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About
the Archives
The Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship (AWTS) is a special
collection of the Burke
Library at Union
Theological Seminary in the City of New York. The mission of
the AWTS is to provide access to the records of women who have reshaped
theological education and American church life since 1900 and to
serve as the living memory and documentary repository for materials
pertaining to Christian women's movements for progressive social
change during the same period.
The AWTS collects the personal papers, unpublished scholarly work,
correspondence and audiovisual records of women scholars, church
leaders, and activists. The archive also seeks to document women's
collective and collaborative work. To that end, it collects the
records of institutions, organizations and groups that have played
important roles in the transformation of religious scholarship and
church life.
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History
of the Project
The Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship was founded in
1997, as the generation of women theologians who came of age in
the 1960's was nearing retirement. At the time, there was no institution
devoted to preserving the records of these women's lives. Since
many women at the vanguard of feminist and womanist theological
scholarship had been related to Union Theological Seminary as students,
faculty, or administrators, Burke Library had a particular interest
in preserving the records of these movements. The AWTS advisory
board was formed to address this deficiency.
The project fills an important gap in the preservation of primary
documents related to American women's history. A number of American
libraries house extensive collections of manuscripts and documents
related to women's history. These repositories necessarily include
material on women whose religious faith was central to their careers
and personal lives. But they do not have a theological or religious
studies focus, nor do they hold significant material on the progressive
women who have contributed to the disciplines of theology and religious
studies over the last thirty years.
In 1997, the AWTS advisory board invited a group of distinguished
scholars to donate their papers. The inaugural collection came from
Phyllis Trible, formerly Union's Baldwin Professor of Sacred Literature.
An Old Testament scholar and past president of the Society of Biblical
Literature, Dr. Trible has gained worldwide recognition for her
feminist analyses of biblical texts, God and the Rhetoric of
Sexuality (1978) and Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings
of Biblical Narratives (1984), and for her literary study,
Rhetorical Criticism: Context, Method and the Book of Jonah
(1994). Her papers are of importance to scholars of biblical studies
and feminist theology, as well as to historians of women in religion.
The archive now houses seventeen personal and institutional collections
totaling nearly 400 cubic feet. These collections document an important
period of change within the church and theological scholarship.
The AWTS continues to collect the papers of a diverse range of individuals
and groups. If you are interested in donating papers or recommending
a collection, please contact
the AWTS.
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The
Fragile Legacy of Christian Feminism
The legacy of Christian feminist discourse and practice is a fragile
one, rooted in progressive movements for social change that are
based on a vision of society where all human beings are valued equally.
The women's movements of the 19th and 20th centuries were built
on such a vision, and participants in these movements believed their
claims to be moral, just, and justified. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and other committed feminists proclaimed the following in
The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions:
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When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for
one portion of the family of man to assume among the people
of earth a position different from that which they have hitherto
occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and nature's
God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind
requires that they should declare the causes that impel them
to such a cause.
We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and
women are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator
with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.1
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For early feminists, Christian faith and commitment were inseparable
from progressive social activism. The right to vote was not merely
a political gain, but a step toward radical justice according to
God's plan. These women, many of them church-going Protestants,
spoke and wrote freely using God-language. Their faith was not something
to be reconciled with their commitment to women's rights, but the
very essence of it. Nor were their feelings unique -- these women
were part of a larger movement for radical justice that propelled
by religious beliefs.
It is ironic that, 150 years later, the women's rights movement
is largely alienated from the Church. Politically powerful denominations
and religious organizations routinely attack feminism. Prominent
Christian feminists, many of whom have made careers as scholars
in religious studies and the theological disciplines, have been
denounced in their own denominations and the larger Christian culture
for their unwavering commitment to social issues. Meanwhile, the
secular women's movement often has not embraced women in theological
disciplines, assuming that feminism and Christianity are mutually
exclusive with regards to the freedom, rights, and safety of women.
And although progressively thinking women in theological scholarship
share many of the same ideals as their contemporaries in secular
activist movements, they are often dismissed by secular feminists
because of their Christian witness.
Because the relationships of women in theological scholarship and
religious studies to their churches and to the secular women's movement
are often strained, it is frequently difficult to predict where
their histories will be preserved. Should their records be deposited
in church repositories, they run the risk of being completely obscured
or isolated from what has been truly a collective movement. Should
their records be deposited in their home institutions or in secular
women's archives, the papers of these eminent women run the risk
not only of isolation and detachment from their collective work
experiences, but also the very real possibility that, as with the
early feminists, the vital Christian component of their work may
be downplayed or ignored. Only a specialized project such as the
Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship can preserve a near-complete
documentation of these women's lives and accomplishments, in the
collective manner in which they have lived and worked.
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Leadership
Union Theological Seminary Archivist Claire
McCurdy is the AWTS Project Director. She has served as an archivist
and director of historical records for the Planned Parenthood Federation
of America; Teachers College, Columbia University; Catholic Relief
Services; and Thomas Jefferson University; and as the New York City
Regional Archivist for New York's Documentary Heritage Program.
An advisory board guides
the project. Members of the board possess significant expertise
in the areas of librarianship and archival management; theological,
historical and religious scholarship and teaching; church leadership
and administration; and institutional fundraising.
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Footnotes
1. "The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions,
July 19, 1848," in E. C. Stanton, S. B. Anthony, and M. J. Gage,
eds., The History of Woman Suffrage Vol. I, 2nd ed. (Rochester,
NY: S. B. Anthony: Charles Mann, 1881). |
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