Augsburg Fortress Canada

Chapter Six

Nineteenth-Century Preachers
and Scholars

Chapter Summary

The chapter on "Nineteenth-Century Preachers and Scholars" is about women moving into authoritative positions within the Christian community as interpreters of the biblical tradition. It explores their emergence as preachers within the Protestant mainstream, the ensuing debate over the right to preach, the issue of admitting women to official and ordained church offices and, finally, one of the fullest examples of biblical scholarship by women, the Woman's Bible.

Many foreign visitors to nineteenth-century America noticed the same thing: women made up the vast majority of Protestant churchgoers. They also made up the majority of converts who responded to the revival messages of the Second Great Awakening. Historians of religion speculate on why this was the case, and you will be asked to think about some of the reasons in the beginning of this chapter. Whether or not the motive for women, the outcome of association with evangelicalism was a wide array of opportunities for public and private action in living a holy life. In keeping with both the Reformation and eighteenth-century piety, women were encouraged to teach in the home and take up their pens for the faith. As we have seen in Chapter Five, they also began to be encouraged to form female societies to promote a Christian America.

The move of women into the public sphere along with the Protestant emphasis on active evangelization resulted in a growing number of female preachers as the century progressed. We have already encountered isolated examples of female preachers in colonial and early nineteenth-century America. But the various Methodist denominations and the related Holiness movement to a much greater extent welcomed women into the pulpit. After reading the chapter, you should be familiar with some of the groups and women who embraced female preaching. The public ministries of Frances Willard, Catherine Booth, and Phoebe Palmer have all been given significant scrutiny in new biographies. Scholars have also recently focused attention on the work of African-American Holiness women as their spiritual autobiographies come to light. Amanda Berry Smith's autobiography (6.3) is an example of this kind of source and one which could be compared and contrasted to the writing of such women as Zilpha Elaw and Julia Foote, published in Sisters of the Spirit and edited by William Andrews. You might explore such points as the nature of their call to preach, how they related to God and people around them, and the specific kinds of ministries they engaged in.

You will also discover in the chapter that a vigorous and sometime rancorous debate took place over the propriety of female preaching. Both Her Story and the readings from Luther Lee (6.1) present arguments in favor of female preaching. Note the biblical, theological, and practical points that these writers and those who shared their point of view make. You should also become familiar with the arguments opposing women's preaching, noting especially how clergyman Cyrus Cort uses Paul to support his point of view (6.4).

The movement of women into the public sphere of secular and religious life also raised the issue of ordination to the ministry. In most Christian churches, the ritual of ordination sets a person apart from the rest of the members for purposes of church government and the administration of the sacraments. For some women, ordination provided the only access to preaching rights. A few denominations began to ordain women and these are discussed in Chapter Six. There has been much new scholarship examining the experiences and theologies of early ordinands, such as Louisa Woosley in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and Anna Howard Shaw in the Methodist Protestant Church. A study of Unitarian/Universalist women has demonstrated that it was not easy for women to get full-time positions in even this liberal denomination and that many ordained women continued to hold on to the ideology of two spheres.

A church office that was more widely available to women later in the nineteenth-century was the office of deaconess, although for a variety of reasons discussed in the text, it never drew large numbers of women. The position was largely one of service without any of the liturgical functions women performed in the early churches.

The final section of this chapter discusses the Woman's Bible, a collection of short commentaries on portions of the Old and New Testaments published in two volumes in 1895 and 1898. Organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the women wanted a chance to make their own points of view heard on a book that had always been interpreted by men. The selections on the book of Esther and the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (6.5) will reveal two of their interpretive principles: the Bible contains examples of influential and powerful women who have been overlooked, and women can offer alternative readings of stories traditionally seen through the eyes of men. Another important principle that they embraced was that the Bible must always be judged by reason and natural law, both of which supported male/female equality. The Woman's Bible has attracted much attention by historians in the past two decades. In evaluating it, scholars have pointed to the committee's concern to ground their work in biblical scholarship, their "collective amnesia" when it came to acknowledging the work of early female interpreters, and the hint of anti-semitism which some of the material reveals.

Additional Readings

  • Andrews, William L., ed. Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women's Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
  • Billington, Louis. "Female Laborers in the Church: Women Preachers in the Northeastern United States, 1790–1840." Journal of American Studies 19 (1985): 369–94.
  • Blumhofer, Edith. Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1993.
  • Blumhofer, Edith. "A Confused Legacy: Reflections of Evangelical Attitudes toward Ministering Women in the Past Century." Fides et Historia 22 (Winter-Spring 1990): 49–61.
  • Blumhofer, Edith. "Women in Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism." In Women and Church: The Challenge of Ecumenical Solidarity in an Age of Alienation, edited by Melanie A. May, 3–7. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1991.
  • Bordin, Ruth. Frances Willard. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
  • Brekus, Catherine A. Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740–1845. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
  • Cazden, Elizabeth. Antoinette Brown Blackwell: A Biography. Old Westbury, N.Y.: The Feminist Press, 1983.
  • Chesham, Sallie. Preaching Ladies: An Historical Restoration of the Founding of the Salvation Army in America. New York: Salvation Army Literary Department, 1983.
  • Chilcote, Paul W. "Sanctification as Lived by Early Methodist Women." Methodist History 34 (January 1996): 90–103.
  • Donovan, Mary Sudman. A Different Call: Women's Ministries in the Episcopal Church, 1850–1920. Wilton, Conn.: Morehouse-Barlow, 1986.
  • Dougherty, Mary A. "The Methodist Deaconess: A Case of Religious Feminism." Methodist History 21 (January 1983): 90–98.
  • Eltscher, Susan, ed. Women in the Wesleyan and United Methodist Traditions: A Bibliography. Madison, N.J.: General Commission on Archives and History, the United Methodist Church, 1992.
  • Gifford, Carolyn De Swarte. " 'My Own Methodist Hive': Frances Willard's Faith as Disclosed in Her Journal, 1855–1870." In Spirituality and Social Responsibility: Vocational Vision of Women, edited by Rosemary Skinner Keller, 80–97. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993.
  • Gifford, Carolyn De Swarte. "Politicizing the Sacred Texts: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Woman's Bible." In Searching the Scriptures, edited by Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza, vol. 1, 52–63. New York: Crossroad, 1993.
  • Green, Roger J. 2 Army. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1993.
  • Griffith, Elisabeth. In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
  • Hardesty, Nancy and Israel, Adrienne. "Amanda Berry Smith: A 'Downright Outright Christian.'" In Spirituality and Social Responsibility: Vocational Vision of Women in the United Methodist Tradition, edited by Rosemary Skinner Keller, 60–79. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993.
  • Hardesty, Nancy. Women Called to Witness: Evangelical Feminism in the 19th Century. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1984.
  • Hardesty, Nancy. Your Daughters Shall Prophesy: Revivalism and Feminism in the Age of Finney. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing, 1991.
  • Hassey, Janette. No Time for Silence: Evangelical Women in Public Ministry around the Turn of the Century. Grand Rapids: Academie Books, 1986.
  • Hudson, Mary Lin. "Shall Women Preach? Louisa Woosley and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church." American Presbyterians 68 (Winter 1990): 221–30.
  • Humez, Jean M. " 'My Spirit Eye': Some Functions of Spiritual and Visionary Experience in the Lives of Five Black Women Preachers, 1810–1880." In Women and the Structure of Society, edited by Barbara J. Harris and JoAnn K. McNamara, 129–43. Durham: Duke University Press, 1984.
  • Irons, Kendra Weddle. "Phoebe Palmer: Chosen, Tried, Triumphant: An Examination of Her Calling in Light of Current Research." Methodist History 37 (October 1998): 28–36.
  • Jones, David A. "The Ordination of Women in the Christian Church: An Examination of the Debate 1880–1893." Encounter 50 (Summer 1989): 199–217.
  • Kern, Kathi. Mrs. Stanton's Bible. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001.
  • Krueger, Christine L. The Reader's Repentence: Women Preachers, Women Writers and 2 Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1992.
  • Lawless, Elaine J. Handmaidens of the Lord: Pentecostal Women Preachers and Traditional Religion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.
  • McKay, Nellie Y. "Nineteenth-century Black Women's Spiritual Autobiographies: Religious Faith and Self-Empowerment." In Perspectives on American Methodism: Interpretive Essays, edited by Russell E. Richey et al, 178–91. Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1993.
  • Moody, Joycelyn K. "On the Road with God: Travel and Quest in Early Nineteenth-Century African American Holy Women's Narratives." Religion and Literature 27 (Spring 1995): 35–51.
  • Oden, Thomas C., ed. Phoebe Palmer: Selected Writings. New York: Paulist Press, 1988.
  • Overton, Betty J. "Black Women Preachers: A Literary Overview." Southern Quarterly A Journal of the Arts in the South 23 (Spring 1985): 157–66.
  • Pellauer, Mary D. Toward a Tradition of Feminist Theology: The Religious Social Thought of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw. Brooklyn: Carlson, 1991.
  • Rasche, Ruth W. "The Deaconess Sisters: Pioneer Professional Women." In Hidden Histories in the United Church of Christ, edited by Barbara Zikmund, 95–109. New York: United Church Press, 1984.
  • Raser, Harold E. Phoebe Palmer: Her Life and Thought. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1987.
  • Rowe, Kenneth E. "Evangelism and Social Reform in the Pastoral Ministry of Anna Oliver 1868–1886." In Spirituality and Social Responsibility: Vocational Vision of Women in the United Methodist Tradition, edited by Rosemary Skinner Keller, 116–36. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993.
  • Schneider, Carl J. and Schneider, Dorothy. In Their Own Right: The History of American Clergywomen. New York: Crossroad Pub., 1997.
  • Schnorrenberg, Barbara Brandon. " Set Apart: Alabama Deaconesses 1864–1915." Anglican and Episcopal History 63 (December 1994): 468–90.
  • Schulenburg, Jane Tibbits. Forgetful of Their Sex: Female Sanctity and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
  • Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth. "Transforming the Legacy of the Woman's Bible." In Searching the Scriptures, edited by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, vol. 1,1–23. New York: Crossroad, 1993.
  • Selby, Gary. " 'Your Daughters Shall Prophesy': Rhetorical Strategy in the 19th Century Debate over Women's Right to Preach." Restoration Quarterly 34 (1992): 151–167.
  • Smith, Amanda Berry. An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord's Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith the Colored Evangelist. Introduction by Jualynne E. Dodson. Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
  • Spiritual Naratives. Introduction by Sue E. Houchins. Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
  • Stanley, Susie. "Empowered Foremothers: Wesleyan/Holiness Women Speak to Today's Christian Feminists." Wesleyan Journal of Theology 24 (1989): 103–116.
  • Stevenson-Moessner, Jeanne. "Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Reformer to Revolutionary: A Theological Trajectory." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62 (Fall 1994): 673–97.
  • Strong, Douglas M. "The Crusade for Women's Rights and the Formative Antecedents of the Holiness Movement." Wesleyan Theological Journal 27 (Spring-Fall 1992): 132–60.
  • Tucker, Cynthia Grant. Prophetic Sisterhood: Liberal Women Ministers of the Frontier, 1880–1930. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
  • Weisenfeld, Judith and Newman, Richard, eds. This Far by Faith: Readings in African-American Women's Religious Biography. New York: Routledge, 1996.
  • Weiser, Frederick Sheely. "The Lutheran Deaconess Movement." Lutheran Forum 28 (February 1994): 20, 22–24.
  • White, Charles E. The Beauty of Holiness: Phoebe Palmer as Theologian, Revivalist, Feminist and Humanitarian. Grand Rapids: F. Asbury Press, 1986.
  • Willard, Frances E. Writing Out My Heart: Selections from the Journal of Frances E. Willard, 1855–96. Edited by Carolyn De Swarte Gifford. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
  • Zikmund, Barbara. "Biblical Arguments and Women's Place in the Church." In The Bible and Social Reform, edited by Ernest R. Sandeen, 85–104. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982.
  • Zonana, Joyce. "Feminist Providence: Esther, Vashti and the Duty of Disobedience in Nineteenth-Century Hermeneutics." In Through a Glass Darkly: Essays in the Religious Imagination, edited by John C. Hawley, 228–49. New York: Fordham University Press, 1996.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Review the debate over whether women should be able to preach. Which arguments, to you, are the strongest? Which are the weakest? Do any of these nineteenth-century arguments surface in contemporary churches?
  2. Why was ordination important to women in the nineteenth-century?
  3. Compare and contrast the work of Stanton's committee on the Woman's Bible with the work done by modern feminist biblical scholars, such as those we have encountered in Chapter One.
  4. Stanton and others were prepared to say that some of the Bible was the Word of God and some was not. In other words, they had a "canon within a canon." What do you think of this idea?
  5. Why do you think the latest collection of commentaries on the Bible by women has been titled the Women's Bible?
  6. Was the deaconess movement a step forward or backward for women? Why did this movement never become an option for women in the United States?
  7. What do you think of Stanton's idea that women's sin is too much self-sacrifice rather than too much self-centeredness?

Related Websites for Chapter Six