Our last reading and discussion concerned feminist theology and some of the contributions that women bring to the study of theology.  As we have learned in previous studies, women have always thought about God and communicated those thoughts to their communities.  For generations women have offered theological ideas but those ideas often went unheard or forgotten after their lifetimes. 

Mrs. Hawies' use of religious language--regeneration, tongues of fire, consecrated, holy--highlights the spirutal dimension as well as the theological purpose of these women writers.  Indeed, their writings--novels, poetry, hymns, devotional literature--were "the work of their hands" offered to both God and community.  Much, perhaps most, of their work was written for didactic purposes.  These women writers were not only writing theology, they were teaching and preaching theology. 

Such writings from "women's hands" are a parallel stream to the male-dominated river of seminary, university, and pulpit.  Interestingly, the male theologians in seminary and university were talking mostly to each other, to an educated elite.  The man in the pulpit addressed the church through sermons which may not have been understood by the congregants.  The man in the pulpit had a Sunday audience; the woman's novel and song were a part of every day life.  The printed page became her pulpit. 

Women writers presented their theology to people from every level of society.  Their word's were heard by families reading aloud, by school children, by mill and factory workers, by workshops of spinisters and seamstresses, by mission societies, by women's social clubs, as well as by solitary reader both male and female, both young and old.  Indeed, these writings were read by those who had little or no interest in theology or indeed in religion.  Thus, these writings were also evangelical.