Pioneers in American Women's Theological Education: Methodist Deaconess Training Schools
PDF (FULL TEXT)

Keywords

Women
Deaconesses
Theological Education

How to Cite

Pope-Levison, P. (2018). Pioneers in American Women’s Theological Education: Methodist Deaconess Training Schools. Methodist Review, 10, 73–91. Retrieved from https://methodistreview.org/index.php/mr/article/view/210

Abstract

This essay demonstrates that Methodist deaconess training schools in the late nineteenth century provided theological education for laywomen through courses in Bible, church history, theology, and ethics, courses that constitute to this day the core ingredients of a theological education. Seminaries did not welcome women students at the time; nonetheless, Methodist women had access to theological education through the bishops’ course of study offered in deaconess training schools. Deaconesses studied the Bible in-depth, became conversant with ancient Jewish and Christian authors, mastered theological movements and ecclesial leaders in successive generations of church history, studied theological doctrines from creation to glorification, and became experts in Methodist history and doctrine through assiduous study of the discipline, catechism, and James Porter’s Compendium of Methodism. Due to such a rich and robust curriculum in theological subjects, this paper argues that deaconess training schools delivered a theological education for Methodist women decades before theological seminaries opened their doors to both sexes.

PDF (FULL TEXT)

Authors who publish with Methodist Review agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright ownership and all intellectual property rights to their work, and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal but prohibits modification or commercial use of the work without the permission of the author.

  • Authors are free to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), in whole or in part, on the condition that its initial publication in this journal is clearly acknowledged.

  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.