Women and Christian Mission

What are Christian women thinking about mission? How do they do mission? What informs their knowledge and action as they address issues in a complex world where religious proselytizing has become suspect? This empirical study explores those questions, finding congruence among women from diverse backgrounds and cultural contexts. Women in mission face common identity issues, utilize art and beauty in their work, and develop character as they overcome obstacles in their cultural and denominational settings. Through nearly one hundred interviews of women in Europe, Asia, Brazil, and the United States, a study of women's theologies of mission, lectures, and countless conversations with women around the globe, this study finds common themes among contemporary women doing Christian mission. This book fills a lacuna in mission studies that professors, pastors, and church women and men will find informative and refreshing. ""Frances Adeney takes us on an eye-opening and inspiring tour of women's contributions to the church's mission and the theology that sustains them in it. This is a book from which women will profit greatly, but it is not only a 'women's book.' Women and men should both take the tour, and be affirmed, challenged, and surprised."" --Stephen B. Bevans, Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD Professor of Mission and Culture, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago ""Sociologist, theologian, and mission educator, Frances Adeney is one of the most creative thinkers in mission studies today. In this volume she tackles a core problem: the relationship of gender to missiology. Adeney's analysis deepens our understanding of this important issue. This book will surprise, disturb, and delight its readers. It belongs on the shelf of everyone interested in the construction of mission theology."" -- Dana L. Robert, Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity and History of Mission, Director, Center for Global Christianity and Mission, Boston University School of Theology Frances S. Adeney is the William Benfield Jr. Professor Emerita of Evangelism and Global Mission at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She is author of Christian Women in Indonesia, Christianity Encountering the World's Religions, Christianity and Human Rights, and Graceful Evangelism.