Gender and Pentecostal Revivalism: Making a Female Ministry in the Early Twentieth Century

Winner of the Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies 2016 Book Award

This innovative volume provides an interdisciplinary, theoretically innovative answer to an enduring question for Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianities: how do women lead churches? This study examines the leadership and legacy of two architects of the Pentecostal movement - Maria Woodworth-Etter and Aimee Semple McPherson.

Praise for Gender and Pentecostal Revivalism:

A “thoughtfully conceived and well-researched study”
- Margaret Bendroth, Executive Director of the Congregational Library and Archives

“This is a good book; a thought-provoking, informative and, not least, interesting exploration of means and effects of female religious authority at the turn of the twentieth century. Leah Payne brings religious studies insight to the compelling story of McPherson and Etter. In doing so, she has added markedly to our understanding of the mysterious success and staying power of two of history’s most interesting religious innovators, as well as contributed to the larger story of America’s female ministry.”
- Kathleen Flake, Bushman Professor of Mormon Studies, University of Virginia

“I find Leah Payne’s pragmatic, ritual-centric approach imperative to understanding how women have created authority in Pentecostalism.”
- Erica Ramirez, Director of Applied Research, Auburn Seminary

“Payne’s well-written and thoroughly-researched volume breaks new ground regarding North American Pentecostalism. Her examination of biblical hermeneutics, apparel, architecture, and preaching shows that Woodworth-Etter’s de-sexualized motherliness and McPherson’s Hollywood glamour enabled each revivalist to sustain an effective public ministry. Breaking the binary of secular feminism and Christian traditionalism, Payne highlights gender issues as pertinent today as they were a century ago.”
- Michael J. McClymond, Professor of Modern Christianity, Saint Louis University

“a fine example of gender history as Payne takes two familiar characters and demonstrates her masterful analysis as a scholar of gender.”
- Linda Ambrose, Professor of History Laurentian University