Guatemalan Mennonite women at prayer : religious heritages and social circumstances shape the prayers of Ladina and Q'eqchi' women

Janet Marie Breneman

Etd

Guatemalan Mennonite women at prayer : religious heritages and social circumstances shape the prayers of Ladina and Q'eqchi' women

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MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Janet Marie Breneman. Guatemalan Mennonite Women At Prayer : Religious Heritages and Social Circumstances Shape the Prayers of Ladina and Q'eqchi' Women. rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/7b0a2b8d-705f-42dd-a217-05df52d5ef64.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

J. M. Breneman. Guatemalan Mennonite women at prayer : religious heritages and social circumstances shape the prayers of Ladina and Q'eqchi' women. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/7b0a2b8d-705f-42dd-a217-05df52d5ef64

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Janet Marie Breneman. Guatemalan Mennonite Women At Prayer : Religious Heritages and Social Circumstances Shape the Prayers of Ladina and Q'eqchi' Women. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/7b0a2b8d-705f-42dd-a217-05df52d5ef64.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

Creator

Janet Marie Breneman

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Abstract

Having lived and worked with the Mennonite churches in Central America for twenty-five years, I became very interested in women's practice of prayer, why they pray, and how their prayers are influenced by the cultures and spiritual backgrounds from which they come. This dissertation investigates how the spoken prayers of first generation Mennonite Ladina and Q'eqchi' (Maya indigenous) women in Guatemala reflect and integrate their Maya and Roman Catholic heritages, as well as their life realities within situations of violence, prejudice, recent civil war and poverty. The dissertation includes, as background for the investigation, brief descriptions of early Maya and recent Guatemala history, and sixteenth century Anabaptist history and thought.The investigation was carried out through personal interviews conducted with forty women, in either Spanish or Q'eqchi' language; the recording of prayers in the interviews themselves, various church services, women's gatherings and retreat settings; and bibliographical research. The data from the interviews and prayers was compiled and analyzed through the creation of lists of content and themes which occured most frequently within the interviews and prayers, and their comparison to the most prominent aspects of Anabaptist, Q'eqchi', and Catholic faith heritages and the life realities in which the women live. The findings indicate that, in part, these Guatemalan women and the early Anabaptists share analogous social and spiritual life circumstances, and that Anabaptist understandings of the Gospel are being inculturated into their Q'eqchi' and Ladina culture and way of life. What is more, the Guatemalan Mennonite women's prayers, with their own accumulated spiritual depth and heritage, and the inclusion of cultural practices that are consistent with Christian faith, enrich the Anabaptist practice of prayer.

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