Expanding the Bounds of Christianity and Feminism
Mabel Shaw and the Women of Mbereshi, Zambia, 1915-1940
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4844347 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rebecca C Hughes (0000-0002-3892-4511, Seattle Pacific University Seattle, WA USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 22-51 |
| Publication date | 2022-06-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/15700666-12340223 |
| OpenAlex | W4283815317 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 31 |
As headmistress of the London Missionary Society's Girls' Boarding School from 1915-1940 in Mbereshi, Zambia, Mabel Shaw (1889-1973) created an innovative educational programme that embraced local culture and empowered women. Shaw drew from theological, anthropological, and feminist perspectives to guide her understanding of Bemba culture. Shaw built upon fulfilment theology with its premise that all religions had an element of God's truth in them. In doing so, Shaw differentiated Western culture from Christian culture, creating space to accommodate practices such as ancestor veneration and polygamy. While scholars have been reluctant to label Shaw as a feminist, this author argues she must be recognized as one. Shaw actively collaborated with Bemba women and raised them as Christian saints. Moreover, Shaw was unique in that she urged her British audiences to listen to African voices and to consider the value of adopting aspects of African worship
Ancestor · Archaeology · Christianity · Element (criminal law) · Epistemology · Feminism · Feminist theology · Political science · Premise · Sociology · Theology · Value (mathematics) · Veneration · Worship · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious studies
Death in the Victorian Family
Polygamy Reconsidered. African Plural Marriage and the Christian Churches
Indigenous Responses to Western Christianity
A History of the Church in Africa
Conversion
Mabel Shaw's Theology in the Context of Her Work as a Christian Missionary Teacher in Northern Rhodesia 1915—1940
Beneath the surface
Christianity and Ancestor Veneration in Botswana
The Historical Study of African Religion
The Observance of All Souls' Day in the Guinea-Bissau Region
The Communion of Women
Troubled Traditions
Bronislaw Malinowski, “Indirect Rule,” and the Colonial Politics of Functionalist Anthropology, ca. 1925–1940
Women's Revolt
The 'Great Offender
Christianity in Tropical Africa. Studies Presented and Discussed at the Seventh International African Seminar, University of Ghana, April 1965
Bemba-Speaking Women of Zambia in a Century of Religious Change (1892-1992)
African Clergy, Bishop Lucas and the Christianizing of Local Initiation Rites
The Africanization of Missionary Christianity
No Girl Leaves the School Unmarried
A Colonial Lexicon
Africanizing Anthropology
The fires beneath
Inside African Anthropology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |