Research Paper – Annotated Bibliography and Topic Selection
Statement of Topic:
Women have played an important role in Christian ministry and their role has been expanding in the present times even amidst problems.
Bibliography Information for Resource #1:
Kee, Howard Clark. "The changing role of women in the early Christian World." Theology Today 49, no. 2 (1992): 225-238.
Brief statement regarding the author and his or her credentials as an authority
Howard Clark Kee served as a Biblical Studies Emeritus professor at Boston University School of Theology from 1977 to 1988 and wrote 18 books relating to Christianity
A crisp statement regarding the relevance of this article for your topic:
The paper shows the relationship between women and religion, how religion influence their gender make up and eve roles in general society. With a focus on women at the bible scriptures were being written by Christian men who worked alongside their female counterparts in the church. The article presents the women in the early church as being silenced, while playing their roles alongside men in the ministry. The participation of women in the ministry is seen as only when a chance was given which ensured that they made a partnership with men according to the divine order. The author also delves into the leadership role of women at the time, in relationship to their religious thought and even how women contributed to the Christian praxis and theology at the early periods. It looks at the attraction of women to the faith in relation to what provided a meaning to the women’s self-identity as believers. The challenges women faced in their attempt to undertake leadership roles is also explored including being regarded as heretics. These ideas are important to this research because they look into how women played their role in the ministry during the early periods of the church. I intend to look into the role played by women during the periods of the early church and its related changes.
A salient or meaningful quote from the article that you would likely cite if you were to write an essay on this topic:
Quote. “Women’s Spiritual zeal exploded into social service as women served as helper in various social service organizations outside the private sphere of the home.” He has authored more than 30 books and 140 scholarly articles.
Bibliography Information for Resource #2:
Stark, Rodney. "Reconstructing the rise of Christianity: The role of women." Sociology of Religion 56, no. 3 (1995): 229-244.
Brief statement regarding the author and his or her credentials as an authority
Rodney Stark has been a longtime professor of sociology and of comparative religion at the University of Washington.
A crisp statement regarding the relevance of this article for your topic:
This article explores how modern and ancient historians record the response of women in the early Christian movement and the connection between the two aspects. The article highlights the high status that women were accorded within the early Christian circles in comparison to the pagan societies in the surroundings. The author connects the growth of the early church and women status, their increased power and privilege and the notion that women were easy prey of superstition than pagans. The removal of practices such as abortion and infanticide is seen as an important aspect that reduced the gender imbalance among the Christians. The ratio of women to men in the early church is defined to understand why more women were converted than men to be Christ followers. The various roles undertaken by women such as deaconesses are highlighted. These aspects are important to my research since they assist in exploring role women occupied in the church, and their status in the Christian faith.
A salient or meaningful quote from the article that you would likely cite if you were to write an essay on this topic:
Quote: “Not only did Paul commend Phoebe the deaconess to the Romans, he also sent greetings to prominent woman in the Roman congregation: to Pricilla whom he acknowledges for having ‘risked her neck’ on his behalf, to Mary, who has worked so hard among you and to several other women”
Bibliography Information for Resource #3:
Beliakova, Nadezhda, and Miriam Dobson. "Protestant women in the late Soviet era: gender, authority, and dissent." Canadian Slavonic Papers 58, no. 2 (2016): 117-140.
Brief statement regarding the author and his or her credentials as an authority
Nadezhda Beliakova is a PhD and MA holder from Faculty of History , Moscow State University and has worked as a Sernior Scientific Researcher since 2010
Miriam Dobson is a BA holder from University of Cambridge, an MA and PhD holder from School of Slvanoc and East European Studies, University College London. She has worked as senior lecturer published an article in 2009 with with Cornell University Pres.
A crisp statement regarding the relevance of this article for your topic:
The author explores the role of women in the protestant church and the community during the soviet era, and sees their position as having been complex. Their roles as leaders of worship more so among the remote congregations, their unofficial prophetesses especially among the Pentecostal groups, their motherhood roles and even commitment to religious upbringing of their children are discussed. The author also highlights the women roles as political actors who defended religious rights. Of importance to the writer is the predomination of women in congregations after the revolutionary war especially in protestant churches and the leadership roles they occupied in the ministry while men were largely absent.
A salient or meaningful quote from the article that you would likely cite if you were to write an essay on this topic:
Quote: “…where there was an established church hierarchy, they might create and lead small groups practicing charismatic worship on the margins of the registered community, their spiritual gifts generating a kind of authority very different from that of the ordained pastors. Yet there was no sustained challenge to the authority of male clerics”
Bibliography Information for Resource #4
Eriksen, Annelin. "Sarah’s sinfulness: egalitarianism, denied difference, and gender in Pentecostal Christianity." Current Anthropology 55, no. S10 (2014): S262-S270.
Brief statement regarding the author and his or her credentials as an authority
The author is a professor of Anthropology in Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, Norway.
A crisp statement regarding the relevance of this article for your topic:
The article explores on Gender in Pentecostalism and related studies in the Caribbean and American regions and specially focuses on the conversion of women, faith healing and domestic counseling. By understanding Christianity as a culture, the article analysis the issue whether Pentecostalism has brought about increased level of equality. The author also explores the division between masculinity and feminism in relation to the created hierarchical division that informs morality as per the Old Testament. The spirituality of women in such a culture is explored and the author highlights the case of Sarah who had been viewed as having fallen from grace by fellow believers in a one of the Pentecostal Churches. The author identifies her sufferings with Jesus’ sufferings both having been rejected by their people. This article is relevance is it highlights the challenges that women undergo while trying to take their place in the Church ministry and how such roles are denied.
A salient or meaningful quote from the article that you would likely cite if you were to write an essay on this topic:
Quote: “If the transformation from immoral to moral, from weak to strong, from unworthy to worthy, easily can take a gendered form , and if the established gendered order in the Bible Church allows men to achieve this transformation to a greater extent than women (moving from non-individualized to “the chosen one”), then Sarah’s miracles present challenges on several levels”
Bibliography Information for Resource #5
Marshall, Jill E. "The Recovery of Paul's Female Colleagues in Nineteenth-century Feminist Biblical Interpretation." Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 33, no. 2 (2017): 21-36.
Brief statement regarding the author and his or her credentials as an authority
Jill E. Marshal is a PhD holder and has written a book and her articles have been published in Journal of Biblical literature and sacred matters Magazine
A crisp statement regarding the relevance of this article for your topic:
The article discusses the female believers who worked with Paul the apostle, which presented a challenge to the church. Looking into the interpretation of Phoebe, Prisca and Lydia and relates their roles to the interpretation of primary sources by male clerics and scholars. The fact that women were not admitted in universities to learn biblical languages does not imply that they were unable to critically and scholar interpret the Bible. The articles studies the female Biblical characters in relation to what was expected of Christian women in the 19th century , and a focus on women who accompanied Jesus and those who were co-workers with Paul. The role of women as actively ministering mothers as described in the text relates to this paper.
A salient or meaningful quote from the article that you would likely cite if you were to write an essay on this topic:
Quote: “When Dietrick and stowe revisited the new Testament in its first-century context, they found women who taught, prayed, consoled others, provided for context, they found women who taught, prayed, consoled others, provided for the church, opened their homes to visitors, evangelized, and founded churches”
