In order to try to understand the religious lives of ordinary Methodist women, Schmidt has looked at their diaries, letters, spiritual autobiographies, and the accounts of their pious lives and holy deaths that appeared as obituaries in publications such as the Methodist Magazine. Explorations of women's religious lives can tell us much about the religious appeal of Methodism. Schmidt has tried to achieve a balance between the chronological description and thematic interpretation of Methodist women's history and a more intimate portrait of individual women in this tradition. There are powerful stories of faith here that are part of the shared history of Methodist people, both women and men. As contemporary women struggle with their own sense of call, they often resonate in powerful ways with the faith stories of these religious foremothers. - Back cover.