The Methodist Defense of Women in Ministry

“Loud applause to Paul Chilcote for continuing his noteworthy vocation of recovering Methodist women’s substantial presence, influence, and writings. In this latest volume, he recovers specifically their writings on the defense of women in ministry, from Mary Bosanquet in the eighteenth century to Georgia Harkness in the twentieth. His recovery work in this regard not only informs but also, and even more importantly, moves us now—in this present hour—to affirm boldly and unequivocally the full equality of women in ministry.”


—Priscilla Pope-Levison, Southern Methodist University





“Discrimination against women in ministry is very much alive and pernicious as ever in its subtle and blatant forms. In the face of this enduring challenge, Paul Chilcote brilliantly chronicles centuries of biblical, practical, and spiritual defenses for women in ministry by famous and more obscured Methodists. At once scholarly, pastoral, and prophetic, this book is encyclopedic in its documentary scope and eminently useful to all who appreciate the ‘extraordinary call’ of God to ministry.”


—Wendy J. Deichmann, United Theological Seminary





“‘I do not believe every woman is called to speak publicly, nor more than every man to be a Methodist preacher. Yet some have an extraordinary call to it, and woe to them if they obey it not.’ [Mary Bosanquet to John Wesley, 1771] With such telling selections, incredibly exacting commentary, and engagement with the full range of pertinent scholarship, Paul Chilcote covers the long saga of women’s campaign for recognition of such extraordinary calls.”


—Russell E. Richey, Duke University