God Forgive Us for Being Women: Rhetoric, Theology, and the Pentecostal Tradition

by Joy E. A. Qualls

Overview

The role of women in church leadership is controversial; however, the Pentecostal tradition, and specifically the Assemblies of God, has held that women can serve at all levels of church leadership. There is no role that is off-limits to women. Citing their distinctive approach to theology, Pentecostals embrace women's leadership in policy, but in practice, women are often frustrated by the lack of opportunity and representation in leadership roles. By exploring the rhetorical history, how Pentecostals talk about the role of women, the purpose of this book is to expose those rhetorical constraints that create dissonance and discontentment. This book explores how Pentecostals use and are used by language that shapes this dissonance and how that impacts the lived reality of both men and women in the Pentecostal tradition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781532602030
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	05/30/2018
Series:	Frameworks: Interdisciplinary Studies for Faith and Learning
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Joy E. A. Qualls is Associate Professor and Department Chair of Communication Studies at Biola University. She is a sought after speaker and writer. Her work can be found in Influence Magazine and she is the author, along with Loralie Crabtree, of “Women as Assemblies of God Church Planters: Cultural Analysis and Strategy Formation,” in Women in Pentecostal and Charismatic Ministry: Informing a Dialogue on Gender, Church, and Ministry (edited by Margaret English de Alminana and Lois Olena).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

1 Introduction 1

History and Scholarship 5

Pentecostalism in American Culture and Religious Identity 18

Rhetorical History 22

Preview of Chapters 35

Conclusion 38

2 The Touch Felt "Round the World": Pentecostal Rhetorical Invention and the Female Voice 40

Setting the Symbolic Scene 43

The Wesleyan Roots of Pentecostalism 45

Charles Finney and Revivalist Reform 50

"Common-Sense" Biblical Interpretation and National Crisis 55

The Ministry of Phoebe Palmer 58

Civil War Depression and the Hope of Revival 62

The Ministry of Charles Fox Parham 73

The Azusa Street Revival 78

The Scene is Set 87

3 Women Welcome? Discursive Tension and the Formation of the Assemblies of God 90

Conflict and Controversy 94

The Call to Organize 98

The Rights and Offices of Women 102

4 The Female Voice: Prophetic vs. Priestly Dissonance 121

The Prophetic vs. Priestly Function in the Assemblies of God 126

More Men Needed 134

Membership in the National Association of Evangelicals 135

Feminism and Cultural Accommodation 140

5 The Enemy at the Gate: Women and Evangelical Rhetoric 151

Women and the Socioeconomics of Service 154

The Apostle Paul, Feminist or Foe 159

Modernistic Influence and Rhetorical Practice 164

6 Benevolent Neglect: Overcoming Rhetorical Circumstance 168

Reframing the Message 174

The Question of Authority 182

Changing Leadership, Changing Rhetoric 186

From Benevolent Neglect to Full Empowerment for Service 198

7 What Am I Supposed to Do? Let People Go to Hell?: A Rhetoric of Empowered Women 201

A Review of Purpose 203

Contributing to Rhetorical Theory 210

Implications of the Present Study for Future Research 213

Bibliography 219

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Words matter—especially in a tradition whose hallmarks, it can be argued, are inspired speech. Pentecostals live in a space defined by orality: ‘speaking in tongues,’ prophecy, exhortation, preaching, and the ‘call’ to ministry. Joy Qualls brings the importance of the rhetoric that both empowers and disempowers women in one Pentecostal denomination to the conversation, at a time when the voices of harassed and abused women have finally taken center-stage. Words matter.”

—Kimberly Ervin Alexander, Associate Professor of the History of Christianity, Regent University School of Divinity

Editorial Reviews

Words matter—especially in a tradition whose hallmarks, it can be argued, are inspired speech. Pentecostals live in a space defined by orality: ‘speaking in tongues,’ prophecy, exhortation, preaching, and the ‘call’ to ministry. Joy Qualls brings the importance of the rhetoric that both empowers and disempowers women in one Pentecostal denomination to the conversation, at a time when the voices of harassed and abused women have finally taken center-stage. Words matter.”

—Kimberly Ervin Alexander, Associate Professor of the History of Christianity, Regent University School of Divinity

From the Publisher