
The Woman I Am
Southern Baptist Women's Writings, 1906-2006
Melody Maxwell(Author)
The University of Alabama Press
Published on 30. June 2014
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-8173-1832-1 (ISBN)
Description
Melody Maxwell's The Woman I Am analyses the traditional, progressive, and potential roles female Southern Baptist writers and editors portrayed for Southern Baptist women from 1906 to 2006, particularly in the area of missions.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) represents the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, yet Southern Baptist women's voices have been underreported in studies of American religion and culture. In The Woman I Am, Melody Maxwell explores how female Southern Baptist writers and editors in the twentieth century depicted changing roles for women and responded to the tensions that arose as Southern Baptist women assumed leadership positions, especially in the areas of missions and denominational support.
Given access to a century of primary sources and archival documents, Maxwell writes, as did many of her subjects, in a style that deftly combines the dispassionate eye of an observer with the multidimensional grasp of a participant. She examines magazines published by Woman's Missionary Union (WMU), an auxiliary to the SBC: Our Mission Fields (1906-1914), Royal Service (1914-1995), Contempo (1970-1995), and Missions Mosaic (1995-2006). In them, she traces how WMU writers and editors perceived, constructed, and expanded the lives of southern women.
Showing ingenuity and resiliency, these writers and editors continually, though not always consciously, reshaped their ideal of Christian womanhood to better fit the new paths open to women in American culture and Southern Baptist life. Maxwell's work demonstrates that Southern Baptists have transformed their views on biblically sanctioned roles for women over a relatively short historical period.
How Southern Baptist women perceive women's roles in their churches, homes, and the wider world is of central importance to readers interested in religion, society, and gender in the United States. The Woman I Am is a tour de force that makes a lasting contribution to the world's understanding of Southern Baptists and to their understanding of themselves.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) represents the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, yet Southern Baptist women's voices have been underreported in studies of American religion and culture. In The Woman I Am, Melody Maxwell explores how female Southern Baptist writers and editors in the twentieth century depicted changing roles for women and responded to the tensions that arose as Southern Baptist women assumed leadership positions, especially in the areas of missions and denominational support.
Given access to a century of primary sources and archival documents, Maxwell writes, as did many of her subjects, in a style that deftly combines the dispassionate eye of an observer with the multidimensional grasp of a participant. She examines magazines published by Woman's Missionary Union (WMU), an auxiliary to the SBC: Our Mission Fields (1906-1914), Royal Service (1914-1995), Contempo (1970-1995), and Missions Mosaic (1995-2006). In them, she traces how WMU writers and editors perceived, constructed, and expanded the lives of southern women.
Showing ingenuity and resiliency, these writers and editors continually, though not always consciously, reshaped their ideal of Christian womanhood to better fit the new paths open to women in American culture and Southern Baptist life. Maxwell's work demonstrates that Southern Baptists have transformed their views on biblically sanctioned roles for women over a relatively short historical period.
How Southern Baptist women perceive women's roles in their churches, homes, and the wider world is of central importance to readers interested in religion, society, and gender in the United States. The Woman I Am is a tour de force that makes a lasting contribution to the world's understanding of Southern Baptists and to their understanding of themselves.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Alabama
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
15 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
590 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8173-1832-1 (9780817318321)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2014
1st Edition
University of Alabama Press
€127.99
Available for download
Person
Melody Maxwell is assistant professor of Christian Studies at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. She previously served with East Texas Baptist University and Woman's Missionary Union. Maxwell holds a PhD from the International Baptist Theological Seminary.