Del 26 i serien KADOC-Studies on Religion, Culture and Society

Humble Women, Powerful Nuns

A Female Struggle for Autonomy in a Men's Church

Häftad, Engelska, 2020

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The fascinating story of four ambitious Belgian religious women in a male worldNineteenth-century female congregation founders could achieve levels of autonomy, power and prestige that were beyond reach for most women of their time. This book recounts the fascinating but ambiguous life stories of four Belgian religious women, hidden for a long time behind a curtain of modesty and mystery. A close reading of their personal writings unveils their conflicted existence: ambitious, socially committed, and audacious on the one hand, suffering, isolated, and dependent on men on the other, they were both victims and promotors of a nineteenth-century ideal of female submission. As religious and social entrepreneurs these women played an influential role in the revival of the Church and the development of education, health care and social provisions in modern Belgium. But, equally well, they were bound to rigid gender patterns and adherents of an ultramontane church ideology that fundamentally distrusted modern society. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2020-07-22
Mått170 x 238 x 21 mm
Vikt710 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieKADOC-Studies on Religion, Culture and Society
Antal sidor384
FörlagLeuven University Press
ISBN9789462702271

Tillhör följande kategorier

Religion: allmänt inom Filosofi och religion
Genusvetenskap inom Samhälle och politik
Kristendom inom Filosofi och religion

IntroductionPART I RELIGIOUS REVIVAL, ROMANTICISM AND FEMALE ACTION IN A POST-REVOLUTIONARY AGE: FOUR YOUNG WOMEN (ca. 1820-ca. 1860)‘Foremothers’, Revolutions and Revival (ca. 1820-ca. 1848)The female pioneers of the revivalAmbiguous images of womenAut maritus, aut murus? Between marriage and the conventFemale Religious Entrepreneurship on the Offensive (ca. 1848-ca. 1860)Religious education: the female voice of the revivalThe need for male supportEnterprising and discursive mechanismsSocial and political tensions and female agencyThe Spiritual Dialectic of Revival Devotion“L’ eucharistie peut sauver le monde”A plurality of devotional practices and ascetic self-denialA passion paradigmFemale saints as role modelsPART II FEMALE AGENCY AT A TURNING POINT: FOUR CONGREGATION FOUNDERS (1857-1867)Between Longing and Coercion: Spiritual Partnerships“Une religieuse, c’est une paroisse”: frustration and appreciationJesuits: irresistible and unavoidableSoulmates and Rivals: The Power(lessness) of Female AlliancesThe convent as a place of refugeAn alternative family unit: ambiguous female bonding on a micro level“Autel contre autel”: the limits of a wider female coalitionMechelen and Rome: Normative Identity and Ecclesiastical PositioningSterckx’s pragmatic policyBasic feminine inspirationMale implementationContaining the revival: the struggle with the contemplative legacyThe crowning accomplishment: a Roman approvalPART III FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND LEADERSHIP IN AN ULTRAMONTANE CHURCH: FOUR CONVENT SUPERIORS (ca. 1865-ca. 1885) Between Dream and Reality: Charisma and NumbersThe story behind two typical congregations“Les Dames illusionnées”: ambitions and criticismConvents and Castles: An Uneasy AllianceIn the grip of ultramontane elitesA forced turn to the countryside“Au comble du bonheur”: women for womenThe female alliance challengedCrusading in a Convent HabitA modern apostolate, conservative ideasFemale agency, the European culture wars and the missionary driveThe inevitability of the crusade: the School War (1879-1884)The challenge of social CatholicismVictims and religious entrepreneurs: the spiritual dynamics of ultramontanism“Pas assez femme”? Female Leadership in Women’s Convents“Une hostie vivante”: institutionalised self-denialInternal power balancesLay sisters: women among women“Domina ista valde facunda est”Female Leadership in a Male ChurchA double-voiced ‘conventualisation’Gender, power and freedom of conscience: the confessor issueRoman feminism?EpilogueThe Shaping of PerceptionsFanny Kestre: an active “femme forte”, a spiritual “âme simple”Antoinette Cornet: between oblivion and rediscoveryAnna de Meeûs: “trop robuste pour être sainte”Wilhelmina Telghuys: always independentConclusionA Study in AmbiguityTimeline Bibliography Index of names Colophon

The implications of Suenens’s research in 'Humble Women, Powerful Nuns' are quite striking: she has opened up many avenues for future work for other historians. How widespread was this view in the global Catholic Church, for example? Why is it that women with financial means were seemingly more exempt from gendered norms andspaces, and how were these lines drawn? How do we account for personality clashes in these complex, patriarchal worlds and the women who break out beyond the private sphere? Extending even further, this book offers a unique historical reflection on the problems still facing Catholic women today, in the form of a hierarchy of virtue inthe Catholic Church, in which personal virtue is pitted against public virtue in expectations of Catholic concepts of “womanhood” and “femininity”. This book should be of interest to scholars well beyond historians of women religious, as it represents new, interesting ways to think about women in history.Rose Luminiello, Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique (vol. 117, 2022/1-2)