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Mamas on Mission: Retracing the Church through the Spiritual Life Writing of Single Female Evangelical Missionaries


This article plumbs the spiritual life writing of two twentieth-century single female evangelical missionaries, Lillian Trasher and Dr. Helen Roseveare, for evidence of the church. It rests on concepts of feminine spirituality and the history of women and mission. The historical analysis traces the women’s lives from their early formation through their mission work and looks at six themes of the church on mission that emerged from their writing. It argues that they served as mamas of the church in their contexts by nurturing life through their acts of compassionate care. Their small but deliberate acts of sacrifice and service continue to pose missiological invitations and challenges to the church. Therefore, the article also builds an initial “mama theology” of the church on mission by examining where images in Isaiah and impulses in mission today intersect with the themes in the women’s writing.