American Missionaries in Egypt, Gender Relations, and the Professional and Social Formation of Women, 1854–1967

This article considers the impact that the American Presbyterian mission in Egypt (1854–1967) exerted on American and Egyptian women, by expanding career opportunities and roles in church life and promoting new ideas about gender relations, sexuality, and family. It uses American women doctors and Egyptian Bible Women as case studies for female professionalism. Questioning the premise that influence moved one way, from American missionaries towards Egyptians, this study rejects triumphalist narratives about American progress in the gender domain; develops the story of missionary encounters as a bumpy two-way street; and shows how American and Egyptian women struggled to seize opportunities amid persistent gender discrimination. The article discusses the dearth of sources about these women, a shortfall that widens the gender gap in historical representation, requiring us to read between the lines.

The Bible, Women, and Video Games

In recent years much has been written about religion, gender, and video games. Indeed, video game worlds often give concrete expression to powerful mythic themes. The video game Bioshock is a good example. Using both feminist and reception criticism, this essay explores the role of Eve/woman in the video game series Bioshock. Bioshock is the story of Eden—a secular Eden gone terribly wrong. While the essay examines how the game uses the Genesis creation story, it focuses on the character of Eve. In the biblical text, Eve is named the “mother of all living” and in Bioshock, Eve is life in a literal sense. The game’s resulting objectification of Eve is extreme in its portrayal and interesting in its implications. It is a prime example of the intersection between virtual and actual reality, as it addresses issues of morality and gender.

Introduction

The Introduction traces the important turns of missionary history in China since the nineteenth century and identifies the contribution of key women leaders, educators, women medical workers, bible women and missionary wives who were called to take up roles beyond the traditional domestic sphere. Set out to evangelize women and make better wives and mothers for Christian homes, women missionaries and the Chinese women converts took part in reforming and transforming Chinese society and gender hierarchy unexpectedly. More importantly, through responding actively to a noble calling to serve, women Christians, both the missionaries and Chinese converts, have contributed at the centre of the Christian mission to raise up successive generations of women leaders for modern China.

The Making of Bible Women in the Fujian Zenana Mission from the 1880s to the 1950s

This chapter explores women missionaries from the Church of England Zenana Mission Society and their Bible women in Fujian. It focuses on the intercultural exchange between these two groups of women from entirely different backgrounds from the 1880s to the 1950s, with an aim to address Chinese experience from a transnational perspective. It shows that Bible women were central figures in a process of proselytizing local women and were formed mainly through a series of intercultural communications with their Western mission workers. The author argues that Bible women were the combined historic product of a particular Chinese historical and cultural context and a worldwide evangelical workforce by Western women, developed through transnational interactions and nurtured in a relationship of sisterhood and friendship.

The Contributions of British Female Missionaries and Japanese Bible Women to the Ministry of the Japan Evangelistic Band in the Early 20th Century

Early 20th century evangelical mission organisations that emerged from the British Holiness Movement prioritised evangelism over social reform. Female missionaries, however, were often engaged in bringing social transformation. Even though women were the major workforce in overseas mission, leadership was always in male hands. This article discusses how even though women in the Japan Evangelistic Band were not in leadership positions, their initiative in social engagement enabled the Mission to participate in spiritual as well as social transformation, and raise a generation of Japanese female leadership.