Syrian Women With A Mission: Preaching The Bible And Building The Protestant Church

Abstract

As counterparts to the women writers of the Nahda, Syrian Biblewomen (women evangelists) pursued equally subversive activities as they preached spiritual revival in Muslim, Jewish, and Christian homes and in rural areas far beyond the elite Protestant circles of Beirut. This final chapter pieces together the elusive history of these women preachers who were members of the American mission’s Evangelical Churches but turned to the female-led British Syrian Mission to support their preaching vocations. This research considers how the Victorian era’s conception of “woman’s work for woman” manifested itself in Syria. The chapter introduces another layer of complexity in the Syrian missionary encounter, which brought together American Protestants, Syrians of all religious backgrounds, and members of other Western missionary societies.