Missionary work of single German women in China from 1886--1914: A comparison between missiological theory and praxis on the mission field

Combining methods of church and mission history and gender studies, this work examines the contribution of single German female missionaries to China in the late 19th and early 20th century. The author first gives an overview of the state of research in the area. The women's mission movement is considered in the context of the larger male missionary enterprise and of the social situation of women in the German Reich at the time. The framework of the examination of female Protestant missionaries is a very accepted Protestant vocation for single women in Germany: the work of deaconesses of different orders, primarily of the Kaiserswerth Deaconess association. The title "deaconess" was often assigned to the female missionaries or used as a self-designation even though they did not formally belong to deaconess orders during the period examined.; The contrast between male theory and female praxis of missions constitutes the centerpiece of the work. One chapter studies the published opinions regarding women's ministry and the ideological underpinnings of theoreticians of mission. By analyzing diaries, letters and published reports of the female missionaries, aspects of the missionaries' lives which were heretofore unexamined emerge and provide insights into the work of the pioneer German missionaries to China and their manifold relationships to male and female colleagues from different countries and denominations.; The research in primary sources is divided into two sections. The first section is devoted to the outer lives of the missionaries, such as the challenges of language learning, traveling, food, clothing and other aspects of culture and climate. The second section is devoted to the women's inner lives, to their perceptions of calling and to their theological and cultural convictions which they communicated to the Chinese women to whom they felt sent. It is demonstrated that in some aspects, the women clearly represented the convictions of the cultural context from which they came but that in other aspects, their empathy with their "Chinese sisters" and their faith transcended the positions and alliances assigned to them by their home culture. In addition, male theory and female praxis often differed greatly.