Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Anatomy of a Schism
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Nashville
STATE: TN
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eileen-campbell-reed-33b53b22/ * http://bwim.info/this-is-what-a-minister-looks-like/this-is-what-a-minister-looks-like-eileen-campbell-reed/ * http://synodma.org/gps-30-guest-teacher-bio-page-2/ * https://www.workingpreacher.org/profile/default.aspx?uid=e8f0cfbf80dcf54ee65dc049850eccc9f05f80d18f85f8bb92c46159f03f2544
RESEARCHER NOTES:
Title: Rev. Dr.
Email:
LC control no.: n 99282079
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n99282079
HEADING: Campbell-Reed, Eileen R.
000 00386nz a2200133n 450
001 4977675
005 19991110090938.0
008 991110n| acannaabn |a aaa
010 __ |a n 99282079
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |c DLC
100 1_ |a Campbell-Reed, Eileen R.
400 1_ |a Reed, Eileen R. Campbell-
670 __ |a Campbell-Reed, Eileen R. Being Baptist, c1998: |b t.p. (Eileen R. Campbell-Reed)
953 __ |a sh21
PERSONAL EDUCATION:
Carson Newman College, B.A., 1989; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, M.Div., 1993; Vanderbilt University, M.A., 2006, Ph.D., 2008.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Ordained Baptist minister, 1995; pastor of a Baptist congregation in Cartersville, GA, for five years; Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, codirector of Learning Pastoral Imagination Project, 2009–, visiting instructor in pastoral theology, care, and counseling, 2010-11; Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Central Tennessee Campus, Nashville, coordinator of mentoring, coaching, and internships, 2014–, associate professor of practical theology, 2015–.
MEMBER:American Academy of Religion, National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion, Association for Practical Theology, Society for Pastoral Theology.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Eileen R. Campbell-Reed grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee within the embrace of the Southern Baptist tradition. She attended Sunday school, sang in the children’s choir, and participated in missions education classes. She joined Baptist youth organizations like Girls in Action and Acteens, working her way through the ranks into leadership roles. Campbell-Reed joined the youth ministry program at her local church, where she began to hear the formative strains of a calling to the ministry. Then, in the summer after her high school graduation in 1984, her pastor delivered crushing news.
The Southern Baptist Convention had just passed nearly a dozen Kansas City Resolutions, the most recent of which condemned the ordination of women into the ministry, regardless of local sentiment or individual worthiness. In an interview at Baptist Women in Ministry, Campbell-Reed shared the feeling that the governing body of her denomination, which had nurtured her dream, had just rejected her. She then decided that her call to the ministry had ultimately come from God, and “that took priority over anything Baptists might do or try to hinder my call.”
The next years were filled with challenges. Southern Seminary (also known as Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) became the exclusive domain of the Southern Baptist Convention. Faculty fled in droves to more inclusive institutions, and dissenting pastors moved toward the new, theologically moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the progressive Alliance of Baptists. Campbell-Reed eventually left the Convention as well but despite her ordination in 1995, she struggled to find a church that would welcome a female pastor into the congregation. She found her place at the Heritage Baptist Church in Cartersville, Georgia, where both men and women were equally welcome to lead, and where all Protestant denominations were welcome to worship. For five years, she was able to practice every element of her calling.
In 2009 Campbell-Reed moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, to join the faculty at Luther Seminary as a codirector of the Learning Pastoral Care Project. There, in “the first genuinely national, ecumenical and longitudinal study of ministry,” according to her interview at Baptist Women in Ministry, she was able to guide fifty recent seminary graduates along the path to ministries of their own. She also published her first book, Being Baptist: A Resource for Individual and Group Study. In it she writes about what it means to be a Baptist, including anecdotes from the lives of others, and offers tips on teaching procedures, sample study sessions, and resources for newcomers to the field of pastoral care.
In 2014 Campbell-Reed moved back to Tennessee, to the Nashville campus of Central Baptist Theological Seminary. No longer simply a mentor, she became a coordinator of mentoring, coaching, and internships, and a professor of practical theology. She wrote at her blog, Eileen Campbell-Reed: Keeper of the Fire: “I work at the intersections of ministry, theological education, and spiritual practice” from the perspective of “a public theologian.”
One recurring target of Campbell-Reed’s research has been the role of women clergy in a church body that so firmly rejected them in 1984. This is the topic of her book, Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen’s Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention. The author’s original objective was to learn how her colleagues “seemed to thrive when all the odds were stacked against them,” she commented at Baptist Women in Ministry. She was curious about how the schism and its aftermath impacted their lives and careers. As she interviewed the five women whose stories would appear in the book, however, Campbell-Reed also began to wonder how their success had impacted the denomination in which they work.
Although Campbell-Reed makes a determined effort to maintain a nonpartisan narrative, the very gender of her subjects identifies them as members of the moderate, or autonomous, faction that permits women to engage in pastoral ministry. Campbell-Reed explores the experiences of these women from psychological, theological, and gendered perspectives. Their stories reflect the extent to which “the women’s presence and challenge … provoked fear and anxiety” within the traditional faction of the Southern Baptist Convention, observed reviewer Matthew S. Beal at Reading Religion. Campbell-Reed peers beyond theological doctrine to examine its impact upon daily life; for example, the identity crisis created by a move away from strictly biblical classifications of men as leaders and women as servants of both church and family. From a gendered point of view, one of Campbell-Reed’s interviewees enables her to look at the fracture “as a redemptive struggle,” according to Beal, while another demonstrates “generational changes” toward “increased openness.” As she explained at Baptist Women in Ministry, Campbell-Reed realized that women clergy were not only writing their own stories as they went along, they were also “helping to reshape the meaning of being a Baptist and being a minister in the twenty-first century.”
Merrill Hawkins noted in the Journal of Southern History that Campbell-Reed has tackled “a largely unexplored dimension of the conflict: the lives of women.” Although he called for additional research on women who identify with the conservative (or “biblicist”) faction of the denomination, he labeled Anatomy of a Schism “an important analysis of contemporary Southern Baptist history.” In Christian Century, Mary Clark Moschella commended Campbell-Reed for her “prodigious historical research.” Beal summarized the study as “a probing, insightful, and creative contribution … and a fresh interpretation of a crucial period in the Baptist struggle for identity.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Christian Century, October 12, 2016, Mary Clark Moschella, review of Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen’s Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention, p. 27.
Journal of Southern History, May, 2017, Merrill Hawkins, review of Anatomy of a Schism, p. 483.
ONLINE
Baptist Women in Ministry, http://bwim.info/ (September 7, 2017), author interview.
Boston University Web site, http://www.bu.edu/ (December 16, 2016), Matthew S. Beal, review of Anatomy of a Schism.
Eileen Campbell-Reed: Keeper of the Fire, http://eileencampbellreed.org (September 6, 2017).
Reading Religion, http://readingreligion.org/ (September 26, 2016), Matthew S. Beal, review of Anatomy of a Schism.
Smith & Helwys Website, http://www.helwys.com/ (September 7, 2017), book description.
Rev. Dr. Eileen Campbell-Reed is an ordained minister, practical theologian, and co-director of the Learning Pastoral Imagination Project, a national, ecumenical, and longitudinal study of ministry. She is also associate professor of practical theology and coordinator of mentoring, coaching and internship for Central Tennessee, a satellite campus of Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Shawnee, Kansas.
About
eileen-campbell-reed-keeper-of-the-firea-blog-on-learning-ministry-spiritual-practice-1
<>. This virtual space allows me to make my thinking and practice more accountable as <>. To that end, I write for ministers, and church leaders, scholars and fellow writers, and people of faith who are looking for some companionship on how to get through life. So I blog here on a variety of topics.
_mg_6806-22
I’m really interested in how you are learning to live creatively in your world. So you are invited to “think aloud” with me about what you know and how you learn about wise practices of ministry, teaching, praying, writing and living.
You can find more about my publications, teaching, and work on:
Research Gate
Academia.Edu
Google Scholar
Central Tennessee
Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen’s Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Most of the photographs on this blog were taken by Eileen or with her camera. If you want to use a photo, please write for permission (eileen DOT campbellreed AT gmail DOT com). Thanks!
REV. EILEEN CAMPBELL‐REED
ECR Picture.jpg
Eileen Campbell‐Reed co-directs the Learning Pastoral Imagination (LPI) Project at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and teaches as a Visiting Instructor in the areas of pastoral theology, care and counseling. Starting points for her research include clergy narratives, practices of ministry, pedagogies in theological education, and recent forays into Southern and popular cultures.
Eileen earned a Master of Arts (2006) and Doctor of Philosophy (2008) in Religion, Psychology and Culture from Vanderbilt University. She also earned a Master of Divinity with an emphasis in pastoral care from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (1993) and a Bachelor of Arts in religion and communications from Carson Newman College (1989). She was ordained for ministry by her home congregation in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1995, and served a congregation in Georgia for more than five years before returning to graduate school.
Eileen is a member of the Society for Pastoral Theology, and co-chairs the Church and Christian Formation study group. She is also a member of the Association of Practical Theology, and the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion. Since 2000 she has been a member of the American Academy of Religion, serving as a member of the Steering Committee for the Psychology, Culture and Religion group since 2008.
Experience
Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Nashville, TN
Associate Professor
Dates Employed Jul 2015 – Present
Coordinator for Coaching, Mentoring, Internship
Dates Employed May 2014 – Present
Luther Seminary
Co-Director - Learning Pastoral Imagination Project
Dates Employed Jan 2009 – Present
Visiting Instructor of Congregational and Community Care
Company Name Luther Seminary
Dates Employed Jun 2010 – Aug 2011 Employment Duration 1 yr 3 mos
Added by sketchwriter:
Author interview, published April 22, 2016
Each Friday Baptist Women in Ministry introduces an amazing minister, and this week we are pleased to introduce Eileen Campbell-Reed.
Eileen, tell us about your ministry journey.
As a girl growing up in a Baptist church, I was not only baptized at the age of seven, but also saturated in a Baptist world … showing up for Sunday school, memorizing scripture in Bible Drill, singing in children’s choir and attending missions education on Wednesday nights. I was a member of GA (Girls in Action), what historian Bill Leonard likes to call Baptist Girl Scouts. I earned my GA badges, and when I hit middle school, I became an Acteen. Now Acteens is one part geography lesson, two parts achievement program, three parts teenage girlish angst, with a healthy dose of missionary zeal thrown in for good measure. I worked through the Acteens’ achievement program and became a Queen Regent in service … crown, scepter, cape and pin. That made me as close to a Baptist debutante as one can get without the actual social manners lessons or debutante ball. Instead we held a worship service on a Sunday night once a year in the spring. We walked down the aisle to a trumpet playing “God of our Fathers” and received our regalia. Most years we gave short speeches about what we had learned. Not sermons, mind you. Then we ate cookies and drank punch in the fellowship hall. Definitely no dancing.
When I look back, I suppose I spent a lot of my early life working through Baptist achievement programs. And yet I wanted so much more out of my church and spiritual life. The youth ministry program at my church helped me on this quest for more. It was on one of many summer mission trips that I realized I could continue doing what I loved – teaching, leading, organizing for the sake of loving my neighbors as Jesus taught. Such work might even become my career! My sense of vocation and calling emerged out of the work of teaching children, working collaboratively with other youth, and participating in God’s love and mercy. What I would have said at the time was that I felt called to keep sharing that love and to make that the focus of my life and work.
I decided on my seminary before I even got to college. What I didn’t know was how much going to Southern Seminary in Louisville would shape the rest of my journey into ministry…
What challenges have you encountered along the way?
I often say that my entire ministry formation – beginning in 1984 with my senior year in high school – took place in a “crucible of conflict.” That year Southern Baptists passed the now infamous “Kansas City resolution,” condemning the ordination of women to pastoral ministries. I remember vividly sitting on the back row in the sanctuary of my childhood church. It was summer – just after my graduation. I heard my pastor, Hershel Chevallier, reporting on his trip to the SBC and the passage of that resolution. That moment presented me with a lasting epiphany: I was crystal clear that Baptists had raised me and called me to ministry, and yet on some large scale they were telling me that I couldn’t pursue that calling. I felt sure this could not be right. I was determined even more to fulfill my calling no matter what the resolution said. The call was not only from Baptists but also from God. <
And try they did. In college my professors suffered the indignities of having their classes recorded and their jobs threatened. In seminary the whole school was under siege as Southern Baptists took over the board of trust and ousted our president Roy Honeycutt. Professors were fleeing at an alarming rate. Nearly twenty of them left in the years I was a student. Eventually many professors became the leaders in the new schools that stepped into the educational gap that opened up for those of us who departed the SBC, those who believed women were called to ministry. I graduated in the last class at Southern Seminary with leadership from Dr. Honeycutt.
It took me nearly two years to find my first place of service in ministry. Those were really challenging months. I interviewed at twelve different churches and agencies. In those days of the early 1990s, there was so much transition with churches leaving the SBC and trying to figure out where they belonged. Calling women to serve was a part of the politics of the day, and finding a church that really wanted me and my gifts – getting the right fit (and not just the politics) was so important to me. I did land at just such a place. And I served Heritage Baptist Church in Cartersville, Georgia, for over five years. I learned so much while immersed in that new kind of Baptist place – a church begun out of conflict and choosing to affiliate only with the newer Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Alliance of Baptists. They let me get my feet wet in all kinds of ministry and really try on the pastoral role fully … preaching and teaching, marrying and burying, baptizing and presiding. All the while I also led youth ministry and Christian education for the church.
My childhood church ordained me soon after seminary, and when I had begun my work at Heritage. It was another five years before my home congregation ordained some women as deacons for the first time. I’ll likely be the only woman ever ordained by that church for congregational ministry.
I understand my ministry now to be teaching, supporting, and encouraging new ministers. I do this with my seminary classes, my research and writing, and through relationships with young (and older) men and women who are pursuing their call to ministry. In the Learning Pastoral Imagination Project we are following along fifty women and men as they move from seminary to ministry. This is <
Tell us about your book Anatomy of a Schism. What did you learn from the research and writing about Baptist women ministers?
Wow. I have learned so much. The project really began when I went to graduate school at Vanderbilt. I wanted to know how it was that Baptist clergywomen <
This shift really let the project accelerate into a new kind of interpretation – one that is psychological, theological, and pays attention to the function of gender – of the SBC schism. The women’s stories are valuable totally on their own. They teach us many important things about ministry, about the part that our unconscious understandings of gender play in church life and theological understandings. They show vividly some of the embodied and relational learning required for good ministry practice. Yet the clergywomen’s lives are also like windows into the living history of Baptist identity and social conflict in the late twentieth century. Each woman’s story works like a case study for the gifts and challenges of learning ministry over time, and also like a rich well of insights about what was at stake in the SBC during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
For instance, Baptist clergywomen and their supporters weren’t simply trying to “prove a point” or “win their rights” as ministers. Nor were they merely symbols of a fight between men – tossed around like a football. Women were acting as agents – lead characters if you will – in their own stories. They struggled to live their callings in a new way, to see themselves and be seen by others as fully human – not second class ministers or people. In the process they imagined – and more importantly lived – their callings in ways that reached for authenticity and redemption. And along the way they were <
What advice would you give to a teenage girl who is discerning a call to ministry?
Pay attention. That is the spiritual work of this life. No matter what you might (or might not) be called to do, paying attention is at the heart of your calling. God’s wake up calls are everywhere around us: the yellow-green of the leaves for just that one week in April …. the five perfect bluebird eggs … the whispered encouragement from your grandmother … that urgency to read more and preach better. But if we’re not paying attention, we are likely to miss these wake up calls. One of the best ways to learn the quality of careful attention is to pray. Not so much with words and talk but with silence and breathing.
Find someone who will walk with you and talk with you and help you pay attention to your life and your calling. None of us has all the wisdom or all the learning. We really need each other and our best learning comes in community. Look for peers, mentors and teachers who really get the game of ministry and can help you learn to play it. Like other games (playing the guitar or cooking or parenting) rules are important and necessary. But rules alone don’t give you all you need for the improvisation required for such complex and rewarding games. Find folks who can give you loving support and honest feedback. A challenging combination, but people who can do this are the very best for supporting the long journey into learning the practice of ministry. In our times we need all the support, feedback and companionship we can get!
Being Baptist book description
Book Description
What does it mean to be a Baptist? Eileen Campbell-Reed’s retelling of the Baptist story is refreshing. For the Baptist newcomer, Campbell-Reed shares the reasons why we are as we have become and offers a positive sense of direction for growth in Christian faith and church life. She encourages experienced Baptists to live their faith traditions anew.
Being Baptist is a remarkably readable, easy to use resource, well suited for:
• equipping newer members of the local church with solid handles on Baptist faith and practice
• re-energizing longer-term local church members with an appreciation for the continuing dynamic contribution of Baptist life to the whole Christian Church
• sharing the breadth of Baptist life with interested non-Baptists through a warmly engaging account of major personalities and shaping issues
For use as an individual learning or group experience resource, Being Baptist provides:
• teaching procedures appropriate for adults and for youth
• study sessions addressing Baptist identity, worship, service and missions
• stories about the people who gave life to the Baptist way of faith
• resource pages for each learning session
• well conceived and proven ideas for welcoming new church members
From Google:
What does it mean to be a Baptist? Eileen Campbell-Reed's retelling of the Baptist story is refreshing. For the Baptist newcomer, Campbell-Reed shares the reasons why we are as we have become and offers a positive sense of direction for growth in Christian faith and church life. She encourages experienced Baptists to live their faith traditions anew. Being Baptist is a remarkably readable, easy to use resource, well suited for: ? equipping newer members of the local church with solid handles on Baptist faith and practice ? re-energizing longer-term local church members with an appreciation for the continuing dynamic contribution of Baptist life to the whole Christian Church ? sharing the breadth of Baptist life with interested non-Baptists through a warmly engaging account of major personalities and shaping issues For use as an individual learning or group experience resource, Being Baptist provides: ? teaching procedures appropriate for adults and for youth
Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen's
Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the
Southern Baptist Convention
Merrill Hawkins
Journal of Southern History.
83.2 (May 2017): p483.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Southern Historical Association
http://www.uga.edu/~sha
Full Text:
Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen's Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention.
By Eileen R. Campbell Reed. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2016. Pp. xii, 212. Paper. $34.95, ISBN 978-
1-62190-178-5.)
A denomination founded on the basis of schism--an 1845 split between proslavery and antislavery Baptists--the
Southern Baptist Convention occupies an important role in the history of religion in the American South, as well as in
the United States. From 1979 through 2000, this denomination experienced a conflict between two factions. At the end
of this period, one faction gained control of the denomination, and the other faction departed to form new
denominational entities. Examinations of this conflict rest on the border between history and current events.
Scholars have, however, produced important works of scholarship paving the way for Eileen R. Campbell-Reed's
study. These works include Ellen M. Rosenberg's The Southern Baptists: A Subculture in Transition (Knoxville,
1989), Bill Leonard's God's Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention (Grand
Rapids, Mich., 1990), and Nancy Tatom Ammerman's Baptist Battles: Social Change and Religious Conflict in the
Southern Baptist Convention (New Brunswick, N.J., 1990). In addition to these academic studies grounded in the
scholarship of the respective disciplines of the authors, a number of people personally involved in the conflict have
produced well-written and informative books of advocacy that provide helpful narratives and chronologies, as well as
partisan accounts from a particular vantage point. Campbell-Reed has consulted these and many other studies, offering
a critical engagement with them. Her nonpartisan academic study also adds to the literature by examining <>. While the conflict within the Southern Baptist Convention
involved positions on women--conservatives opposed women in ministry while moderates supported women in
ministry or, more accurately, did not actively oppose women in ministry--few studies examine women themselves.
Campbell-Reed, through interviews with women in ministry affected by the conflict, provides a different and
important examination of this period through the framework of gender In addition to gender Campbell-Reed provides
a theological and a psychological analysis of the experiences of the five clergywomen she has interviewed.
Interdisciplinary in its grounding. Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen's Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of
the Southern Baptist Convention reads as a narrative history in its content.
Campbell-Reed correctly presents her study as nonpartisan and distinct from earlier studies that have a tone of
advocacy about them. One way she approaches historical objectivity is through avoiding descriptors used by the
factions involved, replacing "moderate" with "autonomist" and "conservative" with "biblicist," and referring to the
conflict as a "schism" rather than a "takeover" (pp. 8-9). The book does have a very precise focus on one aspect of
gender. The five women interviewed are in sympathy with the autonomist party. Additional studies will be needed to
show the gendered dimensions of fundamentalism, including those women who embrace a fundamentalist identity
within American religion. Campbell-Reed creates <
9/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1504636050965 2/3
using new methodologies and examining women, who have been understudied. Historians will find her analysis
helpful, and they will find that the extensive quotations from the interviews provide important information about
women who opposed changing directions in the Southern Baptist Convention at the end of the twentieth century.
Merrill Hawkins
Carson-Newman University
Hawkins, Merrill
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Hawkins, Merrill. "Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen's Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern
Baptist Convention." Journal of Southern History, vol. 83, no. 2, 2017, p. 483+. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA495476275&it=r&asid=fe313fc7d33a0351df8b90f963507856.
Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495476275
---
9/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1504636050965 3/3
Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen's
Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the
Southern Baptist Convention
Mary Clark Moschella
The Christian Century.
133.21 (Oct. 12, 2016): p27.
COPYRIGHT 2016 The Christian Century Foundation
http://www.christiancentury.org
Full Text:
Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen's Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention,
by Eileen R. Campbell-Reed (University of Tennessee Press, 212 pp., $34.95 paperback). <
emphasizes the role of clergywomen. Through a close reading of five particular clergywomen's stories, CampbellReed
narrates the struggle within the SBC between biblicists and autonomists, highlighting its gendered,
psychological, and theological dimensions. She illuminates the ways in which the meaning of being human and the
theology and practice of ministry are reimagined through the protracted struggle.
Selected by Mary Clark Moschella, who teaches pastoral care and counseling at Yale Divinity School and is the author
of Ethnography as a Pastoral Practice: An Introduction (Pilgrim) and Caring for Joy: Narrative, Theology, and Practice
(Brill).
Moschella, Mary Clark
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Moschella, Mary Clark. "Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen's Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the
Southern Baptist Convention." The Christian Century, vol. 133, no. 21, 2016, p. 27. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA472473118&it=r&asid=4f6fcfd1781315026ccfa78ba00a93c5.
Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A472473118
Skip to main content
Home
SUBMIT
Main menu
Featured Reviewed Reviews Coming Soon Available for Review All Books Editor's Corner About
HOME
Anatomy of a Schism
Link to Publisher's Website
Anatomy of a Schism
How Clergywomen's Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention
Reddit icone-mail iconTwitter iconFacebook iconGoogle iconLinkedIn icon
Eileen R. Campbell-Reed
Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press , April 2016. 212 pages.
$34.95. Paperback. ISBN 9781621901785. For other formats: Link to Publisher's Website.
Review
The struggle for Baptist identity that split the Southern Baptist Convention in the latter decades of the twentieth century has generated much discussion and analysis. The debate centered on the matter of women’s ordination and the degree to which Baptists would uphold the autonomy of local churches. In Anatomy of a Schism, Eileen R. Campbell-Reed notes, “almost all of the academic and partisan literature interpreting the schism lacks an adequate analysis of the roles, identities, or contributions of actual women” (5). To rectify this deficiency, Campbell-Reed attends closely to women’s stories through qualitative interviews, treating them as rich, paradigmatic readings of the schism. She thus moves “women’s narratives front and center” in the conviction that doing so “shows how clergywomen’s stories offer a compelling new structure for understanding the plot of Southern Baptists at the close of the twentieth century” (3). Through the analysis of the stories of five Baptist women, Campbell-Reed moves the conversation beyond the usual construal of the schism as an ecclesial power struggle, reinterpreting it through gendered, psychological, and theological lenses.
Through the lens of gender, Campbell-Reed interrogates the male normativity inherent in both sides of the schism by virtue of their shared social location within the Baptist context, and makes visible the agency and desires of the female others so often silenced (9-11). The psychological lens illuminates how <
Each chapter consists of an orientation to the chapter’s emphasis followed by the narrative of a particular Baptist woman (with identifying information altered to protect anonymity). The bulk of each chapter, however, consists of an analysis of how the woman’s narrative both images and informs the struggle for Baptist identity during the years of schism. The first three chapters place a general emphasis on psychological perspectives, while the final two emphasize the theological. Anna’s story in chapter 1 shows how the schism “cut a line right through her internal life and her relationships” (25). Clergywomen embodied the split, functioning as both symbols of and agents within the schism and, importantly, embodying the “servanthood dilemma,” which makes explicit the profound differences between the male and female experiences of self-giving servant leadership. Within male-privileging systems, men can “heroically” lower themselves to servant leadership, while women are expected to be servile by default. Thus “the stakes are quite different” for women, and they face a double-bind when pursuing a sense of call (43). Chapter 2 not only highlights how Martha’s psychological experience mirrors the schism’s characteristic problems and opportunities, it also emphasizes the way that autonomists, despite their stated intention to uphold equality, ambiguously reproduced aspects of gender complementarity “in both their practice and rhetoric” (61). Chapter 3 engages Joanna’s narrative to explore the tensions between subjectivity and intersubjectivity, personal agency and relational space. The chapter views the tension of this period as both “a relational rupture and a time of renewal” (71-72). Joanna’s story further reflects how polarization impairs the creative tensions inherent in five distinctively Baptist tensions, and how psychological reframing can foster healing and creativity in the pursuit of call (90-91). Rebecca’s story in chapter 4 offers the opportunity to view the schism <
Campbell-Reed’s integrative analysis is informed, richly, by leading scholars in diverse but relevant fields. She builds on previous studies in Baptist life and identity by, for example, Nancy Ammerman and Bill Leonard. Psychologically, her work emphasizes the analytic tradition of theorists such as Jessica Benjamin and Nancy Chodorow, as well Judith Butler’s work in gender studies. Theologically, she emphasizes the contributions of Edward Farley, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, and Molly Marshall, among others.
Campbell-Reed initially indicates her choice “not to embrace too closely the rhetoric of either of the main parties in the schism, and to signal an academic rather than partisan engagement” (8). She does this in part by referring to the factions by coining the terms autonomist and biblicist rather than using the more polarizing terms liberal/conservative. This is a helpful move. However, it is clearly implicit throughout the book that her theological perspective is consistent with autonomist principles. In light of this it would be helpful for her to incorporate reflexivity more explicitly in the text. This reflexivity would be particularly appropriate in light of Campbell-Reed’s emphasis on the “cultural shift away from rational deliberation toward situated knowing” (129). It would be helpful to know more about her situated approach to the research. Additionally, more attention to her research methods—perhaps in an appendix—would have been helpful. How were the subjects selected and interviewed? How was data gathered and analyzed? Did participants have a voice in the final product? A search of ProQuest revealed that Campbell-Reed’s dissertation—which provided the foundation for this book—engages extensively with her research methods. I think it would have been helpful to include some information on method and a reflexive component here as well.
These minor caveats notwithstanding, the book makes a vital contribution to analysis of the Baptist schism of the late twentieth century, offering a fresh, critical perspective, and privileging voices that research has heretofore neglected. The result is <> which provides both a model for subsequent practical theological research incorporating ethnography, <
About the Reviewer(s):
Matthew S. Beal is a doctoral student at Boston University School of Theology.
Date of Review:
September 26, 2016
About the Author(s)/Editor(s)/Translator(s):
Eileen R. Campbell-Reed is Coordinator for Coaching, Mentoring & Internship and Associate Professor of Practical Theology, Central Tennessee.
Categories: anthropology 21st century gender religious leaders feminism United States and Canada Christianity women
Keywords: Southern Baptists, women's ordination
Add New Comment
Reading Religion welcomes comments from AAR members, and you may leave a comment below by logging in with your AAR Member ID and password. Please read our policy on commenting.
Log in to post comments
Terms of Use | Contact Us | RSS
© 2017 American Academy of Religion. All Rights Reserved. ISSN 2475-207X
School of Theology
Center for Practical Theology
About Us
Mission
What is Practical Theology?
Directors & Staff
Visiting Researchers
Contact Us
CPT Today
Book Reviews
News and Events
Opportunities
Perspectives
Practical Theology Profiles
Research Reflections
Projects
Congregational Research and Development
Feminist and Womanist Practical Theology
Finding Faith Today
Homiletical Theology Project
Poverty Justice Initiative
Spiritual Formation & Church Life
Theology and Social Engagement
Past Projects
Doctoral Program
Practical Theology Faculty
Practical Theology Doctoral Students
Practical Theology Doctoral Alumni
Additional Information
Annual Lectures
2008 Annual Lecture
2009 Annual Lecture
2010 Annual Lecture
2011 Annual Lecture
2012 Annual Lecture
2013 Annual Lecture
2014 Annual Lecture
2015 Annual Lecture
2016 Annual Lecture
Resources
Centers & Institutes
Articles
Practical Theology Bibliography
AAR Reading Religion Book Review: Anatomy of a Schism
imagesToday we are featuring STH doctoral student Matthew S. Beal’s review of Eileen R. Campbell-Reed’s Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen’s Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention. Below is the beginning of Matt’s review, and be sure to visit the Reading Religion website for the full review.
Reading Religion (RR) is an open book review website published by the American Academy of Religion (AAR). The site provides up-to-date coverage of scholarly publishing in religious studies, reviewed by scholars with special interest and/or expertise in the relevant subfields.
Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomen’s Narratives Reinterpret the Fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention by Eileen R. Campbell-Reed
Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, April 2016. 212 pages. $34.95. Paperback. ISBN 9781621901785. For other formats: Link to Publisher’s Website.
Review
The struggle for Baptist identity that split the Southern Baptist Convention in the latter decades of the twentieth century has generated much discussion and analysis. The debate centered on the matter of women’s ordination and the degree to which Baptists would uphold the autonomy of local churches. In Anatomy of a Schism, Eileen R. Campbell-Reed notes, “almost all of the academic and partisan literature interpreting the schism lacks an adequate analysis of the roles, identities, or contributions of actual women” (5). To rectify this deficiency, Campbell-Reed attends closely to women’s stories through qualitative interviews, treating them as rich, paradigmatic readings of the schism. She thus moves “women’s narratives front and center” in the conviction that doing so “shows how clergywomen’s stories offer a compelling new structure for understanding the plot of Southern Baptists at the close of the twentieth century” (3). Through the analysis of the stories of five Baptist women, Campbell-Reed moves the conversation beyond the usual construal of the schism as an ecclesial power struggle, reinterpreting it through gendered, psychological, and theological lenses. Follow this link to read more of Beal’s review of Anatomy of a Schism.
AAR Reading Religion Book Review: Anatomy of a Schism
Posted 9 months ago on Friday, December 16th, 2016 in Book Reviews
View all posts