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Lettie Cowman, Fellow Traveler
Perhaps you have never heard of Lettie Cowman, but hopefully you have been introduced to her mloved devotional books, Streams in the Desert and Springs in the Valley. These two books, published in 1925 and 1939 respectively, have been perennial best sellers, gracing the nightstands and desks of men and women for generations. What made them so timeless and who was the woman behind them? Lettie and Charles Cowman served faithfully as missionaries in Japan from 1901-1918. Their efforts were successful, but eventually Charles developed serious health problems and they had to return home. This was not the future they expected. Lettie began to journal various quotes and scripture verses…
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Women’s History Month: Meet Some Female Martyrs from the Early Church
When I spoke to a class of seminary students recently about women in public ministry in the early church, someone asked me to share some names and narratives about our foremothers. It seemed fitting to provide a sampling here during Women’s History Month. (Some day I hope we will simply learn “history”; but until women are included in the telling of history, we’ll continue to need a special annual focus.) You can find all the women listed below in the mosaics of Ravenna’s “new” (6th c) Basilica of Sant’Apollinare. I’ve included a summary of the stories that usually accompany them, as well. You will notice a theme of women exercising…
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Book Recommendation: Christian Women in the Patristic World
As I head into the fall semester, I’m updating some of my course bibliographies to include books published in the past year. Since the 2017–18 academic year, one of the best sources I’m adding is worth stopping to recommend: Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through Fifth Centuries. I know. It sounds academic. That’s because it is. But you can handle it. One of the gifts to us from those who pressed for women to have more access to education has been the explosion of new works on women in history. That’s because up till about the mid-1950s, few people were even doing their…