Several living religions were founded or led from the start by women. Mary Baker Eddy founded Christian Science, Ellen G. White co-founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Aimee Semple McPherson founded the Foursquare Church, Ann Lee led the first Shakers, and the Japanese farmer’s wife Nakayama Miki founded Tenrikyo. Helena Blavatsky co-founded the Theosophical Society, and the Indian saint Anandamayi Ma drew followers from across India. Some of these women taught rebirth; others rejected it. This article is part of our guide to women in religion.
Which religions were founded by women?
The best-known are Christian Science (Mary Baker Eddy, 1879), the Seventh-day Adventist Church (co-founded by Ellen G. White, 1863), the Foursquare Church (Aimee Semple McPherson, 1923) and Tenrikyo (Nakayama Miki, revelation of 1838). Ann Lee was the founding leader of the Shakers in America.
| Founder | Religion | Founded | Teaches rebirth? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nakayama Miki (1798–1887) | Tenrikyo, Japan | revelation 1838 | Yes — denaoshi |
| Ann Lee (1736–1784) | Shakers, England and America | emigrated to America 1774 | No |
| Ellen G. White (1827–1915) | Seventh-day Adventist Church | 1863 (co-founder) | No — teaches “soul sleep” |
| Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891) | Theosophical Society | 1875 (co-founder) | Yes |
| Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) | Christian Science | 1879 | No |
| Aimee Semple McPherson (1890–1944) | Foursquare Church | 1923 | No |
| Anandamayi Ma (1896–1982) | Hindu saint and teacher (not a new religion) | — | Yes, as part of Hindu teaching |
Why did women so often found new movements rather than lead old ones? Because in most established faiths the top offices were closed to them — see can women be priests?
Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science
Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) founded the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston in 1879 and led it until her death. Her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875) remains the church’s central text.
Eddy was often ill as a child and young woman. In 1866 she fell on the ice in Lynn, Massachusetts, and, by her own account, recovered after reading the Bible — the experience she later saw as the discovery of Christian Science, a teaching of spiritual healing through prayer. She revised Science and Health many times until 1910, and in 1908, at the age of 87, she founded the newspaper The Christian Science Monitor, which still publishes today. Christian Science does not teach reincarnation.
Ellen G. White and the Seventh-day Adventists
Ellen G. White (1827–1915) was a co-founder and the prophet of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, formally organised in 1863. Adventists regard her visions and writings as inspired.
During her lifetime White wrote more than 5,000 periodical articles and 40 books on faith, health, education and prophecy. She is often described as the most translated female non-fiction author in history. The church she helped found today counts more than 20 million baptised members worldwide. On the soul, Adventist teaching is the opposite of reincarnation: the dead “sleep” until the resurrection, and the soul does not exist apart from the body.
Is there a book of all our lives? Read about the Akashic Records →
Aimee Semple McPherson and the Foursquare Church
Aimee Semple McPherson (1890–1944) was a Canadian-born Pentecostal evangelist who founded the Foursquare Church in Los Angeles in 1923, when her Angelus Temple was dedicated.
Known to her followers as “Sister Aimee”, she was one of the first preachers to use radio to reach a mass audience, and the Angelus Temple, which seated 5,300 people, was advertised as the largest single Christian congregation in the world. During the Great Depression her soup kitchens and free clinics fed an estimated 1.5 million people. The Foursquare Church is now an international denomination. It does not teach reincarnation.
Specialists who work in English from the Reincarnatiopedia directory, today
Ann Lee and the Shakers
Ann Lee (1736–1784), known as Mother Ann, was the founding leader of the Shakers. In 1774 she sailed from England to New York with a small group of followers.
The movement she joined in Manchester expected the Second Coming of Christ in the form of a woman, and Ann Lee came to be seen by her followers as that woman — hence the title “Mother”. Shakers lived in celibate communities, held property in common and treated men and women as equals in leadership. At their peak in the mid-19th century there were several thousand Shakers in 18 major communities; since 2019 only one active Shaker village remains, at Sabbathday Lake in Maine. In 2025 her life became the film The Testament of Ann Lee, directed by Mona Fastvold with Amanda Seyfried in the title role.
Nakayama Miki and Tenrikyo: a woman founder who taught rebirth
Nakayama Miki (1798–1887), a farmer’s wife from Japan, founded Tenrikyo after a revelation in 1838. Her followers call her Oyasama — “the Parent” — and Tenrikyo teaches that the soul is reborn.
Tenrikyo believes that from 1838 until her death Nakayama Miki was the “Shrine” of God the Parent, so that her words and actions expressed the divine will. She wrote down her teachings in the scripture Ofudesaki and taught the songs and dance of the Service that is still performed today. Tenrikyo’s aim is the “Joyous Life”, and in 2002 it was estimated to have more than two million followers.
The teaching on death is called denaoshi, literally “making a fresh start”. The mind stops at death, but the soul receives a new body “lent” by God the Parent and is born into this world again. The reborn person keeps no memory of the past life, yet the thoughts and deeds of earlier lives leave their mark on the soul and carry over into the new one. Few women in history have founded a religion; that one of them built her teaching around rebirth makes Tenrikyo a natural part of our guide to reincarnation beliefs across world religions.
Behind denaoshi stands another basic teaching, kashimono-karimono — “a thing lent, a thing borrowed”. The body is lent by God the Parent; only the mind is one’s own, and its selfish tendencies are not called sins but “dust” that can be swept away through prayer and selfless service (hinokishin).
How are deeds carried from one life to the next? Read how karma is balanced between lifetimes →
Helena Blavatsky and Theosophy
Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891) co-founded the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875 with Henry Steel Olcott and William Quan Judge. Theosophy did more than any other movement to bring the ideas of karma and reincarnation to Western readers.
Her teaching on rebirth changed over time: in Isis Unveiled (1877) she treated rebirth on Earth as an exception, while in The Secret Doctrine (1888) and The Key to Theosophy (1889) reincarnation became central. We tell this story in detail in Helena Blavatsky, Theosophy and Reincarnation.
Anandamayi Ma: the “Bliss-Permeated Mother”
Anandamayi Ma (1896–1982), born Nirmala Sundari in Bengal, did not found a new religion, but she became one of the most revered Hindu saints of the 20th century, with ashrams across India.
She had only a few months of village schooling and no outside guru: on the night of 3 August 1922 she performed her own spiritual initiation. “As the master I revealed the mantra; as the disciple I accepted it,” she said later. Her followers gave her the name Anandamayi Ma — “Joy-Permeated” or “Bliss-Permeated Mother”. Her life and teaching are told in Anandamayi Ma: Life, Teachings and the Bliss-Permeated Mother.
Other Japanese religions founded by women
Tenrikyo was not the only one. Deguchi Nao (1837–1918), a poor and illiterate widow, began in 1892 to write down revelations from a spirit called Ushitora no Konjin; in automatic writing she produced some 200,000 pages of prophecy, and she is honoured as the Foundress of Oomoto, which she founded together with Onisaburo Deguchi. Kitamura Sayo (1900–1967) preached her first sermon in 1945 and founded Tenshō Kōtai Jingūkyō, nicknamed “the dancing religion” for the dances of “non-ego” that accompanied her sermons.
Beyond founders: Cao Dai and Kimbanguism
In some religions founded by men, women still rose high and rebirth is part of the teaching. Two examples are Cao Dai in Vietnam and Kimbanguism in Central Africa.
Cao Dai, officially founded in Tây Ninh in 1926, combines, in its own description, Confucian ethics, Taoist practice, the Buddhist teaching of karma and rebirth, and a church hierarchy modelled on Catholicism. Women can be ordained and can reach the rank of cardinal (Đầu Sư); only the two highest offices — the Pope and the Legislative Cardinal — are reserved for men, which the church explains through the balance of yin and yang. Estimates of the number of Caodaists range from about 2.5 to 6 million.
Kimbanguism grew from the preaching of the Congolese prophet Simon Kimbangu in 1921. He was arrested that same year and spent the rest of his life in prison, until his death in 1951. Church tradition remembers his wife, Marie Mwilu (also spelled Muilu), as the woman who quietly kept the believers together during the decades of persecution; the church was recognised by the Belgian authorities in 1959 and was then led by their son Joseph Diangienda, whom Kimbanguists regard as a new incarnation of Simon Kimbangu. The church gives its own membership in millions; independent estimates vary widely.
Did the ancient world have women at the top of religion? Read about the Mother Goddess and matriarchy →
Frequently asked questions
Which religion was founded by a woman?
Christian Science (Mary Baker Eddy) and Tenrikyo (Nakayama Miki) are the clearest examples. Ellen G. White co-founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Aimee Semple McPherson founded the Foursquare Church, and Helena Blavatsky co-founded the Theosophical Society.
Which religion founded by a woman teaches reincarnation?
Tenrikyo, through the teaching of denaoshi, and Theosophy, co-founded by Helena Blavatsky. Christian Science, the Adventists and the Foursquare Church do not.
Who was Mother Ann Lee?
The founding leader of the Shakers (1736–1784), who brought the movement from England to America in 1774. Her life is the subject of the 2025 film The Testament of Ann Lee.
What does Oyasama mean?
Oyasama is the name Tenrikyo followers give to the founder Nakayama Miki. It means “the Parent”.
Sources
- Mary Baker Eddy. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Boston, 1875 (final revision 1910). The Mary Baker Eddy Library, marybakereddylibrary.org.
- Ellen G. White Estate. Biography and writings. whiteestate.org.
- Matthew Avery Sutton. Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America. Harvard University Press, 2007.
- Stephen J. Stein. The Shaker Experience in America. Yale University Press, 1992.
- Tenrikyo Church Headquarters. The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo; “Oyasama” and “Teachings” pages, tenrikyo.or.jp.
- Cao Dai Overseas Missionary. “Caodai: Practical Answers for Seekers”, caodai.org.
- World Religions and Spirituality Project. “Kimbanguist Church”, wrldrels.org, 2023.
- David L. Weddle. “The Christian Science Textbook: An Analysis of the Religious Authority of Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy”. Harvard Theological Review 84(3), 1991, 273–297. doi:10.1017/s0017816000024020
- Irene Hall. “Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science”. Feminist Theology 16(1), 2007, 79–88. doi:10.1177/0966735007082518
- Franziska Steffen. “From Faith-Healing Group to New Religion: The Discursive Formulation of Tenrikyo in Meiji”. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 50(2), 2023, 175–204. doi:10.18874/jjrs.50.2.2023.175-204