American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice by Dana L. Robert (review)

578BOOK REVIEWS sibility, which undercut the morbidity of Calvinist psychology but also opened the way for the idea that women and men had inherently different natures,with women being emotional rather than rational and more concerned with relationships than with rules or truth. Puritans may not have believed the human soul to be essentially female, as Reis suggests, but rather that, with respect to God, all Christians should assume a posture ofwifelike affection and submissiveness. This belief enabled wives to exemplify sanctity somewhat more easily than their husbands. It also raised expectations about women's virtue that many women could not meet. And it never fully triumphed over medieval notions about the special corruptibility and deficiencies of womanhood. Amanda Porterfield Indiana University—Purdue University at Indianapolis American Women in Mission:A Social History ofTheir Thought and Practice. By Dana L. Robert. [The Modern Mission Era, 1792-1992: An Appraisal.] (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. 1996. Pp. xxii, 444. $30.00 paperback .) Historians and theologians have given short shrift to the role of women in the missionary movement; much research remains to be done. This work by Dana L. Robert, a professor in Boston University, begins to fill the gap. She bases her study on three assumptions: that women participated in the creation of American mission theories; that gender had an effect on those theories; and "that mission theory includes motivations, goals, theological assumptions, and reflections upon practical strategies that American women employed as they participated in foreign mission." The study moves from the wives ofmissionaries (American Board and Baptist Convention),in the early nineteenth century, to unmarried women missionaries (Methodist Episcopal Church) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (where she also includes evangelical missions), to the rather brief section on Roman Catholic missions (Maryknoll Sisters). In each section, Robert describes the social context, and grounds her examples in the chronology of the missionary movement as a whole. For example, she demonstrates how the role of the missionary wife developed with an emphasis on service and usefulness, which led to lives of great self-sacrifice. Women and children came to be the main recipients of this service, and teaching emerged as the main work. Through the use of case studies, the reader follows these developments in the lives of the early women missionaries. As unmarried missionary women came to be accepted, albeit grudgingly, around the 1860's, we see a turning point in mission history. The development ofthe Women's Foreign Missionary Society led to expansion ofwomen's role; in BOOK REVIEWS579 addition to teaching,women began work in health care and evangelization. The slogan became "Women's work for women," as their missionary movement became the "largest grass-roots movement ofAmerican Protestant women" in the late nineteenth century (p. 188). Robert makes pivotal in her work the Woman's Missionary Jubilee of 19101 1, celebrating fifty-one years ofwomen's mission activity. It was an ecumenical event, organized at the grassroots level to celebrate about forty missionary societies whose members were in the millions. Celebrations took place in fortyeight cities and many smaller localities. An event forgotten by historians, says Robert. The Roman Catholic Church labeled the United States itself mission territory until 1908, which is one reason for the relatively late development ofAmerican Catholic women in mission. Needs at home took first priority. Also, Catholic women had no access to the missionary life save through joining a religious congregation of celibate women. The Maryknoll Sisters were the first American congregation to devote themselves to missionary work. Robert does an effective job tracing the changes in mission theory in the United States afterVatican Council II. Robert brings to light American women in mission in an engaging and provocative manner, while her stories of individuals make their point and advance the argument. Because the work covers an enormous amount oftime and discusses many individual women, it begs for an index. That aside,what Robert has begun provides a rich field to inspire further research. Ann M. Harrington, B.VM. Loyola University Chicago American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who BuiltAmerica's Most Powerful Church. By Charles R. Morris. (NewYork:Times Books, Division of Random House. 1997. Pp. xüi...