Contact us on (02) 8445 2300
For all customer service and order enquiries

Woodslane Online Catalogues

9780815636151 Academic Inspection Copy

Women of Faith and Religious Identity in Fin-de-Siecle France

Description
Author
Biography
Table of
Contents
Sales
Points
Reviews
Google
Preview
In this unique study, Machen explores a moment of intense religious upheaval and transformation in France between 1880 and 1920. In these pre-World War I years, a powerful Catholic community was pitted against equally powerful anticlerical members of the French Third Republic. During this time, women became increasingly involved in faith-based organizations, engaging in social and political action both to expand women's rights and to ensure that religion remained part of the public debate about France's identity. By representing their faith communities as modern, progressive, and in some cases democratic, women positioned themselves to help guide a modernizing France. Women of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish faiths also reshaped the narrative of female power within the French nation and within their own religious groups. Their activism provided them with social, religious, and political influence unattainable through any other French institutions, enabling them in turn to push France toward becoming a more democratic, equitable society. Machen's timely examination of the critical role women played in shaping the nation's religious identity helps to illuminate contemporary issues in France as Muslim communities respond to civic pressure to secularize and as the country debates the role of women in Islam.
Emily Machen is associate professor of history at the University of Northern Iowa.
Acknowledgments Principal Organizations Introduction: Women and the Spiritual Revival of France Religious Identity and the Challenge of Feminism The Development of Women's "Ministries" in France Political Engagement, Community Voting Rights, and Women's Pastorate Faith for Social Progress: Women, Social Action, and the Modernization of France A Voyage of Faith: Religious Women and International Work Battling for God and Nation: Women, Religion, and the First World War Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
Considers the critical role women played in shaping France's religious identity.
An original study in its bringing together of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish women and its consideration of how women used their roles within their respective religions to further their position inside and outside of their faith communities. . . . The topic is especially relevant today because of the current debates in France regarding women's status in Islam.-- "Sarah A. Curtis, professor of history, San Francisco State University" The goal of Emily Machen's study is to reveal the ways in which gender shaped the methods employed by women as they sought to expand their spiritual mission and reinvigorate French communities of believers.-- "Journal of Church and State"
Google Preview content