EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800: KATHERINE BUSHNELL P/49

                                                                                                                                                                              

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Katherine Bushnell. She lived from 1855 - 1946. In 1908, Katherine began to write a bible study "God's Word to Women" based on the fact that she had become inspired to study Biblical tranlations during her time in China. At that time she had noticed with indignation that the Chines Bible had changed Paul's fellows from women to men, and after that had vowed to devote a portion of her life solely to a "meticulous examination of male bias that had corrupted the English text."

In her bible study, she works through every biblical portion interpreted to mean that women are inferior to men. This includes the topics of women not being allowed to preach, require subordination to their husbands, polygamy, and head coverings. 

Katherine believed that mistranslations were responsible for the social and spiritual subjugation of women. She writes:"If women must suffer domestic, legislative and ecclesiastical disabilities because Eve sinned, then must the Church harbour the appalling doctrine that Christ did not atone for all sin, because so long as the Church maintains these disabilities, the inevitable conclusion in the average mind will be the same as Tertullian's - God's verdict on the (female) sex still holds good and the sex's guilt must still hold also."

Katherine died in 1946.

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; KATHERINE BUSHNELL P/47

                                                                                                                                                                        

In this story I will focus on a woman named Katherine Bushnell. She lived from 1855 - 1946.I Katherine was born in Evanston, Illinois. Her roots in Christianity were well established from the beginning.

Katherine showed the desire to further her education from an early age and attended Women's Northwestern College (Northwestern University) from 1873 - 1874. She next studied medicine at Chicago Women's Medical College, where she specialised in nerve disorders.

Katherine initially planned on entering postgraduate study but was persuaded by her home church to go to China as a medical missionary in 1879. She served as a medical doctor in Kiukiang, China from 1879 - 1882. However, in 1882, she fell ill and was forced to return home.