An Historiography of Twentieth-Century Women’s Missionary Nursing Through the Lives of Two Sisters: Doing the Lord’s work in Kenya and South India.

Publisher: Routledge

Place of Publication: New York

Abstract:

A history of lives lived true to a profoundly passionate faith, this research monograph draws on a rich collection of hitherto unpublished, original data to offer an historiographic study of twentieth-century Methodist missionary work and women’s active expression of faith, practised at the critical confluence of historical and global changes in Kenya and South India in the twentieth century. Two English Methodist sisters, by birth, by profession and vocation form the central, unifying motif foregrounding a grander historical backdrop marking the closing of British imperialism, and the start of new journeys for independent postcolonial nation states. Muriel and Audrey born at the end of the First World War (the Great War), wove their own lives and experiences into these national and regional stories, albeit in ways that were unknown and unseen beyond the circle of those whose many lives they touched.

The study is contained within the wider context of mission and medicine in colonial and post-colonial contexts but offers a timely revision of aspects of postcolonial literature in placing the fundamental importance of human relationships centre stage. Thereby it debunks prevalent myths decrying wholesale, western religious importation.

Source: Manual