Degree Name

MA (Master of Arts)

Program

History

Date of Award

8-2020

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Tom Lee

Committee Members

Jennifer A. Adler., William Douglas Burgess

Abstract

The Progressive Era in America from 1870 to 1920 introduced unprecedented change in the way Americans lived, worked, and thought about themselves in relation to the rest of the world. New platforms of charitable benevolence, religious activism, and legislative reform were enacted to meet the changed demographic landscape initiated by waves of new immigration from Europe. The tenor of religious worship shifted in mainstream and evangelical churches to reflect not only new ways of response to these changes, but new ideas of women as authoritative leaders in secular and religious institutions. Charismatic evangelical women influenced by an era of change worked to establish autonomous ministries unbeholden to clergymen who declined to accept their scriptural authority to preach or occupy the pulpit. Women who identified within Holiness and Pentecostal traditions were no longer content to preach from street-corners or rented meeting rooms. Instead, women who considered themselves prophets and preachers established ministries that supported their initiatives of religious reform and advancement of women.

Document Type

Thesis - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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