Book Review: Frances Willard: Advocate for Women -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 15:1 (Winter 2001)
Article: Book Review: Frances Willard: Advocate for Women
Author: Anonymous


Book Review:
Frances Willard: Advocate for Women

Woman in the Pulpit

by Frances Willard

Reprinted by the Women’s Temperance
Publication Society
Chicago, 1978 ‘

President of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), Frances Elizabeth Willard (1839-98) was one of the most influential women in the U.S. of her time. The WCRU, deemed one of the largest nineteenth-century women’s organizations with 2 million members, had a three-pronged mission of abolition, suffrage, and temperance. Comprising an army of women, the WCTU had an outreach ministry to workers of many trades. Convert of a Methodist revival, Willard was a coworker of D. L. Moody.

As an outspoken advocate of women’s suffrage, Willard believed God intends Christian women to advance the well-being of their families through their political vote. She combated prostitution, exposed the need for laws against rape, and called upon fashion designers to eliminate the pencil-thin waistlines that were deforming women’s bodies. As evidence of her own achievement as an educator, she was made president of Northwestern Ladies College, which later became Northwestern University.

Willard was always an advocate of women in ministry. She encouraged women to pursue ministry that was not limited to work among other women, something she herself had often felt confining. She believed God had work for women as evangelists and in every branch of church work and public life. She opposed the prejudice that keeps women from using their gifts for God’s glory.

A brilliant exegete, Willard approached Scripture with a dedication to excellence and consistency, as well as a commitment to women. In 1889, she inspired her peers by writing Woman in the Pulpit, an examination of the interpretive methods used to limit women in ministry. She even invited a renowned biblical scholar who opposed her position to critique her exegesis. Woman in the Pulpit had three main objectives. The first was to advocate the consistency in interpretation of Scripture, and that the difficult passages on women be viewed in light of the main thrust of Scripture. Second, she examined the lives of women already serving in public ministry. Third, she presented both views, offering a platform to theologians on both sides of the issue.

An exegesis of consistency

Tackling faulty methods of reading the Bible, Willard exposed the tendency to interpret select portions of Scripture literally. Why, she asked, do some interpret literally the first part of 1 Timothy 2:11, “Let a woman learn in silence,” yet ignore the remainder of 1 Timothy 2 and the mandate that women avoid braided h...

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