Women of Power and Presence: The Spiritual Formation of Four Quaker Women Ministers

These four women came from different backgrounds and they lived and ministered in different contexts. They differed in their understandings of self, God and society. What these four shared, however, was a faith and practice based on a religious experience of the inward presence of God. To this sustaining and guiding presence they committed their lives. Such a commitment led them to live active lives as effective moral agents. They spoke, wrote and acted with power and presence. They knew themselves transformed, and their words and deeds were transformative socially.

What was it about the religious experience of these women that allowed them to overcome social attitudes and practices which encouraged passivity and subordination? What were the psychological processes through which they were empowered to act as effective moral agents? What can their lives say to those of us who stand in their tradition and seek to be faithful ministers in our time?