Timothy Willem Jones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199655106
- eISBN:
- 9780191744952
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199655106.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Religion
This chapter explores the significance of the revival of women’s religious orders on Anglican sexual politics. It compares the revival of the order of deaconesses with that of the sisterhoods, or ...
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This chapter explores the significance of the revival of women’s religious orders on Anglican sexual politics. It compares the revival of the order of deaconesses with that of the sisterhoods, or nuns. Both movements utilized Victorian notions of social motherhood to enable middle-class women to expand their sphere of activity, often free from direct male authority. Deaconess’s ancient genealogy and sacral ambiguity, the unresolved question of their place in Holy Orders, meant that they grew less rapidly than the sisterhoods. It also, however, meant that they posed a much more substantial challenge to Anglican sexual metaphysics.Less
This chapter explores the significance of the revival of women’s religious orders on Anglican sexual politics. It compares the revival of the order of deaconesses with that of the sisterhoods, or nuns. Both movements utilized Victorian notions of social motherhood to enable middle-class women to expand their sphere of activity, often free from direct male authority. Deaconess’s ancient genealogy and sacral ambiguity, the unresolved question of their place in Holy Orders, meant that they grew less rapidly than the sisterhoods. It also, however, meant that they posed a much more substantial challenge to Anglican sexual metaphysics.
