Interwar Baptist women: new religious identities and social reverberations in the Romanian borderlands

This article examines the transformative role of Baptist women in interwar Bessarabia, a multiethnic and multiconfessional borderland where religious activism intersected with social change. Drawing on archival sources, memoirs and denominational publications, it argues that these women were not passive adherents but key agents in reshaping religious and social landscapes under Russian and, later, Romanian rule. Their activities destabilized entrenched Orthodox norms and challenged Romanian state efforts at national and religious homogenization. The study reveals how seemingly apolitical mediums, such as music and literature, became vehicles for female empowerment and, paradoxically, for subversive dissent. Building on Tanya Luhrmann’s concept of ‘faith frame’ and ‘kindling’ the article shows how Baptist women reframed their lived experiences through practices that made faith tangible in a restrictive social and political context. It situates these developments within broader historiographical debates on lived religion, gender and minority agency, demonstrating that Baptist women’s activism blurred boundaries between private and public spheres, faith and politics, and local and transnational networks. This case study highlights the ambivalent nature of religion as both a conservative and a transformative force, offering new insights into the interplay of gender, religious pluralism and social mobility in Eastern Europe’s interwar period.