Michèle MillerSigg: Birthing Revival: Women and Mission in <scp>Nineteenth‐Century</scp> France. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2022; pp. x + 258.

Birthing Revival is an erudite historical narrative of pious and determined women and their role in reviving and furthering the cause of nineteenth-century Evangelical Protestantism in France. Stemming from the Reformation in Germany in 1517, a growing number of Christians voiced their opposition to some of the existing practices of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the practices they strongly opposed was the Roman Catholic indulgence system which enabled people to purchase a certificate of pardon for the punishment of their sins. Some groups challenged certain ideas, for example the rejection of infant baptism (the Anabaptists), but most advocated less dependence on the Catholic Church, its pope and priests and more focus on the individual's relationship with God, using direct reference to the Bible for spiritual wisdom. The Reformers believed that individuals could be saved only by personal faith in Jesus Christ and the grace of God, and that only God could endow pardon to those who have faith. In Birthing Revival Michèle Miller Sigg introduces readers to a religious movement among Protestant women in Paris which began as early as 1826 at the General Assembly of the Paris Evangelical Mission Society, itself only founded in 1822. Among a large assembly of men were just 12 women, members of the new women's committee intent on making their voices heard. Those voices made it clear that their mission was to spread the word of the renewal of the Reformed Church in a practical and compassionate way through engaging in the doing of acts of mercy in concrete and compassionate ways. As stated in the Introduction, Birthing Revival documents the contribution of women to the renewal of the Reformed Church and the birth of mission during the Réveil, a small nineteenth century revival movement among French Protestants living in an overwhelmingly Catholic country. This movement advocated a return to the fundamentals of the Reformation: personal conversion, social activism, and the centrality of the Bible. In her account of Reformation history, Michèle Miller Sigg carefully and painstakingly digs into archival material to revive the women themselves, those whose passion and zeal put them more in the public eye, as well as those shadowy figures who went unrecognised. Their enthusiasm for being included in more active participation in mission work as well as in public settings was looked upon with disdain by their male detractors. Nevertheless they persisted. Sigg points out the specifics of political, social, and religious biases that were prevalent with regard to the role of women during this epoch, not only in France but globally. Because of the prevailing objections to women in ministry, wives often accompanied their preacher husbands to far-flung places like Lesotho in Africa (p. 227), and their assistance became invaluable. As they could not pass on the Christian message from the pulpit, their enthusiasm for spreading the Christian message led them to focus on kindness and caring, for the children and their education, and for the poor and sick members of the community. Their compassionate reports were sent back to French headquarters of the Paris Mission Society in France. While their work was essential to the ongoing work of the Paris Mission, the importance of these reports was made to be less important than the work of male preachers. Detailed reports of life on mission outposts were laid to one side and truncated to the point where Agénor de Gasparin stepped in to defend the women in the 1841 General Assembly asking, “Why have we eliminated the reading [of the women's report], which is always so interesting?” (p. 227). Both well-known and little-known women are at the centre of this book: women who tirelessly and passionately pursued the evangelical, missionary side of Protestantism, and whose diligence was often lost behind a veil of male importance. One especially important figure was Caroline Malveson (1806–1889) who, with Pastor Antoine Vermeil, worked together with the Women's Revival Movement to create the Reformed Deaconesses of France (Chapter 10). The founding and continued success of one particular mission outpost in Lesotho, Africa spans several chapters. While their husbands spoke from the pulpit on the Biblical messages and meanings, many wives acted out the compassion of the same Christian messages: they demonstrated the heart side of Protestantism through their generosity of spirit and their passion to pursue the active side of mission work. The arrival of missionary wives who actively assisted their husbands demonstrated the benefit of female input in far-flung places (p. 227). This book can be read at several different levels, depending on the reader's interests. For the discerning reader interested in the history of the impact of missionaries, the author has also revealed the European mindset, mores, political and social opinions that were prevalent during this time, not only toward women, but toward the “other,” the “savages/heathens.” While some recipients of missionary ardour were successfully convinced of the missionaries' message and their descendants may well have retained those Christian beliefs, in retrospect others might question the enthusiastic “good works” bestowed on them. Some might, and do, question the validity of missionary activity on their people. Persuading Indigenous people to abandon their own belief systems for imported alien beliefs has resulted in both positive and negative outcomes. In both Canada and Australia, for example, the forced removal of children from their families to be integrated into a European way of life is still being felt by the descendants. Birthing Revival is a book rich in cameos of strong women of faith, teasing out the hidden histories of women of substance. As well, it provides more insight into the development of global Evangelicalism and the emergence of the missionary movement in general. Birthing Revival is a book that can be used as a text in universities, theological colleges, and studies in religion with regard to history, women's studies, religion studies, missionary studies, and for those who are particularly interested in the foundation and development of a strong religious movement against a dominant set of values.

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