Recovering women's contributions to the history of Christianity is not merely an additive historiographical exercise; it is a destabilizing one. The three papers in this session each confront, from different angles and contexts, the question of what established historical narratives conceal and what new sources, methods, and interpretive frameworks can reveal. From medieval hagiography to twentieth-century mission archives to the autobiographical accounts of the first ordained women in a Scandinavian church, the session demonstrates that gender is not a secondary concern in the History of Christianity but a structuring dimension of how history has been written, transmitted, and silenced.
Drawing on archival recovery, translation theory, and gendered historiographical critique, the papers collectively argue that methodological choices are never neutral, that the sources scholars privilege, the voices they amplify, and the frameworks that they apply determine what counts as the History of Christianity and whose experience shapes its future.
This paper examines how established historiography changes when new categories of sources are introduced. Our point of departure is Swedish historiography on the 1958 reform enabling women’s ordination in the Church of Sweden. Several competing historical narratives frame this reform either as a theological breakthrough, a political compromise, or an institutional crisis. These accounts rely almost exclusively on official documents, such as parliamentary and synod protocols, and on writings by prominent (male) theologians and church leaders.
By introducing a previously unused body of sources – the narratives of the first ordained women themselves – we show how the established historical narratives are complemented and complicated, revealing new insights into a crucial societal and ecclesiastical reform which not only calls for a revised understanding of the past but also reshapes how the future of the church can be imagined.
The medieval Latin hagiography The Life of Christian of Markyate: A Twelfth Century Recluse uses a range of literary devices and Latin wordplay in order to produce an effect known as controlled ambiguity. Medieval Christian literature utilized this in order to provoke its readers into complex theological dialogue, forcing them to navigate challenging and uncomfortable questions of doctrine and practice by refusing to provide straightforward clarity. As a result, ambiguity became a necessary aspect of theological literary production. However, this poses a problem for translation which traditionally prioritizes content accuracy over stylistics. This paper proposes new translations from The Life of Christina as examples of possible interventions in theological translation norms, refocusing on developing new parameters for ambiguity within the target text. By unsettling models for scholarly translation, it suggests new practical methodologies as well as new interpretive frameworks for future scholarship.