This edition of Shelf Life first appeared in the Spring/Summer 2008 edition of In Touch magazine. For reprint permission please contact Valerie Rempel.

Recommended Reading from Valerie Rempel, Associate Professor of History and Theology at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary’s Fresno, CA campus. In her course “Women in the Christian Tradition,” Valerie teaches that women have dived into culture as church workers, nuns, mothers, martyrs, missionaries and theologians. The following books, a sampling of what was used in the course, offer insight into their lives and Christian practices.

Women and Christianity: The First Thousand Years by Mary T. Malone (Orbis Books, 2001). This is a highly readable survey of women’s participation in the early life of the church as well as the foundation of the monastic movement.

Elisabeth’s Manly Courage: Testimonials and Songs of Martyred Anabaptist Women in the Low Countries (Marquette Univ. Pres, 2001).This book offers moving first-person accounts of women in the Reformation era willing to follow Jesus no matter what the cost. Their stories are inspirational.

All Love’s Excelling: American Protestant Women in World Mission, by R. Pierce Beaver (Wipf & Stock, 1999). This classic text details the contribution of women to the cause of missions and especially their determination to meet the needs of women and children around the world.

The Christian Home in Victorian America, 1840-1900, by Colleen McDannell (Indiana University Press, 1986). McDannell is fascinated by material culture (books, pictures, decorations, etc.) and uses it to explore how middle-class practices shaped Christian ideas about the importance of the home.

Godly Women: Fundamentalism and Female Power, by Brenda E. Brasher (Rutgers, 1998). This study of women involved in contemporary fundamentalist churches is a respectful exploration of why conservative churches and theological views can be powerfully attractive to modern women.