Thinking Through the Methodological and Theoretical Quandaries of Gender and Canadian Pentecostal History

To date, my research has centered on a series of biographies of women who were involved in the Pentecostal movement in Canada during the first half of the twentieth century. These women occupied multiple roles as evangelists, pastors, missionaries, teachers, musicians and writers. This paper concentrates on three issues of theory and methodology that present particular queries and quandaries for researchers of Pentecostal history. The first is a question of approach: “What does a gender history approach bring to the study of Pentecostalism and how is this different from women’s history?” The second is a question of archives: Given that the primary source material available about Canadian Pentecostal women (both unpublished and published) tends to be celebratory, what can be gained from regarding these commemorative texts when they clearly are not unmediated sources? The third is a question of audience: what does a study of women in the Pentecostal movement bring to conversations within Pentecostal faith communities in Canada and also to conversations among academic historians of religion in Canada? Is there a place for building bridges between these two communities

Pentecostal Historiography in Canada: The History Behind the Histories

2019 is the centenary year of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC), and therefore it is both timely and appropriate to reflect on the historiography of denominational histories that have been produced for and promoted by this, the largest of Canadian Pentecostal denominations. Between 1958 and 2018 five different books were published about this denomination, with the PAOC’s endorsement. The authors of these books were clear about the purposes they hoped their work would accomplish, including inspiration for current and future members of the PAOC churches. Writing denominational histories is no easy task. Bruce Guenther, a Canadian Mennonite Church historian and past president of the Canadian Society of Church History, critiques denominational histories in general, saying that many “are poorly written works of triumphalistic hagiography in which well-intentioned amateur historians have copiously compiled as much detail as possible concerning the people, places and events they wish to celebrate or commemorate.” Guenther concedes that while such histories are “an invaluable source of information,” they usually fail to “situate a denominational story within larger social-cultural, national or theological trends.” Pentecostal history books suffer those same weaknesses identified by Guenther. Yet by exploring officially endorsed histories published by the PAOC, one can trace identifiable trends in those books over time. The historiographer’s task is to analyze what has been written and to explain why the presentation of the narrative changes over time. This paper analyzes each of the history books published by PAOC to identify the messages behind the narrative. The paper also provides some context for each book to explain why particular approaches to the history were taken and what the denomination hoped those history books would accomplish

Contributors

Contributor

Review of Michael Wilkinson, 2009. Canadian Pentecostalism: Transition and Transformation. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.

oai:journal.twu.ca:article/2

Notes From the Archives: Preserving Sister Aimee's Story The Foursquare Heritage Archives

After the 2016 meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies in San Dimas, California, the Canadian Journal of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity editors agreed that a feature in our continuing "Notes from the Archives" series focusing on the Foursquare Heritage Archives would be of great interest to the journal's readers. Linda Ambrose corresponded with Foursquare Archivist Steve Zeleny, and what follows is a result of their exchange

Canadian Pentecostal Studies: A Not-So-Final Farewell

Editoria

A New Woman in Print and Practice: The Canadian Literary Career of Madge Robertson Watt, 1890-1907

Madge Robertson Watt was a successful female Canadian writer, editor, and reviewer whose literary career flourished between 1890 and 1907. Robertson wrote prolifically for numerous publications such as the University of Toronto's student paper The Varsity, the Ladies Pictorial Weekly (which she also edited in 1892), The Globe, and the British Columbia-based Victoria Times. During this period, a form of feminism emerged in Canada expressed by women who associated themselves with the phenomenon known as "New Womanhood." Some of the social changes New Women advocated included increased access to higher education, paid work for women, and marriage reform. The purpose of this paper is to consider the journalism career of this Canadian, university-educated woman and to explore the New Woman ideas that are implicit in Watt's writing. Watt's writing contained many of the ideas that were typical of New Woman writers, but compared to the better-known New Woman novelists of the 1890s, her writing was at once both more popular and more conservative because it also perpetuated an air of Victorian propriety by praising traditional female gender roles. Indeed, throughout her writing career, Robertson reflected the ambiguities that Canadian women faced as they adopted elements of New Woman thinking into their writing and their lived experiences