Dr.
Lisa Stephenson, an assistant professor of Systematic Theology in the Lee
University School of Religion, recently received the 2013 Pneuma Book Award.
The award is for her recent book, which analyzes the factors resulting in the
present situation among American Pentecostal women in ministry and proposes
solutions that address the problems that have perpetuated their ecclesial
restrictions.

Stephenson’s book, titled, “Dismantling the Dualisms
for American Pentecostal Women in Ministry: A Feminist-Pneumatological
Approach,” was presented the award in Seattle, Wash., by the Society for
Pentecostal Studies (SPS) for its “significant achievement in scholarship
related to Pentecostal and Charismatic studies.”

The book, which was
published by E. J. Brill, uses a “biblical and theological rationale” to
address issues that affect local churches and communities.

“In many
Pentecostal denominations there are still restrictions placed on women that
prohibit them from fully engaging in all aspects of the church,” said
Stephenson. “My hope is that the content of the book will encourage women who
are called to ministry.”

This is the 11th year the Pneuma Book Award
has been given, each year celebrating the highest-quality academic books on
Pentecostal Theology. Past recipients include scholars and theologians from
Duke University, University of Toronto, and Fuller Theological Seminary.

“I was very honored and humbled for my book to receive the 2013 Pneuma
Book Award,” Stephenson said. “For it now to be listed alongside the previous
winners is a great privilege.”

The Society for Pentecostal Studies
began in 1970 and is an organization dedicated to open discussion for all
academic disciplines as a spiritual service to the kingdom of God. The purpose
of the Society is to aid, recognize, and publicize the work of Pentecostal and
charismatic scholars; to study the implications of Pentecostal theology in
relation to other academic disciplines, seeking a Pentecostal world-and-life
view; and to support fully, to the extent appropriate for an academic society,
the statement of purposes of the World Pentecostal Fellowship.

For
more information about Stephenson’s book, visit
http://www.brill.com/dismantling-dualisms-american-pentecostal-women-ministry.

For more information about the Society for Pentecostal Studies and
the Pneuma Award, visit http://www.sps-usa.org/#/home.