christian Women and Peacebuilding
What is Peacebuilding?
Christianity and Peace
Vignettes: Christian Women in Peacebuilding
Conclusion
Conclusion
Further Research
Appendices
Glossary
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
CHAPTER 01
Table 1.1 World religions...
Table 1.2 Christianity and...
Table 1.3 Countries with...
Table 1.4 Countries with...
Table 1.5 Countries with...
Table 1.6 Major Christian...
Table 1.7 Major Christian...
Table 1.8 Christian families...
Table 1.9 Largest denominations...
Table 1.10 Largest non-Catholic...
CHAPTER 02
Table 2.1 Religions...
Table 2.2 Christianity...
Table 2.5 Christian...
Table 2.3 Countries...
Table 2.4 Countries...
Table 2.6 Largest...
CHAPTER 03
Table 3.1 Religions...
Table 3.2 Christianity...
Table 3.3 Countries...
Table 3.4 Countries...
Table 3.5 Christian...
Table 3.6 Largest...
CHAPTER 04
Table 4.1 Religions...
Table 4.2 Christianity...
Table 4.3 Countries...
Table 4.4 Countries...
Table 4.5 Christian...
Table 4.6 Largest...
CHAPTER 05
Table 5.1 Religions in...
Table 5.2 Christianity...
Table 5.3 Countries in...
Table 5.4 Countries in...
Table 5.5 Christian families...
Table 5.6 Largest denominations...
Table 5.7 Largest protestant...
CHAPTER 06
Table 6.1 Religions in North...
Table 6.2 Countries in North...
Table 6.3 Christian families...
Table 6.4 Largest denominations...
CHAPTER 07
Table 7.1 Religions in...
Table 7.2 Christianity...
Table 7.3 Countries in...
Table 7.4 Countries in...
Table 7.5 Christian families...
Table 7.6 Largest denominations...
Table 7.7 Catholics and Anglicans...
CHAPTER 08
Table 8.1 Catholics by...
Table 8.2 Catholics by...
Table 8.3 Countries with the...
Table 8.4 Countries with the...
Table 8.5 Countries with the...
Table 8.6 Largest Catholic...
Table 8.7 Catholic workers...
CHAPTER 09
Table 9.1 Orthodox by...
Table 9.2 Orthodox by...
Table 9.3 Countries with...
Table 9.4 Countries with...
Table 9.5 Countries with...
Table 9.6 Largest Orthodox...
CHAPTER 10
Table 10.1 Protestants by...
Table 10.2 Protestants by...
Table 10.3 Countries with...
Table 10.4 Countries with...
Table 10.5 Countries with...
Table 10.6 Largest Protestant...
CHAPTER 11
Table 11.1 Independents by...
Table 11.2 Independents by...
Table 11.3 Countries with...
Table 11.4 Countries with...
Table 11.5 Countries with...
Table 11.6 Largest Independent...
CHAPTER 12
Table 12.1 Pentecostals/Charismatics...
Table 12.2 Pentecostals/Charismatics...
Table 12.3 Countries with...
Table 12.4 Countries with...
Table 12.5 Countries with...
Table 12.6 Largest Pentecostal/Charismatic...
CHAPTER 13
Table 13.1 Evangelicals by...
Table 13.3 Countries with...
Table 13.2 Evangelicals by...
Table 13.4 Countries with the...
Table 13.5 Countries with the...
Table 13.6 Largest Evangelical...
CHAPTER 14
Table 14.1 Gender-based violence...
Table 14.2 Countries with...
Table 14.3 World Watch List...
CHAPTER 16
Table 16.1 Global Survey on...
Table 16.2 Headcount enrollment...
Table 16.3 Full-time faculty...
List of Illustrations
CHAPTER 01
Figure 1.1 Christianity in...
Figure 1.2 Christianity by...
Photo 1.1 Celebration of All...
Photo 1.2 Christmas celebration...
Figure 1.3 How do you think the...
Figure 1.4 Thinking of...
CHAPTER 02
Figure 2.1 Christianity...
Figure 2.2 How do you...
Figure 2.3 Thinking...
Photo 2.1 A Kenyan...
Photo 2.2 Anglican...
CHAPTER 03
Figure 3.1 Christianity...
Figure 3.2 How do you...
Figure 3.3 Thinking...
Photo 3.1 Women observe...
Photo 3.2 Baptism at...
CHAPTER 04
Figure 4.1 Christianity...
Figure 4.2 How do you...
Figure 4.3 Thinking of...
Photo 4.1 A woman prays...
Photo 4.2 Women wait for...
CHAPTER 05
Figure 5.1 Christianity in Latin...
Figure 5.2 How do you think...
Figure 5.3 Thinking of ...
Photo 5.1 St. Peter Claver...
Photo 5.2 The Sisterhood...
CHAPTER 06
Figure 6.1 Christianity in...
Figure 6.2 How do you think...
Figure 6.3 Thinking of...
Photo 6.1 A young girl receives...
Photo 6.2 Celebrating the Eucharist...
CHAPTER 07
Figure 7.1 Christianity in Oceania...
Figure 7.2 How do you think...
Figure 7.3 Thinking of...
Photo 7.1 Local pastor offers...
Photo 7.2 Nuns of the Christian...
CHAPTER 08
Figure 8.1 Catholics by...
Photo 8.1 South Korean...
Photo 8.2 Women religious...
CHAPTER 09
Figure 9.1 Orthodox by continent...
Photo 9.1 A woman prays...
Photo 9.2 An Orthodox...
CHAPTER 10
Figure 10.1 Protestants...
Photo 10.1 Lutheran World...
Photo 10.2 Women dance and...
CHAPTER 11
Figure 11.1 Independents...
Photo 11.1 Worship service...
Photo 11.2 A latter-day Saint...
CHAPTER 12
Figure 12.1 Pentecostals/Charismatics...
Photo 12.1 A Nigerian woman...
Photo 12.2 Catholic nuns at...
CHAPTER 13
Figure 13.1 Evangelicals by...
Photo 13.1 A woman emerges from...
Photo 13.2 Performance by the...
CHAPTER 14
Photo 14.1 Ecumenical women church...
Photo 14.2 Liberian Nobel laureate...
CHAPTER 15
Photo 15.1 A member of the Church...
Photo 15.2 Attendees of a woman’s...
CHAPTER 16
Photo 16.1 Mount Holyoke...
Photo 16.2 Indonesians Manda...
CHAPTER 17
Photo 17.1 Women engage...
Photo 17.2 Members of the...
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Tables
List of Figures
Begin Reading
Conclusion
Appendices
Glossary
Index
End User License Agreement
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Acknowledgments
In 2019, I gave a lecture to a group of Doctor of Ministry students on how to be intelligent consumers of quantitative data on religion. Around the table sat ten pastors of local Protestant churches, their male DMin mentors, and me, the lone woman in the room. I invited each pastor to provide a description of his congregation. Each detailed his church’s history, ethnic makeup, denominational affiliation, size, and special ministries.
Not a single one said anything about gender.
Upon pointing out the omission of this very basic demographic fact, they all replied:
“Oh yeah, my church is mostly women.”
I’d like to acknowledge the women in churches worldwide, many mere afterthoughts, who pray, teach, cook, clean, minister, empower, submit, learn, and carry out acts of service under the radar, overlooked, without complaint nor fanfare, without being told, and without credit. I acknowledge all the female academics who have painfully watched panels of men completely overlook the gendered dynamics of a subject, who have participated in initiatives as the token woman, and have been misnamed or mistitled. I acknowledge the prodigious women who are called the assistant of a man even though they’re equal to or outrank him. I acknowledge all the women who have been sexually harassed while working incredibly hard to achieve their dreams. I’ve been in every one of these scenarios, and countless similar others. This book is for us.
In 2018, the initial idea for the Women in World Christianity Project came to me in Bogotá, Colombia, while attending yet another global Christian conference with very few women present. Amanda Jackson was there when I first asked the question, “If World Christianity is supposedly a women’s movement, where are the women?” She became the project’s first enthusiastic supporter. The Louisville Institute (2019–2021) and the Religious Research Association (2019–2020) provided generous financial support for the project.
This book would not have been possible without the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC). Research assistants Nadia Andrilenas and Jane Kyong Chun worked on the literature review, survey development, and survey administration. Shela Chan tracked down endless citations and verifications, drafted reflection questions, and served as a conversation partner about women in the church, theology, and the academy. Michael Hahn and Noah Karger provided essential copyediting and proofreading. CSGC codirector Todd Johnson promoted this project from its onset, always a fierce defender of women’s rights in his own life and work. The CSGC’s data analyst, Peter Crossing, produced most of the tables and graphs that appear in this book. Christopher Guidry helped prepare the photos. Thanks to my colleagues and friends who offered constructive feedback on portions of the manuscript: Annalisa Butticci (Europe), Soojin Chung (Asia), Jeremy Hegi (North America), Graham Joseph Hill (Oceania), and Michèle Miller Sigg (Africa). Numerous staff members at Wiley-Blackwell assisted with this manuscript, including Catriona King, Marissa Koors, Hannah Lee, Clelia Petracca, Mandy Collison, and Laura Adsett.
Dana Robert, my mentor at Boston University School of Theology, asked the question at the core of this book, “What would the study of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America look like if scholars put women into the center of their research?” Fingerprints of her pioneering research and expert advising are throughout this book, and I am honored to be a part of her legacy in the study of Christianity, mission, and gender. My friend, Michèle Miller Sigg, was the first to ask in 2013, “Why are there no women in your World Christian Database?” Thanks to her loving and relentless insistence, now there are. My sister, Angela Silver, and my closest friends, Julie Pacheco, Jessica Indelicato, Stephanie Tomasulo, Katherine Boylan, and Michelle Mahoney, have been journeying with me for years, providing emotional support, spaces to vent, childcare, and anything necessary to ensure my success.
I’d like to thank my parents, Mark and Renée Zurlo, who made tremendous sacrifices to ensure my sister and I had everything we needed to make good choices and find our place in the world. Finally, thank you to my husband, Christopher Bodecker, who is always surrounded by women, human and feline: our daughters, Elisa and Ashley, and our cats, Luna and Lyla. Love you all.
List of Tables
1.1 World religions, 1900–2050.
1.2 Christianity and percent Christian female by global North/South, 2020.
1.3 Countries with the most Christians, 1900 and 2020.
1.4 Countries with the most Christians with percent Christian female, 2020.
1.5 Countries with the highest and lowest percent Christian female, 2020.
1.6 Major Christian traditions, 1900–2050.
1.7 Major Christian traditions with percent Christian female, 2020.
1.8 Christian families with percent Christian female, 2000 and 2015.
1.9 Largest denominations with percent Christian female, 2015.
1.10 Largest non-Catholic denominations with percent Christian female, 2015.
2.1 Religions in Africa over 1%, 1900–2050.
2.2 Christianity in Africa by region, 2020.
2.3 Countries in Africa with the most Christians, 2020.
2.4 Countries in Africa with the highest percent Christian female, 2020.
2.5 Christian families in Africa, 2000 and 2015.
2.6 Largest denominations in Africa, 2015.
3.1 Religions over 1% in Asia, 1900–2050.
3.2 Christianity in Asia by region, 2020.
3.3 Countries in Asia with the most Christians, 2020.
3.4 Countries in Asia with the highest percent Christian female, 2020.
3.5 Christian families in Asia, 2000 and 2015.
3.6 Largest denominations in Asia, 2015.
4.1 Religions in Europe over 1%, 1900–2050.
4.2 Christianity in Europe by region, 2020.
4.3 Countries in Europe with the most Christians, 2020.
4.4 Countries in Europe with the highest percent Christian female, 2020.
4.5 Christian families in Europe, 2000 and 2015.
4.6 Largest denominations in Europe, 2015.
5.1 Religions in Latin America and the Caribbean over 1%, 1900–2050.
5.2 Christianity in Latin America and the Caribbean by region, 2020.
5.3 Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with the most Christians, 2020.
5.4 Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with the highest percent Christian female, 2020.
5.5 Christian families in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2000 and 2015.
5.6 Largest denominations in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2015.
5.7 Largest protestant and independent denominations in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2020.
6.1 Religions in North America over 1%, 1900–2050.
6.2 Countries in North America with the most Christians, 2020.
6.3 Christian families in North America, 2000 and 2015.
6.4 Largest denominations in North America, 2015.
7.1 Religions in Oceania over 1%, 1900–2050.
7.2 Christianity in Oceania by region, 2020.
7.3 Countries in Oceania with the most Christians, 2020.
7.4 Countries in Oceania with the highest percent Christian female, 2020.
7.5 Christian families in Oceania, 2000 and 2015.
7.6 Largest denominations in Oceania, 2015.
7.7 Catholics and Anglicans in Australia and New Zealand, 1901 and 2013/2016.
8.1 Catholics by continent, 1900–2050.
8.2 Catholics by continent with percent female, 2020.
8.3 Countries with the most Catholics, 2020.
8.4 Countries with the highest percent of Catholics, 2020.
8.5 Countries with the fastest growth of Catholics, 2020.
8.6 Largest Catholic denominations, 2015.
8.7 Catholic workers, 2020.
9.1 Orthodox by continent, 1900–2050.
9.2 Orthodox by continent with percent female, 2020.
9.3 Countries with the most Orthodox, 2020.
9.4 Countries with the highest percent of Orthodox, 2020.
9.5 Countries with the fastest growth of Orthodox, 2020.
9.6 Largest Orthodox denominations, 2015.
10.1 Protestants by continent, 1900–2050.
10.2 Protestants by continent with percent female, 2020.
10.3 Countries with the most Protestants, 2020.
10.4 Countries with the highest percent of Protestants, 2020.
10.5 Countries with the fastest growth of Protestants, 2020.
10.6 Largest Protestant denominations, 2020.
11.1 Independents by continent, 1900–2050.
11.2 Independents by continent with percent female, 2020.
11.3 Countries with the most Independents, 2020.
11.4 Countries with the highest percent of Independents, 2020.
11.5 Countries with the fastest growth of Independents, 2020.
11.6 Largest Independent denominations, 2015.
12.1 Pentecostals/Charismatics by continent, 1900–2050.
12.2 Pentecostals/Charismatics by continent with percent female, 2020.
12.3 Countries with the most Pentecostals/Charismatics, 2020.
12.4 Countries with the highest percent of Pentecostals/Charismatics, 2020.
12.5 Countries with the fastest growth of Pentecostals/Charismatics, 2020.
12.6 Largest Pentecostal/Charismatic denominations, 2020.
13.1 Evangelicals by continent, 1900–2050.
13.2 Evangelicals by continent with percent female, 2020.
13.3 Countries with the most Evangelicals, 2020.
13.4 Countries with the highest percent of Evangelicals, 2020.
13.5 Countries with the fastest growth of Evangelicals, 2020.
13.6 Largest Evangelical denominations, 2015.
14.1 Gender-based violence in countries with the most Christians.
14.2 Countries with the highest Gender Inequality Index scores.
14.3 World Watch List 2022: 50 most difficult countries to be a Christian.
16.1 Global Survey on Theological Education, enrollment (2011–2013).
16.2 Headcount enrollment by gender in the Association of Theological Schools, 2021–2022.
16.3 Full-time faculty by gender in the Association of Theological Schools, 2021–2022.
List of Figures
1.1 Christianity in the global North and South, 1900 and 2020.
1.2 Christianity by major Christian tradition, 1900 and 2020.
1.3 How do you think the chances of women and men compare when it comes to getting a ___ position in a congregation? (global).
1.4 Thinking of the ___ position in your congregation, is this person male or female? (global).
2.1 Christianity in Africa by major Christian tradition, 1900 and 2020.
2.2 How do you think the chances of women and men compare when it comes to getting a ___ position in a congregation? (Africa).
2.3 Thinking of the ___ position in your congregation, is this person male or female? (Africa).
3.1 Christianity in Asia by major Christian tradition, 1900 and 2020.
3.2 How do you think the chances of women and men compare when it comes to getting a ___ position in a congregation? (Asia).
3.3 Thinking of the ___ in your congregation, is this person male or female? (Asia).
4.1 Christianity in Europe by major Christian tradition, 1900 and 2020.
4.2 How do you think the chances of women and men compare when it comes to getting a ___ position in a congregation? (Europe).
4.3 Thinking of the ___ in your congregation, is this person male or female? (Europe).
5.1 Christianity in Latin America and the Caribbean by major Christian tradition, 1900 and 2020.
5.2 How do you think the chances of women and men compare when it comes to getting a ___ position? (Latin America and the Caribbean).
5.3 Thinking of the ___ in your congregation, is this person male or female? (Latin America and the Caribbean).
6.1 Christianity in North America by major Christian tradition, 1900 and 2020.
6.2 How do you think the chances of women and men compare when it comes to getting a ___ position? (North America).
6.3 Thinking of the ___ in your congregation, is this person male or female? (North America).
7.1 Christianity in Oceania by major Christian tradition, 1900 and 2020.
7.2 How do you think the chances of women and men compare when it comes to getting a ___ position? (Oceania).
7.3 Thinking of the ___ position in your congregation, is this person male or female? (Oceania).
8.1 Catholics by continent, 1900 and 2020.
9.1 Orthodox by continent, 1900 and 2020.
10.1 Protestants by continent, 1900 and 2020.
11.1 Independents by continent, 1900 and 2020.
12.1 Pentecostals/Charismatics by continent, 1900 and 2020.
13.1 Evangelicals by continent, 1900 and 2020.
Introduction: Why Women in World Christianity?
“Women have comprised the majority of Christians globally, at least for the last three centuries for which we have statistics. ‘World Christianity’ could be considered ‘as a Woman’s Movement’ (Robert 2006), so it behooves scholars and practitioners to observe women’s dynamics closely to ascertain significant patterns in the development of worldwide Christianity.”
Angelyn Dries (Dries 2016, p. 315)
Mary’s Magnificat is the longest speech by a woman in the New Testament. It is recorded in Luke 1:46–55 (NIV) at her visit with her cousin, Elizabeth; both the women pregnant with prophets, and for Mary, the anticipated Messiah in her womb.
46 And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me –
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, this pericope is called the Ode of the Theotókos, in other traditions it is called the Song of Mary, or the Canticle of Mary. It appears in liturgical services of Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican churches around the world. Mary was an unmarried teenager with an illegitimate son yet spoke of God’s favor upon her and God’s judgment on the rich and powerful. Her words are revolutionary, and she represents the poor, struggling, overlooked, and marginalized. The Magnificat was perceived to be so dangerous that it was banned during British imperial rule in India (1858–1947), the dictatorship in Guatemala (1980s), and the Argentine military junta (1974–1983) (Connelly 2014). It is a song of joy and pain, of victory over injustice, and of a faithful woman embracing God’s plan. Mary does not ask for anything in her prayer; instead, she describes a prophetic vision of a world to come that promises justice. As Catholic theologian Nepolean James Raj concluded, “The knowledge of the hopes of Mary is an unquenchable spark which sustains hope in all who dream of an egalitarian society, justice, liberation, equality and full humanity” (Raj 2021, p. 136). Mary declares the inauguration of a new kingdom that rejects those of the past that relied on violence and exploitation (Evans and Chu 2021).
Mary has been a source of inspiration and veneration for women throughout Christian history. Women are the majority of the world’s 2.5 billion Christians today, and many are demanding the justice, equality, and full humanity that Mary describes in her song. They are crying out against the violence in their societies, communities, and churches that relegate women to second-class status. Girded by their faith and encouraged by Mary and other women of the past, Christian women are increasingly breaking cultural barriers, becoming public figures, and participating in human flourishing. For example, consider Catholic sisters, who outnumber male priests and professed religious men on every continent. Consider the many women who persist despite indignities and threats of violence, notably sexual violence. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (95% Christian) – once pronounced the “rape capital of the world” – women keenly realize that peacebuilding is part and parcel to Christian witness and must involve all spheres of life: social, political, and religious. Consider the many women who were the first at something previously unattainable for their sex: Lucia Okuthe was the first woman ordained an Anglican priest in Kenya (1983), Anne Burghardt was the first woman general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (2021), and the first collection of writings from female theologians in the Pacific Islands was released in this century, Weavings: Women Doing Theology in Oceania (Johnson and Filemoni-Tofaeono 2003).
Yet, the centrality of women’s contributions to the development of Christianity worldwide was not always recognized. Only since the 1970s have there been concerted efforts to uncover Christian women of the past and more seriously acknowledge women’s activities as central, not marginal, to Christian life. Perhaps the most comprehensive analysis of global Christianity over time are the three editions of the World Christian Encyclopedia (1982, 2001, 2019). Each Encyclopedia features an entry for every country of the world, including small island nations in the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands that often get left off the map. Each entry includes quantitative data on religious and nonreligious adherence, as well as a list of every known denomination in the country and indicators of their growth or decline. These entries include photos of Christians in those countries, graphs illustrating the data, and a brief history of when different churches were formed and their contributions to Christian life. Despite all this information, the first two editions of the Encyclopedia included very few mentions of women, as if they had little to do with Christianity’s spread or continuation. Women were barely counted at all – until now.
Gender and Quantitative Research on World Christianity
In the 1960s, David B. Barrett – a trained aeronautical engineer turned Anglican missionary priest – embarked on a novel idea. Using available technology in research for the social scientific study of religion, Barrett wanted to assess how many people in the world adhered to each religion. He compiled the most comprehensive global assessment of religious affiliation to date and published his results in the World Christian Encyclopedia (Barrett 1982), which contained an analysis of religious adherence down to the denominational level in each country. For the first time, the world’s Christians were counted and included together in a single book, featuring new African Christian movements, among which Barrett lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya. Yet, despite years of collecting and analyzing data and travel to 212 countries, Barrett overlooked variables that would have been critical for sociologists to uncover drivers of religious change. Sex and age distributions were omitted from Barrett’s analyses, which was especially ironic since gender was a prominent factor in missionary statistics dating to the nineteenth century and at the height of the Western missionary movement (Dennis 1897; Student Volunteer Movement 1911). Barrett was a product of several male-dominated contexts: British and American elite universities, dominated by males; American professionalized, institutionalized sociology was largely male; the adherents of Christianity, though majority female, operated within male-oriented hierarchies and leadership structures; and engineering and the hard sciences were also essentially men’s clubs. Data on the gender makeup of religious communities was admittedly difficult to obtain, but so was nearly all the data Barrett collected during the 13-year production of the World Christian Encyclopedia (Zurlo 2017, 2023).
The contemporary home of Barrett’s research legacy, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, sought to remedy the omission of gender in the third edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia from 2015 to 2019, which made extensive efforts to feature women in the narrative of World Christianity. The Encyclopedia includes examples of highly organized women’s movements worldwide, such as the Young Women’s Christian Association and Anglican Mothers’ Unions. It describes women who provide education, combat HIV/AIDS, advocate for gender rights, and faithfully serve their congregations and local communities. The book included influential Christian women of the past, such as the female followers of Jesus who arrived in modern-day France in 49 CE, female founders of African Independent Churches such as Christiana Abiodun Emmanuel (1907–1994) in Nigeria, and the unnamed nineteenth-century Bible women in sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.
This research sparked increased interest in the role of women in churches around the world and the desire to include a gender variable in the World Christian Database (Johnson and Zurlo 2022). As a result, the Women in World Christianity Project (funded by the Louisville Institute and the Religious Research Association from 2019 to 2021) produced a dataset, for the first time, of the gender makeup of every Christian denomination in every country of the world. The project revealed that global church membership is 52% female, and that Mongolia reports the highest share of Christian women (63%). This study had severe limitations based on data availability, which is a major theme of the current volume. Many churches, denominations, and Christian networks that collect data on their members and affiliates either do not collect data on gender, or they do not publicly report it. The chronic lack of data related to women in World Christianity makes producing a global gender analysis of World Christianity extremely difficult. For example, significant discrepancies exist between data obtained from government censuses – the primary source for gender statistics that appear in this book – and data from religious communities themselves. While a census might report that Baptists are 52% female, data from the Baptists themselves (if available) are typically much higher, perhaps upward of 75%. A further discrepancy exists between membership versus attendance, where the former is typically equal between men and women, but the latter is dominated by women. The continental chapters in Part I provide examples of these discrepancies and gaps in data availability. The Women in World Christianity Project also included the Gender and Congregational Life Survey, which was administered online in English, Chinese, French, German, Korean, Mongolian, Portuguese, and Spanish from February 2021 to April 2021. The survey garnered over 1,000 responses from 72 countries. Select results from this survey are reported in Part I.
Christianity has always been majority female (e.g., Braude 1997) – after all, history shows that women were the last at the cross and the first at the tomb. In fact, demographers, social scientists, historians, and other scholars have stated for decades that women are more religious than men. The Pew Research Center’s Gender Gap in Religion Around the World study (Pew Research Center 2016) claimed that, indeed, Christian women reported higher rates of church attendance, prayer, and religious self-identification than Christian men. Many sociological studies have also indicated this gender imbalance in religious identity, belief, and practice (Trzebiatowska and Bruce 2014). Estimating the nineteenth-century missionary movement from the United States as two-thirds female, mission historian Dana Robert even described World Christianity as a “women’s movement” (Robert 1997, 2006). She asked, “What would the study of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America look like if scholars put women into the center of their research?” (Robert 2006, p. 180). What the Women in World Christianity Project began in attempting to answer that question, this book aims to carry through.
Women in the World Today
In the Western world, first-wave feminism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries largely addressed legal obstacles to women’s rights related to voting and property; that is, it was a movement about political power. Second-wave feminism emerged in the early 1960s with a much broader scope to address issues such as sexuality, reproductive rights, domesticity, domestic violence, marital rape, and divorce law. It also demanded change in patriarchal structures and cultural practices that deemed women less than men. Concentrated in Europe and North America, both first- and second-wave feminism were largely the initiatives of White, middle-class women, working under the assumption that women everywhere faced similar oppression to them. That is, they assumed all women suffered the same because of patriarchy and sexism. However, this approach ignored the intersectionality of oppression related to race, class, ethnicity, religion, colonialism, and politics (Herr 2013). In the 1980s and 1990s, women around the world challenged this narrow outlook and argued that their oppression was fundamentally different than that of White Western women; women suffer multiple and intersecting oppressions, not some “common condition” shared by all women worldwide (Herr 2013). The distinction between second-wave feminism and majority world feminist perspectives gave rise to so-called “third world” feminism (a term now largely out of vogue), transnational feminism (a popular term), and global feminism (or, feminisms); some use these terms interchangeably. Globally, women are not a monolith, their oppression is not the same everywhere (Mohanty 1987), and women’s activism is not uniform around the world (see, for example, Campbell et al. 2010).
This book frequently points to the 1970s–1980s as a turning point for women, but it should not be read that White Western feminism was imported to Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands. Much like Black women in the West responding to the color blindness of second-wave feminism, women in the global South have claimed their agency to identify their own sources of oppression and advocate for their own rights separate from White Western women. For example, White female missionaries naïvely assumed that women’s roles abroad should be reshaped according to Western gendered norms, and as a result indigenous women often lost agency and power with the arrival of Christianity, not gained it. Thus, use of the term “feminism” in the global South is not a reference to White Western second-wave feminism, but instead to how women in these places have created their own movements toward equality.
Social Norms and Power Imbalances
The 2019 Human Development Report of the United Nations was titled, “Beyond Income, Beyond Averages, Beyond Today: Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century.” Chapter 4 was dedicated to gender inequalities in the world, with several striking findings (UNDHP 2019):
Gender inequality is one of the most persistent inequalities across all countries.
The world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030.
If current trends continue, it will take 202 years for women to achieve complete economic equality with men.
Gender equality in health, education, and economics has been
slowing
in recent years.
Although substantial progress has been made in the last 25 years, there is no place in the world where women have complete equality with men.
These statements are not to erase the tremendous achievements women have made in recent years. Women today are the most qualified they have ever been in history. Fewer are dying in childbirth and more are obtaining secondary education. If this is the case, though, why is the gender gap so persistent? The UNHDP report highlights two underlying realities: social norms and power imbalances. Social norms dictate “men’s roles” and “women’s roles” in society, as well as set rules of behavior and attitudes that meld communities together. However, biases are widespread throughout social norms. The Multidimensional Gender Social Norms Index (Mukhopadhyay, Rivera, and Tapia 2019) reported that 86% of women and 90% of men held gender social norm biases. Power imbalances occur when these biased social norms expect men and women to perform certain duties, but women are excluded from the decision making that limits their opportunities and choices.
Social norms are extremely difficult to change. In many cases, people lack the information or knowledge to act or think differently. It is also an issue of what is at stake, particularly for those with more power: “A social norm will be stickiest when individuals have the most to gain from complying with it and the most to lose from challenging it” (UNHDP 2019, p. 158). In many places around the world, social norms are shifting away from traditional gendered expectations in both the public and private spheres. This is natural with increased women’s education, political participation, and control over their own bodies and reproductive rights. These shifts typically push against prevailing beliefs and attitudes about how men and women should act in society. Indeed, it is beliefs about what people do and what people think other people should do that dictate what happens in the social sphere. At the same time, these beliefs and practices typically serve as active barriers that sustain gender inequalities now and likely in the future.
In the first few centuries of Christianity, women gained new opportunities for leadership and public activity by joining nascent churches, and their contributions helped grow Christianity from a fledgling movement into a world religion (Stark 1996). However, Christianity, Christians, churches, and Christian theology have also served as active barriers to women’s opportunities, and this is difficult to change. While women make up the majority of church members worldwide, they are often prohibited from holding official leadership positions, are excluded from decision-making bodies, and their ministries are considered secondary to the main task of the Sunday morning worship service, where men are generally on public display. Church life, like everything else in the world, is gendered. Men and women experience life differently and they experience Christianity differently. This book aims to illustrate how, why, and in what ways those differences exist and how women respond to them.
Is World Christianity a Women’s Movement?
Philip Jenkins’s book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Jenkins 2002), is undoubtedly one of the most popular books on World Christianity. Although he did not discover it, he was the first to widely disseminate the finding that Christianity is no longer a majority White Western religion, but is in the hands of Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans. Originally published in 2002, The Next Christendom has been translated into other languages and has had multiple print runs. However, it was only in the third edition of the book (2011) that Jenkins realized the uniqueness of women’s experiences, asking the question, “Does Christianity liberate women or introduce new scriptural bases for subjection?” (Jenkins 2011, p. 12). A comparison of the 2002 and 2011 editions reveals the addition of women in some chapters, such as the impact of female missionaries, Christian audiences mostly consisting of women, and a recognition that “women are critical to the growth of new churches across the global South” (Jenkins 2011, p. 211). However, women are not central to the story, they are additions to it in seemingly opportune places. This is common in many of the standard global Christianity texts, though improvements are being made, and of course there are exceptions. Sebastian Kim and Kirsteen Kim’s Christianity as a World Religion (Kim and Kim 2016) is also a widely used text, helpful in its regional assessment of World Christianity combined with a deep description of Christianity as a world religion because of its countless local expressions linked by transnational ties. Christianity is primarily a movement of people, not institutions. Indeed, Kim and Kim communicate that by “people” they really do mean all people, with their inclusion of women’s roles in their continental treatment of World Christianity, such as Bible women in Asia, Christian women’s organizations in sub-Saharan Africa, women’s ordination in North America, and mujerista theology in Latin America.
World Christianity is generally taught from historical or theological perspectives and overlaps with the field of mission studies. There are several excellent books on women in mission, such as Dana L. Robert, Gospel Bearers, Gender Barriers: Missionary Women in the Twentieth Century (Robert 2002); Dana L. Robert, American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice (Robert 1997); Elizabeth Johnson, The Strength of Her Witness: Jesus Christ in the Global Voices of Women (Johnson 2016); and Christine Lienemann-Perrin et al., Putting Names with Faces: Women’s Impact in Mission History (Lienemann-Perrin et al. 2012). Other texts are more biographical such as Anneke Companjen, Hidden Sorrow, Lasting Joy: The Forgotten Women of the Persecuted Church (Companjen 2005). These books have an important role in chronicling the countless contributions of the Western women’s missionary movement and the expansion of Christianity in the global South by their efforts.
The many church history books specifically on women are helpful but are typically narrowly focused on Europe and North America, omitting the contributions of women from the global South. Examples include Elizabeth Clark, Women in the Early Church (Clark 1983); Barbara J. MacHaffie, Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition (MacHaffie 1992); and Elizabeth Gillan Muir, A Women’s History of the Christian Church (Muir 2019). While these texts fill in the standard male narrative of Western church history, they generally do not contribute to scholarship on global Christian history. The body of literature on the histories and contributions of Christian women from continental, regional, country and/or ecclesiastical perspectives is growing. Works include Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Beads and Strands: Reflections on an African Woman on Christianity in Africa (Oduyoye 2004); Samuel Lee, Japanese Women and Christianity (Lee 2022); and Phyllis Martin, Catholic Women of Congo-Brazzaville (Martin 2009). Books with these narrower foci are well-suited for studies on Christianity by continent, region, or ecclesiastical tradition. Feminist theology from scholars such as Kwok Pui-lan, Ada María Isasi-Díaz, and Isabel Apawo Phiri have highlighted how the gendered experiences of women in the global South – now the center of World Christianity – have influenced new kinds of theological thought. Non-male, non-Western scholarship should be moving from the periphery to the center of higher education curricula if schools want to provide more holistic and relevant theological perspectives for their students.
Women in World Christianity: Building and Sustaining a Global Movement aims to tie these strands together: mission and gendered church history, emerging scholarship from the global South, feminist theology, and the sociology of religion. It is the first textbook about women in World Christianity and aims to be transdisciplinary in combining history, theology, and the social sciences. This book directly answers Dana Robert’s call from 2006: “What would the study of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America look like if scholars put women into the center of their research?” It would look something like this book, and it would show that, indeed, World Christianity is a women’s movement.
Contents of This Book
By focusing on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, this book highlights women’s roles as Christianity continues its shift from a global North religion (Europe, North America) to a global South one (Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Oceania). This book is part history in describing Christian women from the past, but also part social science as it engages with what Christian women are doing around the world today. Furthermore, many chapters introduce readers to female theologians who produce scholarship that is largely marginalized in Western theological education.
This book is designed to be used in World Christianity courses on the undergraduate and graduate levels. By having a resource that calls attention to women’s stories, instructors can be better equipped to provide a more balanced approach to how and why Christianity became a world religion, and how it is sustained. Although this is a book about women, its purpose is not to write men out of Christian history. The story of Christianity’s development and global spread cannot be told without men, though it has been told without women. By noticing and prioritizing women’s stories, experiences, and contributions, this book offers a corrective to our understanding of Christian history and Christian life today.
Parts I and II include, as much as possible, factors related to Christian women’s historical, social, political, religious, and cultural contexts to help fully situate their experiences today. Part I (Chapters 1–7) is geographic in scope, covering major themes and trends in World Christianity, followed by Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, and Oceania. Each of these chapters includes history, quantitative data, results from the Gender and Congregational Life Survey, descriptions of Christian women’s activities in the past and present, and female theologians from the continent. The history sections are not designed to be comprehensive, but rather introduce readers to important themes, movements, and contributions from key Christian women. These sections also include foreign female missionaries who planted churches and provided education for local women, as well as indigenous women who spread the Christian faith. These chapters address several specificities of women’s activities in these places, such as women founders of African Independent Churches, Latina responses to machismo, and differences among Christian women’s experiences in White, Black, Latino/a, and indigenous communities in North America. Each theology section calls attention to important female theologians, including major themes and the contextual nature of their scholarship.
Part II (Chapters 8–13) organizes World Christianity by major Christian tradition and movement: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Independent, Pentecostal/Charismatic, and Evangelical. These chapters provide information to place women in these traditions in their historical contexts, quantitative data of how these traditions have changed over time, and discussions of the unique experiences of women across these different ecclesiological traditions today. Each chapter incorporates information on women in leadership, including in traditions where women are not permitted to hold formal leadership positions.
Many topics have been embedded in the continental and ecclesial chapters in Parts I and II, such as women’s Christian history, ordination, mission, social service outreach, ecumenism, and theological contributions. It is not possible to comprehensively address all topics related to women in World Christianity. There is a long list of potential subjects that could have been included in Part III, such as Christian women in healthcare, interfaith relations, sex trafficking ministries, LGBTQ+ activism, family dynamics (marriage and motherhood), the arts, or political involvement. The inclusion of four chapters dedicated to gender-based violence, ecology, theological education, and peacebuilding is not to suggest these are the most pressing issues for Christian women, nor that they are the issues Christian women are most involved. Difficult subjects are discussed throughout this book, especially in Part III, such as sexual violence and discrimination against women. Readers are encouraged to engage cautiously with these sensitive subjects.
Gender-based violence (Chapter 14) has been included because nowhere in the world do women have complete physical safety. Compared to men, women are at a distinct disadvantage simply by nature of their birth – that is, if they are fortunate enough to be born, given rates of female infanticide. Women are in a state of constant heightened awareness of their physical surroundings and are not even completely safe from violence in churches. Any advocacy related to women, Christian or otherwise, must acknowledge that women’s basic existence and safety are constantly under threat.
The climate crisis has been identified as one of – if not the – most pressing global issue of the twenty-first century (Chapter 15). Women around the world are heavily involved in faith-based ecological activism yet are consistently left out of discussions related to combatting climate change. Women are especially susceptible to severe impacts of rising sea waters, more intense weather events, and global temperature rise. Ecofeminist theologians have been addressing environmental issues for many decades, but much of this scholarship has been sidelined in some parts of the world as merely politically progressive, not central to a life of faith.
Education for women and girls is an ongoing goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and there indeed has been much progress in this area. Yet, formal Christian theological education (Chapter 16) is still largely reserved for men, especially in the global South. Most global South women have little hope of receiving formal theological education due to cultural, theological, and ideological barriers. In some places, women are explicitly prohibited from enrolling in degree programs; in many others, they are discouraged from doing so. Nearly everywhere, there are comparatively few role models to inspire women in this area.
Peacebuilding (Chapter 17) is a major effort of women in World Christianity. While many Christian organizations consider peacebuilding to be core to their mission and identity, this topic is rarely even considered by many American missions organizations. Christian women have been on the forefront of peacebuilding activities to bring stability to their nations and ensure their survival. This chapter highlights several such movements and what women are doing to meld faith, activism, and politics to bring flourishing to their own lives and those of their families and communities.
Each chapter in this book includes reflection questions for group discussion and opportunities for self-theologizing. This book utilizes Harvard citation style with a slight modification: instead of only indicating the first initial of author/editor given names, the entire given name has been included. This way, the reader can observe that more than half of the scholarship cited in this book is authored by women, contributing to this book’s aim of centering their perspectives. The goal is to understand how and in what ways World Christianity really is both a global movement and a women’s movement. Ideally, readers can clearly see the countless ways women have contributed to Christianity becoming a world religion, and how women’s acts of service continue to sustain it today and into the future.
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