Christian Women in Indonesia: A Narrative Study of Gender and Religion (Women and Gender in Religion)

This important book offers an edifying narrative of Indonesian women who find a new and powerful voice in the course of preparing to become Christian Pastors and theologians in their native land. By assuming roles of responsibility, these women stand ready to transform understandings of gender differences that have traditionally governed Indonesian culture, like the notion that women are an inferior sex and not suited to leadership. In a broader sense, they join a growing global course toward gender equality and the evolution of women's spirituality. Frances S. Adeney clearly shows how religious-inspired resistance led these women to create new practices ant theologies designed to foster parity. Realizing that Western ideas are inapplicable to foreign issues of gender and religion, the author sheds light on the twin questions of cultural isolation and the complexities of doing research in the postmodern era.