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.

Chan Chiu-yuen Lawrence. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-65). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Introduction / Chapter Chapter One / Chapter A. --- Root of Pentecostalism: the Black Heritage / Chapter B. --- Transcending Race & Class / Chapter a. --- History of the Marginalized Black Slave in America / Chapter i. --- Social Context in America: Slavery & Racism / Chapter ii. --- Formation of Black church / Chapter b. --- The Outpouring of the Spirit: Transcending Race and Class / Chapter Chapter Two --- Transforming Christianity: Inculturation / Chapter a. --- The Concept of Inculturation / Chapter b. --- Worship in the Azusa Street Revival / Chapter c. --- African Heritage / Chapter d. --- Worship / Chapter e. --- Spirit Possession / Chapter Chapter Three --- Yielding Detraditionalization / Chapter a. --- Marginalization of Women in Mission / Chapter i. --- Masculine Domination of Missionary Societies / Chapter ii. --- Traditional Roles of Women / Chapter iii. --- Opposition of a Single Woman as a Missionary / Chapter iv. --- Resistance of Setting-up of Women's Board / Chapter v. --- Unjust Criticisms from Masculine Organizations / Chapter vii. --- Widow Case / Chapter b. --- Patriarchal Christian Tradition / Chapter c. --- Pentecostal Women in Mission / Chapter d. --- The Power of Holy Spirit: Detraditionalization / Conclusion / Bibliography

This study argues that literary and womanist perspectives on the book of. Esther can be used as resources for gender-social transformation in the South African Indian Pentecostal community. It maintains that Biblical scholarship cannot be confined only to the academy, while the Bible is used in the community to oppress women. When culture and interpretation both collude in the oppression of women, putting their lives at risk, it is imperative, this study argues, for those working in the field of liberation hermeneutics to not restrict their work to the academy. Hence, this study seeks to find ways to read the Bible in ways that liberate rather than oppress. The dissertation is divided into two sections. An examination of the ways in which ideology, plot, narrative time and characterization elucidate the theme of power in the narrative of Esther, form the first section of the dissertation. Each chapter of the first section focuses on the literary details of the text, but always with a hermeneutic of transformation in mind. In the second section, an analysis of how these critical interpretations contribute to the process of gender-social transformation is undertaken. This is done through a process of an analysis of a series of Bible studies conducted by the author with South African Indian Pentecostal women from the Durban area. Issues of representation and the scholar's role in the process of the transformation and conscientization of the community are also examined in this second section. The conclusion is a reflection of the implications of this study both to the academy and to the community. It reiterates that the collaboration between scholars and the community is a vital one, and the challenge that remains is for more organic intellectuals to use the opportunities which they have been given through their privileged access to education, to empower those in the community who have afforded them the opportunity. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003. / The National Research Foundation (NRF) and The Eastern Seaboard of Tertiary Institutions (ESATI).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:21:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcospg1_123.pdf: 785611 bytes, checksum: 534010ca40b90532ae485e75e352397b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-04-04 / Women had an active and essential participation since the emergence of Pentecostal Movement for its consolidation. Nevertheless, Pentecostal Movement institutionalization began to segregate women, restricting her operations to subordinate ecclesiastical services. Women were relegated to oblivion. However, the hegemony of male power has not stopped the women to create their own networks of meaning in the Pentecostal churches, by the women's societies that works as territories for socialization and humanization, usually in situations of high social vulnerability. This research aims to visualize and discuss these social and meaning construction networks. The object of this research is micro-social networks composed and led by Pentecostal women. The research method used was the Oral History, which was very useful to understand, by interviews, how they constitute the webs, plots, interactions and networks through flow the solidarity among women and the legitimization of power that own Pentecostal women reach and enjoy in these micro-networks. We tried to let women speak for themselves. With time and the voice, the Pentecostal women! / Desde o surgimento do Movimento Pentecostal, mulheres tiveram participação ativa e fundamental para a consolidação do Movimento. Entretanto, com sua institucionalização, o Movimento Pentecostal passou a segregar as mulheres, restringindo sua atuação a funções eclesiais subalternas. Mulheres foram relegadas ao esquecimento. Contudo, a hegemonia do poder masculino não impediu que as mulheres criassem suas redes de sentido nas igrejas pentecostais, através de sociedades de mulheres que funcionam como espaços de socialização e humanização, geralmente em contextos de alta vulnerabilidade social. A presente pesquisa procura visibilizar e problematizar estas redes de socialização e de produção de sentido. O objeto de pesquisa são essas micro-redes sociais constituídas e lideradas por mulheres pentecostais. O método de pesquisa utilizado foi o da História Oral, o qual foi muito útil para compreender, através de depoimentos, como se formam as teias, tramas, interações e redes por onde flui a solidariedade entre as mulheres e a legitimação do poder que as próprias mulheres pentecostais alcançam e usufruem nessas micros-redes. Procurou-se deixar as mulheres falarem por si mesmas. Com a vez e a voz, as mulheres pentecostais!