In the early 1960s the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) entered a period of conflict and change including disputes over biblical interpretation and womens ordination. The Biblicist and Autonomist parties emerged and struggled for control between 1979 and 1990, and the conflict eventuated in a schism of the SBC. Recent studies portray womens ordination as a primary cause of the split. However, the lives and experiences of clergywomen have rarely been studied as a viable source for interpreting the religious conflict. This dissertation challenges the oversight and asks: How can the narratives of Baptist clergywomen interpret the fracture of Americas largest Protestant denomination? As a project of practical theology, the study makes its case by exploring the two intertwined situations: the rise of Baptist women in ministry and the schism of the denomination. The study argues that between 1920 and 1960 Baptists negotiated tensions of belief and practice, as described by Bill Leonard. Between 1960 and 2000 the intertwined stories of SBC schism and womens ordination escalated and polarized those tensions. Narratives from eight Baptist clergywomen, gathered in ethnographic interviews, are analyzed for ways they reinterpret the key Baptist concept of soul competency, which holds in tension the dialectical authorities of the Bible and the individuals liberty of conscience. The theological anthropology of Edward Farley and object relations theories of D.W. Winnicott and Jessica Benjamin are utilized to expose the underlying anatomy of soul competency, highlighting its flexibility and durability. Clergywomen reinterpret soul competency by rejecting its effective history of sexism, and incorporating their experiences and vocations. Their reinterpretation shows how Baptist beliefs and practices of soul competency withstand conflict and change individually and institutionally. Clergywomens choices to remain Baptist in the face of widespread opposition, demonstrate how late-twentieth century Baptist culture was not only a site of contest, hostility and division, but also one of clarity, creativity and freedom. Rather than being merely a cause of schism, clergywomen are better understood as exemplars of the changing shape of Baptist identity, creators of new roles for women in Baptist life, and innovators for understanding ministerial identity in the Baptist culture.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-07232008-000207 |
| Date | 12 August 2008 |
| Creators | Campbell-Reed, Eileen Renee |
| Contributors | Bill J. Leonard, PhD, Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, PhD, Kathleen Flake, PhD, James P. Byrd, PhD, Deborah Wells Rowe, PhD, Mary McClintock Fulkerson, PhD |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu//available/etd-07232008-000207/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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