Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified WorldThe Church of God in Christ (COGIC), an African American Pentecostal denomination founded in 1896, has become the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States today. In this first major study of the church, Anthea Butler examines the religious and social lives of the women in the COGIC Women's Department from its founding in 1911 through the mid-1960s. She finds that the sanctification, or spiritual purity, that these women sought earned them social power both in the church and in the black community. Offering rich, lively accounts of the activities of the Women's Department founders and other members, Butler shows that the COGIC women of the early decades were able to challenge gender roles and to transcend the limited responsibilities that otherwise would have been assigned to them both by churchmen and by white-dominated society. The Great Depression, World War II, and the civil rights movement brought increased social and political involvement, and the Women's Department worked to make the "sanctified world" of the church interact with the broader American society. More than just a community of church mothers, says Butler, COGIC women utilized their spiritual authority, power, and agency to further their contestation and negotiation of gender roles in the church and beyond. |
Other editions - View all
Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World Anthea D. Butler Limited preview - 2007 |
Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World Anthea D. Butler No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
ADBC admonitions African American Church African American women Arenia Mallory Arkansas auxiliaries became began beliefs Bethune’s Bible Bands Bishop Mason black church black women body C. H. Mason called Chicago Defender Christ Christian church members civic engagement Coffey’s COGIC church mothers COGIC members COGIC women convocation denomination dress Elder evangelist fund-raising God’s groups Holiness movement Holy Spirit Hope husband Ibid important Joanna Moore leaders Lillian Brooks Coffey Lizzie Robinson male Mallory's marriage married Mary McLeod Bethune meeting Memphis ministry mission missionaries Mississippi Moral Re-Armament Mother Robinson motherhood NCNW one’s organization overseer pastors Pentecostal practices prayer preachers preaching relationship Saints Industrial School Saints School sanctification sanctified living scripture Sister social sorority speaking in tongues spiritual storefront story teaching tion traditional urban W. E. B. Du Bois Whole Truth woman women of COGIC Women's Convention Women's Department women's roles