Doing God’s Spiritual Business: Blanche Perry, and The Churches of Christ, 1890-1980

Many in life perceive of women in the churches of Christ as quiet, passive women who contribute little. I disabuse the idea that women have not played important spiritual roles in the church. My study fills in a missing piece of the historiography of the Churches of Christ as I situate gender, through the spiritual creativity of Blanche Perry in Churches of Christ from the 1930 to the 1960s. Work and determination are the mantra of the Churches of Christ and Blanche Perry was a spiritual laborer who disseminated Christianity to others through spiritual capitalism. This study brings into focus the innovative, academic, artistic efforts of a Christian artist whose art illuminated herself and the Churches of Christ. In so doing, I reveal the efforts of a marginalized Christian woman and highlight the churches’ ability to look at itself individually and collectively. The result is an impressive legacy that pays tribute to Blanche Perry as a Christian woman whose life was a demonstration of determination and faith.

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