Jane Dempsey Douglass

{{Infobox academic

| name = Jane Dempsey Douglass

| image =

| image_upright = 1.136

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| birth_name = Elizabeth Jane Dempsey

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1933|3|22}}

| birth_place = Wilmington, Delaware, US

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| other_names = Elizabeth Jane Dempsey Douglass

| title = President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (1990–1997)

| spouse = {{marriage|Gordon K. Douglass||2017|end=died}}

| awards =

| alma_mater = {{ubl | Syracuse University | Radcliffe College | Harvard University}}

| thesis_title = The Doctrine of Justification in the Preaching of John Geiler of Keiserberg

| thesis_year = 1963

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| school_tradition = {{hlist | Presbyterianism | Christian feminism}}

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| discipline = {{hlist | Theology | history}}

| sub_discipline = {{hlist | Historical theology | ecclesiastical history}}

| workplaces = {{ubl | Claremont Graduate School | Princeton Theological Seminary}}

| doctoral_students = Haruko Nawata Ward{{cite thesis |author=Haruko Nawata Ward |author-link=Haruko Nawata Ward |year=2001 |title=Women and the Jesuits in the Christian Century (1549–1650) in Japan |type=doctoral dissertation |location=Princeton, New Jersey |publisher=Princeton Theological Seminary |page=1 |id={{ProQuest|276243423}}}}

| notable_students = Paul C. H. Lim{{cite web |author=Paul C. H. Lim |author-link=Paul C. H. Lim |date=August 2017 |title=Paul Chang-Ha Lim |url=https://divinity.vanderbilt.edu/people/cvs/PaulLim-CV-AUGUST-2017.pdf |url-status=live |type=curriculum vitae |publisher=Vanderbilt University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114232912/https://divinity.vanderbilt.edu/people/cvs/PaulLim-CV-AUGUST-2017.pdf |archive-date=January 14, 2023}}

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Elizabeth Jane Dempsey Douglass{{cite book |author=Berndt Hamm |author-link=:de:Berndt Hamm |year=2011 |title=Religiosität im späten Mittelalter: Spannungspole, Neuaufbrüche, Normierungen |language=de |location=Tübingen, Germany |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |page=36 |isbn=978-3-16-158592-0}} (born 1933) is an American Presbyterian theologian and ecclesiastical historian. She was a professor at Claremont Graduate School before becoming the Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Historical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Douglass served as the President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches from 1990 to 1997, making her the first woman to head a worldwide communion of churches.

Early life and education

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, on March 22, 1933,{{cite web |title=Douglass, E. Jane Dempsey |url=https://d-nb.info/gnd/1074410289 |publisher=German National Library |access-date=January 23, 2023}}{{cite web |title=Douglass, E. Jane Dempsey |url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85015147.html |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=January 23, 2023}} Douglass is a graduate of Syracuse University (1954), Radcliffe College, and Harvard University.{{cite magazine |author=Stephanie English |title=On Our Short List |date=March 1991 |journal=Syracuse University Magazine |volume=7 |issue=3 |page=7 |url=https://surface.syr.edu/sumagazine/vol7/iss3/4/ |access-date=January 25, 2023}}{{cite magazine |author=Jane Dempsey Douglass |year=1990 |title=What Is 'Reformed Theology'? |url=https://archive.org/details/princetonsemina1111prin_0/page/3 |journal=The Princeton Seminary Bulletin |series=New series |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=3}} She received her Doctor of Philosophy degree from Harvard in 1963 following the submission of her thesis The Doctrine of Justification in the Preaching of John Geiler of Keiserberg.{{cite journal |date=October 2006 |title=Women Th.D. and Ph.D. Graduates of Harvard University |journal=Harvard Theological Review |volume=99 |issue=4 |page=507 |doi=10.1017/S0017816006001386 |issn=1475-4517}} She was married to the economist Gordon K. Douglass until his death in 2017.{{cite news |date=August 3, 2017 |title=Obituary: Gordon Klene Douglass |url=https://claremont-courier.com/obituaries/t24372-douglass-32638/ |url-status=live |work=Claremont Courier |location=Claremont, California |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704062647/https://claremont-courier.com/obituaries/t24372-douglass-32638/ |archive-date=July 4, 2022}}

Academic and ecclesiastical career

Douglass was professor of church history at the Claremont School of Theology, where she was the first female faculty member, and professor of religion at Claremont Graduate School.{{cite journal |author=Jane Dempsey Douglass |date=June 1984 |title=Christian Freedom: What Calvin Learned at the School of Women |journal=Church History |volume=53 |issue=2 |page=155 |doi=10.2307/3165353 |issn=1755-2613 |jstor=3165353}}{{cite web |year=2020 |title=Our Story: The History of Claremont School of Theology at Willamette University |url=https://cst.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Final-Script-with-Footnotes-and-Image-Credits.pdf |url-status=live |publisher=Claremont School of Theology |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817223019/https://cst.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Final-Script-with-Footnotes-and-Image-Credits.pdf |archive-date=August 17, 2022}} She went on to serve as the Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Historical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1985 until her retirement in 1998.Robert W. Edgar (September 10, 1991). Introduction of Jane Dempsey Douglass. [https://archive.org/details/douglassdentierre Convocation of the School of Theology at Claremont] (audio recording). 13:56–14:08.{{cite magazine |author=James F. Kay |author-link=James Franklin Kay |year=1999 |title=A Special Issue Honoring Jane Dempsey Douglass |url=https://archive.org/details/princetonsemina2011prin_0/page/n10 |journal=The Princeton Seminary Bulletin |series=New series |volume=20 |issue=1 |page=v}} In 1983, Douglass was the first female President of the American Society of Church History.{{cite web |author=Paul C. H. Lim |author-link=Paul C. H. Lim |year=2019 |title=2019 ASCH President's Report |url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OY6M7MJ11gqLCuOrvFm6BRi_YaB0uF2i/view |publisher=American Society of Church History |access-date=July 29, 2020}} In the same year, she delivered the Warfield Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary in a series titled Christian Freedom in Calvin's Theology, which led to the publication of her book Women, Freedom, and Calvin in 1985.{{cite book |author=Jane Dempsey Douglass |year=1985 |title=Women, Freedom, and Calvin |url=https://archive.org/details/womenfreedomcalv0000doug |url-access=limited |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Westminster Press |page=7 |isbn=978-0-664-24663-1}}

A Christian feminist,{{cite journal |author=Julia Pitman |year=2011 |title=Feminist Public Theology in the Uniting Church in Australia |journal=International Journal of Public Theology |volume=5 |issue=2 |page=156 |doi=10.1163/156973211X562741 |issn=1569-7320}} Douglass challenged the dominant interpretation of John Calvin's view of the role of women, identifying certain aspects of his thought as protofeminist.{{cite book |author=Nico Vorster |year=2019 |title=The Brightest Mirror of God's Works: John Calvin's Theological Anthropology |location=Eugene, Oregon |publisher=Pickwick Publications |isbn=978-1-5326-6026-9}} Calvin regards the apostle Paul's advice that women should remain silent in church as being adiaphoral, which Douglass argues leaves him open to the possibility of a broader role for women in the church in the future,{{cite journal |author=Jane Dempsey Douglass |date=June 1984 |title=Christian Freedom: What Calvin Learned at the School of Women |journal=Church History |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=155–156 |doi=10.2307/3165353 |issn=1755-2613 |jstor=3165353}} writing: "Though Calvin sees strong biblical guidance for women's subordinate role in the public life of church and society, and though he finds it appropriate for his own society that women should be subordinate, he holds on principle that the order in which women are subordinate is one determined by human law, ecclesiastical and political [rather than divine law]. Such order can legitimately be adapted to changing circumstances."{{cite book |author=Jane Dempsey Douglass |year=1985 |title=Women, Freedom, and Calvin |url=https://archive.org/details/womenfreedomcalv0000doug |url-access=limited |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Westminster Press |page=81 |isbn=978-0-664-24663-1}}

A ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA),{{cite web |author=Sharon Youngs |date=April 12, 2012 |title=220th General Assembly Committee Leadership Named |url=https://www.pcusa.org/news/2012/4/12/220th-general-assembly-committee-leadership-named/ |url-status=live |publisher=Presbyterian Church (USA) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210324052753/https://www.pcusa.org/news/2012/4/12/220th-general-assembly-committee-leadership-named/ |archive-date=March 24, 2021}} Douglass helped draft A Brief Statement of Faith, which is part of the church's Book of Confessions.{{cite news |author=David Briggs |date=June 9, 1991 |title=Church Declares Sexual Equality an Article of Faith |newspaper=The Sun |location=Baltimore, Maryland |page=1B |issn=1930-8965 |id={{ProQuest|407145310}}}} She co-chaired the third round of the Lutheran–Reformed dialogue in North America from 1981 to 1983. Douglass served as the President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches from 1990 to 1997,{{cite news |author=Stephen Brown and Jerry L. Van Marter |date=September 6, 1997 |title=Taiwanese Theologian Elected as President of WARC, Kirkpatrick Elected to Executive Committee |url=https://archive.wfn.org/1997/09/msg00103.html |url-status=live |work=Worldwide Faith News |agency=Presbyterian News Service |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114225920/https://archive.wfn.org/1997/09/msg00103.html |archive-date=January 14, 2023}} making her the first woman to head a worldwide communion of churches.{{cite news |author=Peter Steinfels |author-link=Peter Steinfels |date=August 25, 1990 |title=Religion Notes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/25/us/religion-notes.html |work=The New York Times |page=1.10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525202305/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/25/us/religion-notes.html |archive-date=May 25, 2015}}{{cite news |author=Michael D. Schaffer |date=August 26, 1990 |title=New Calvinist Leader Faces a Balancing Act |newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer |page=B1 |issn=0885-6613 |id={{ProQuest|1835487623}}}}

Douglass has received honorary doctorates from Franklin and Marshall College, the University of St. Andrews, and the University of Geneva. She is commemorated by the American Society of Church History with the Jane Dempsey Douglass Prize, awarded annually to the author of the year's "best unpublished essay on some aspect of the role of women in the history of Christianity".{{cite journal |date=September 1989 |title=Back Matter |journal=Church History |volume=58 |issue=3 |issn=1755-2613 |jstor=3168517}}

Bibliography

{{cite book

|last=Douglass

|first=E. Jane Dempsey

|display-authors=0

|year=1966

|title=Justification in Late Medieval Preaching: A Study of John Geiler of Keisersberg

|url=https://archive.org/details/justificationinl0000doug

|location=Leiden, Netherlands

|publisher=E. J. Brill

|lccn=67007504

}}

{{cite book

|last=Douglass

|first=Jane Dempsey

|display-authors=0

|year=1985

|title=Women, Freedom, and Calvin

|url=https://archive.org/details/womenfreedomcalv0000doug

|location=Philadelphia

|publisher=Westminster Press

|isbn=978-0-664-24663-1

}}

{{cite book

|last=Douglass

|first=E. Jane Dempsey

|display-authors=0

|year=1989

|title=Justification in Late Medieval Preaching: A Study of John Geiler of Keisersberg

|edition=2nd

|location=Leiden, Netherlands

|publisher=E. J. Brill

|doi=10.1163/9789004477728

|isbn=978-90-04-09047-7

}}

[https://archive.org/details/toconfessfaithto0000unse To Confess the Faith Today]. Co-editor with Jack L. Stotts. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. 1990. {{ISBN|978-0-664-25098-0}}.
[https://archive.org/details/womengenderchris0000unse Women, Gender, and Christian Community]. Co-editor with James F. Kay. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. 1997. {{ISBN|978-0-664-25728-6}}.