The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History [Paperback]

Susan Hill Lindley (Editor), Eleanor J. Stebner (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2008

During the past four decades, large numbers of women have entered ordained leadership positions in American religious bodies, resulting in changes in aspects of church life from liturgy and theology to pastoral leadership. At the same time, an explosion of scholarship about women in American religious history has demonstrated that women have always played important roles in shaping and even leading American religious institutions. This is so despite their lack of access to formal ordination, and even though their roles were often undervalued by contemporaries and neglected by historians. The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History provides students, teachers, pastors, and scholars with an accessible reference to more than 750 outstanding individual women and women's organizations.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

From Paula Herskovitz Ackerman to Barbara Brown Zikmund, this ultraconcise handbook gives attention to hundreds of women who are anything but household names, even in the American religious community. This focus on lesser-knowns was one of the late Lindley’s editorial goals, until her death in 2005. Stebner took up the reins and, with the help of an impressive group of contributors, has filled in some gaps existing in works like the Dictionary of American Religious Biography (Greenwood, 1993). Popular figures, such as Mary Baker Eddy and Coretta Scott King, are of course represented. But they receive no more space than the most obscure. The average entry is approximately a half column in length. The vast majority of the 700-plus women covered are Judeo-Christian personalities. However, roughly 5 percent of the entries highlight women like Maxine Kingston (1940–), who is a Buddhist leader and author from California. Users looking for living representatives will likely be disappointed. Maya Angelou (1928–), Phyllis Schlafly (1924–), and Amy Grant (1960–) make up the less than 10 percent of entries devoted to current figures. Numerous organizations with close ties to women and religion are well represented. These include Concerned Women for America, the Muslim Women’s League, and National Council of Jewish Women, to name a few. A typical entry concludes with several abbreviated references to other encyclopedic works, like Oxford’s American National Biography, and a few related book titles. Cross-references are frequent in the work, but, sadly, an index is not included. For the cost, this handbook is a wonderful supplement to other biographical tools in religion. Recommended for larger public libraries and academic collections. --Wade Osburn

About the Author

Susan Hill Lindley was Professor of Religion at St. Olaf's College in Northfield, Minnesota. She authored You Have Stept Out of Your Place: A History of Women and Religion in America.

Eleanor J. Stebner holds the J.S. Woodsworth Chair in the Department of Humanities at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press (September 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664224547
• ISBN-13: 978-0664224547
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #655,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)