stornig.pdf

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Katharina Stornig, Sisters Crossing Boundaries:German Missionary Nuns inColonial Togo and New Guinea, 18971960 (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck &

Ruprecht), 2013.

Specialized historical studies serve historians in ways which general overviews do not: they fill

in the gaps of our general knowledge with specific and tangible proofs of general trends.

Stornigs meticulously researched volume illuminates the attempts of the Catholic Church to

evangelize the inhabitants of Togo and New Guinea at a critical time in its history. It is, in point

of fact, Stornigs revised Doctoral dissertation.

Stornig introduces her work, observing

It was only in the last third of the nineteenth century that women were admitted tothe Catholic mission fields in larger numbers. Yet, even though at that time many

women, like Helena Stollenwerk, enthusiastically volunteered to serve the

renascent Catholic missionary movement, they were considered as the subordinate

assistants to men. The notion of the roles of nuns in missions as a functionsupplementing the proselytizing activities of priests also determined the ideas of

founder Janssen, who in 1891 codified the Servants of the Holy Spirits principle

purpose by the task to aid the works of the Society of the Divine Words

priests in the fields especially through those kinds of work that naturally betterbefit women than men (p. 10).

She then continues

From this point of view, it is hard to imagine that the nuns formed an important

part of (the organization of) Catholic life in German Togo and New Guinea andimpacted on the social relations in both colonies more generally (ibid).


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And then she goes on to show, in her study, exactly how significant the work of these women

was, claiming

The lack of attention paid to missionary nuns active in Togo and New Guinea

mirrors three larger trends in colonial and mission historiography addressing bothregions. First, most historians have focused on Protestant missionaries, a fact thatcan be explained by the better accessibility of Protestany missionary archives and

their less complex, as compared with the Catholic case, institutional involvement.

Second, it reflects the strikingly persistent perception of colonialism as amasculine undertaking which has shaped the analysis of empires for decades.

Third, it relates to the type of archives that historians have consulted and the kind

of evidence they have preferred. Women are under-represented both in colonial

and Church archives. Unlike their husbands, the wives of Protestant missionarieshad no obligation to write to institutions at home or journal editors. Nor were

private letters to relatives recorded in archives or considered by researchers, who

would examine the missions political and economic significance instead (pp. 15-16).

Stornigs style is vivid, shes a masterful storyteller. Her ability to relate events interestingly and

effectively is the mark of both a good historian and good historical writing.

Given the fact that her work, in over 400 pages, elevates the place of women in Catholic

missionary work in one small corner of the world, it provides readers with an open window onthat Church when it was more willing to embrace women in ministry than it presently is.

Perhaps, if the Catholic Church one day wishes to be as open as it once was, it will be so because

it has taken the time to understand its own history.

Stornig commences her Conclusion thusly (after citing a letter from a missionary nun):

On a steamship headed towards Togo, enterprising neo-missionary Sister EulaliaHewing chose these words to open the letter she addressed to her fellow sisters,

who had remained behind. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,

many Catholic women in Germany (just as in other European countries)

participated actively in the the revival of the Catholic missionary movement andresponded enthusiastically to the growing admission of women to the mission

fields. One important result of this was the foundation of several missionary

congregations for nuns that, in the long run, caused the feminization of theCatholic missionary forces. In contrast to many priests and missiologists,

however, who conceived of the nuns move abroad as contributing to the

evangelizing work of priests, many of them, like Sister Eulalia, claimed to travel

in an apostolic function. Missionary nuns in fact transcended the Catholicgendered notion of what it meant to be a disciple; for, theyas women religious

appropriated apostolic ideas to their own ministry (p. 381).


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This rather extensive quote, in a series of extensive quotes, is included in hopes that potential

readers, who are sometimes put off by specific sounding titles (and instead opt for more

exciting ones like The Jesus Family Tomb or The Wife of Jesus) will realize how importantthis volume is (in contrast to the spectacular titles, which seldom turn out to be worthy of a

hearing or reading) and will pick up a copy and work through it. Those who do will be richly

rewarded and their appreciation for formerly unknown women will grow by leaps and bounds.

We stand on the shoulders of giants. Some of them just happen to be women.

Jim West

Quartz Hill School of Theology

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stornig.pdf