Book review: Jackson Wu, Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes: Honor and Shame in Paul’s Message and Mission

Abstract

developed a mission theology. They published articles. They were effective organizers, and the list goes on. But something they did not do was to read their own reports to public assemblies of mission supporters. They decorously handed the reports to a man, who read them to the assemblies for them. Also, the articles they published in mission periodicals were unsigned. Two decades later, on February 6, 1841, Catherine Malvesin and Pastor Antoine Vermeil each wrote a letter to the other proposing the formation of a Protestant order of deaconesses. Their letters crossed in the mail. More letters followed, but when the time came to devise the charter and rules for what became the Deaconesses of Reuilly, Malvesin reserved that prerogative for herself. She both wrote them in her own name and became the order’s first prioress. Times and sensibilities shifted, and women contributed to reviving the Réveil. Perceptive, deeply informed, well organized, and cogently expressed, Birthing Revival is a major contribution to both mission history and women’s studies. I recommend it highly.