Published on November 4, 2020 by Sean Flynt  
History professor Delane Tew
History professor Delane Tew

Samford University history professor Delane Tew contributed a chapter to the new book A Marginal Majority: Women, Gender, and a Reimagining of Southern Baptists, edited by Elizabeth H. Flowers and Karen K. Seat. Tew’s chapter–‘“A Greater Influence than You Imagine’: Women Lead the Way to Southern Baptist Centralization”–is part of the book’s examination of the role and history of women in the Southern Baptist Convention.

“This comprehensive volume starts with women as SBC fundraisers, moves to the ways they served Southern Baptist missions, and considers their struggles to find a place at Southern Baptist seminaries as well as their launching of ‘teaching’ or ‘women’s’ ministries,” according the University of Tennessee Press description of the book. “Along the way, it introduces new personalities, offers fresh considerations of familiar figures, and examines the power dynamics of race and class in a denomination that dominated the South and grew into a national behemoth.”

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.