Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
History, Memory, and Relevance: Reflections on Christian Feminism Today

History, Memory, and Relevance: Reflections on Christian Feminism Today

Last updated on: June 30, 2016 at 5:40 pm by Kristin Du Mez

History, Memory, and Relevance: Reflections on Christian Feminism Today 2016-06-30T17:40:21-04:00 Kristin Du Mez

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Last week I attended the biennial Christian Feminism Today conference, an organization better known among historians by its previous name, the EEWC (Evangelical and Ecumenical Women’s Conference), or perhaps even by its original name, the EWC (Evangelical Women’s Caucus).

The EWC was formed in 1973 out of the movement of progressive evangelicals that came together in the early 1970s as Evangelicals for Social Action, and was instrumental in sparking the rise of evangelical feminism. Books like Letha Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty’s All We’re Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today (originally published in 1974, and now in its third edition) convinced many an evangelical woman that her biblical faith was not incompatible with liberation from narrowly scripted “women’s roles.” In the words of Reta Halteman Finger and S. Sue Horner, All We’re Meant to Be “became in many respects for evangelical women what the Church and the Second Sex (1972) by Mary Daly was for mainstream religious women.”

I went to the conference as both participant and observer. As a historian of Christian feminism, I had long studied the work of the organization, and I was curious about the vibrancy of the organization since its heyday in the 1970s. (In 1986, the organization had voted to support the civil rights of lesbian and gay persons, leading to a break-away group establishing themselves as Christians for Biblical Equality).

As a historian, I also hoped to offer members a “usable past,” to share with them my own research on the history of Christian feminism through the story of Katharine Bushnell, and her work as an anti-trafficking activist and feminist theologian.

I encountered a vibrant organization, filled with members eager to learn about the history of Christian women. But I was wrong to think I played a special role in bringing history to this group.

Instead, I encountered a community who knew their history, and who knew the essential role that history plays in shaping the present, and imagining a future.

This historical rootedness was embodied by several women who had been working for gender equality in the church for over 40 years, most prominent among them Letha Scanzoni herself, one of the foremothers of the movement.

But perhaps more striking to me was the way so many presenters eloquently expressed the significance of history to their own work as Christian feminists.

Austin Channing testified powerfully to the importance of knowing our historical context, of placing our own stories within the broader context of American history. As an African American woman, Channing warned of the dangers of “unknowing and misknowing,” of judging “the Other” without regard to their stories, and without regard to the larger structures and histories that shape those stories. She called on all “to refuse ahistorical assumptions about ‘those people,’” to refuse to give into fear in the name of safety and control. “By giving into a fear of powerlessness, we abuse our own power,” she proclaimed. “By giving into fear of being oppressed, we become the oppressor.” But if we begin with story, by knowing each other’s stories, by knowing history, we can “commiserate” with others, and develop empathy for one another across our differences.

Feminist theologian Grace Ji-Sun Kim rooted her own theology in the history of racism and sexism that has indelibly shaped Korean women’s experience. She spoke of the history of Korean comfort women in World War II, of the history of racist fear expressed in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, of the burdens placed upon Asian Americans by the myth of the “model minority,” and of the victimization of Asian women through global human trafficking today.

For Korean women seeking liberation and empowerment, the temptation to leave the church, to abandon the Christian faith, has been great. But Kim instead challenged Christians to believe that Jesus really did want us to embrace “the Other,” to overcome the fear of the unknown. To do so we must open ourselves up to the work of the Spirit, a Spirit that “moves wherever it wants,” and that cannot be boxed in by constructed walls.

Ecofeminist and Quaker scholar Cherice Bock recounted how learning about history, particularly about the historical figure Lucretia Mott, had “served as a gateway drug” for her into the world of Quakers, feminists, and feminist Quakers. But she drew on her great-grandmother’s story as well, in order to complicate her understanding of feminism. Her great-grandmother had been a homesteader in southern Idaho, who, through hard work and faith in God, and at the cost of environmental degradation and the oppression of Native Americans, eked out a harsh existence. Her ancestor wouldn’t have called herself a feminist, Bock explained; “her role fit firmly in the category of ‘women’s work,’ but it was some seriously bad-ass women’s work: shooting rabbits, running the household finances, and ensuring that her family and community survived another year, clothed and fed.”

Why tell such stories? “A prophet reminds us of who we are by re-membering stories from our past,” and inviting us “to a renewed vision of hope for this time and place.” For Bock, these stories lead to a reassessment of feminism. “I’m grateful for the work that my Quaker foremother and other feminists did to open up the workplace to women, but the prophetic part of me asks, have we actually moved beyond second-wave feminism in practice? Are we living out a feminism that does not require domination of an ‘other’ in order for the self to advance? Are we so focused on our careers and daily lives that we are unable or unwilling to do what it takes to not dominate the Earth?” “Are we so focused on the glass ceiling that we forget the dirt floor” on which our foremothers stood?

Remembering, then, provides the basis for Bock’s ecofeminism, a vision for the future in which “the liberation of people of all genders is bound up with the liberation of the planet, of people of color, and of all others who are marginalized.”

And Diana Butler Bass shared her own history as a sometimes embattled Christian feminist. Having EEWC Bass been “released” from her position teaching religion at a Christian college, Bass recounted how she had been influenced and strengthened by the work of those like Scanzoni and Virginia Mollencott, and lamented that many young feminists lack any awareness of these stories. “There is a well of stories, a community over time that you are a part of. Stories we’re part of, that we don’t know.”

Bass then shared an experience she records in her book Grounded, of finding her way into an old Quaker meeting house in Maryland. As she looked around at the old wood pews and thick beams supporting the structure, she was filled with a sense of the holy, and with a sense she had been there before. Three years later she discovered that she descended from a line of Scottish Quakers, and that two of them, Andrew and Eleanor, had married at the Third Haven Quaker Meeting back in 1678. It was wood from their land that had been used to construct the beams that she had admired.

From this story Bass mused about the importance of memory, of architecture that can hold “pools of memories,” of place triggering memories you didn’t know you had. And she wondered how we might go about triggering memories in our progeny, or passing on a legacy, a story, for future generations.

I was heartened to discover that history and memory was alive and well among this group of Christian women. So often, Christian feminism has been a story of forgetting. Without a knowledge of the past, each generation takes upon itself the burden of the pioneer.
But by remembering women who have come before them, Christian women are not only strengthened and sustained for the present, but also better positioned to imagine and create a more just, empowering, and compassionate future.

P.S. For those curious about my work on Hillary Clinton’s faith, start here for a preview, and I promise to bring more on this topic to the Anxious Bench in the near future.

African American Religion

Evangelicalism

Gender

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Mainline Protestantism

Previous Post

June 29, 2016

Gender and the Trinity: A Medieval Perspective

Next Post

July 1, 2016 Two Sides of One Coin? (Buddhist and Christian Decline, Part II)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Paul Peter John Stephen