2021 Conference Paper Abstracts

“The domestication of the ‘spirited woman’: clothing radicalism in supposed feminine weakness”

Christine Faragher

Catherine Booth, a highly successful nineteenth-century female preacher, and co-founder of The Salvation Army, was a spirited woman who refused to accept patriarchal limits around women’s preaching. While heavily pregnant with her fourth child, she self-published a searing pamphlet in defense of women’s preaching (Female Teaching) launching her own preaching career shortly after. Historical narratives, however, portray her as a highly reluctant starter in the preaching role. Emphasising instead her physical weakness and timid nature, they assert that she had never desired to be a preacher, and that it was only by the agency of the Holy Spirit and a surrender of her will to God’s will that she overcame her timid nature and frail body to rise to speak on Whitsunday, 1860. This presentation will challenge that traditional narrative. Drawing on personal letters written by Mumford Booth, it will offer a feminist critique of the narrative by highlighting significant disparities between the spirited woman revealed in her personal correspondence and the construct of the frail and reluctant preacher. While noting the weight of responsibility for the uncritical acceptance and dissemination of this façade of feminine weakness in the writings of the tradition, it will also suggest that Mumford Booth herself contributed to the curation of this more domesticated image in order to soften the radical nature of her challenge to patriarchal norms. It will also point to some of the consequences these narratives have had for the spirited Salvationist women that followed.

“The Stressed Ideal Woman: The anxious emotionology of Catherine Booth”

Emma Moore

My paper considers the emotionology of anxiety in the personal writings of Catherine Booth and its reciprocal relationship with early Salvation Army theology and practices. The methodology employed for the research is Barbara Rosenwein’s Emotional Communities which considers the shared vocabulary of a group of people. The source materials, including the diary and reminiscences written by Catherine and her personal letters written to her parents and her husband William were approached with a view to uncover emotion words, their patterns, and connections to theology. Catherine identified herself as an anxious person and embraced this as part of her Christian life. At times this anxiety was a distressing burden for Catherine especially as she grappled with her public role as preacher and her domestic role as mother. While she found satisfaction in the public domain, her domestic duties left her feeling overwhelmed. These occurrences of anxiety and the connection to the espoused theology of motherhood and female ministry demonstrated a dichotomy between the public theology of the Salvation Army and the personal feelings expressed by the ‘Army Mother’ suggesting that these gender issues were not satisfactorily resolved in the early years of the Salvation Army.

“WOMEN PREACHERS ON THE ROCK: The Slow Silencing of Vigorous Voices”

Ewen Butler

In an early expression of Canadian Pentecostalism, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Newfoundland (PAON), women preachers acquired a reputation as effective pulpit orators.  It was common for women to marry and subsequently continue with their pastor husbands to share pulpit responsibilities in rural ‘assemblies’. The paper explores how the influence of the woman preacher originated, developed, and declined.

This phenomenon will be analyzed within the context of the founding ethos of the PAON.  Many Pentecostals came out of The Salvation Army where women preachers had long been affirmed.  Yet, more primary and poignant was the leadership of Alice Bell Garrigus, the movement’s founder.  Women who had experienced the Spirit seemed to believe that they were called to preach and then emulated Garrigus’s style and doctrine.  They were respected as authoritative voices that impacted a couple of generations. 

Sources include the database of Good Tidings, the denomination’s publication beginning from 1935 and short anecdotal histories and biographies my own recollections.

A tentative conclusion is that just as racial consciousness was such a deep part of the American psyche that Azusa Street could not long remain racially inclusive, so the patriarchal European culture of early Newfoundland history diluted the gender inclusive character of its nascent Pentecostal movement.  As more formal education requirements for pastoral ministry began to take hold, Pentecostal women voices in proclamation tended to fade into the background as their more professionally trained husbands stepped to the pulpit and as the attraction and economic necessity of secular vocational opportunities became more common.    

“Courageous Calling: Experiences of female Pentecostal theological students in Australia”

Glenda Hepplewhite

 “I don’t know exactly what I will do after I graduate, I know I am going to have my own ministry … I will be a preacher.” These ambitious words and expectations of a young female Pentecostal bible college student in Australia provide an insight into the motivation of some women undertaking an undergraduate theology course. However, the plausibility of this optimism is another matter entirely. Despite the divine calling, women frequently face a hostile ministry environment which does not corroborate or resonate with the call. This is identified as a gap. Margaret Poloma states this as the ideal–real gap and attributes it to the institutionalisation of Pentecostalism, particularly when it replaces charisma as the driving force.

While many scholars have researched theological education globally, and others have explored key female leaders in the Australian Pentecostal movement, little work has focused on the experiences of female Pentecostal theological students in Australia. Unlike many other Christian traditions, ecclesiological leaders in Australian Pentecostalism encourage women to undertake bible college training. By pursuing formalised education in ministry and the resulting spiritual formation, they demonstrate their desire to fulfil the ministry ‘calling’ – the ideal. Using historical critique of primary and secondary sources, as well as semi-structured qualitative oral interviews and survey data analysis, this paper demonstrates how participation in theological studies addresses the gap.

“Calvinistic Controversialist”: Anne Dutton’s spirited opposition to John Wesley’s conception of the doctrines of perfection and election, 1739-43.”

Ian Maddock

As a self-styled spiritual advisor, Anne Dutton (1692-1765) was indisputably one of the most prolific Calvinistic Baptist women writers of the eighteenth century, authoring an array of treatises and letter-books that ranged in tone from irenic and pastoral to polemic and combative. A correspondent with – and confidant of – many key evangelical leaders (including Calvinists Howell Harris, George Whitefield, William Seward and Selina Hastings), she was also a spirited critic of others, most notably John Wesley. Wesley had approvingly read one of Dutton’s earliest published works, A Discourse upon Walking With God (1735). But in the midst and aftermath of the so-called ‘Free Grace’ episode – and following in her mentor and patron George Whitefield’s publishing and theological footsteps – Dutton began to proactively publish against Wesley’s soteriology.

This paper seeks to build on recent efforts (for example, those offered by Stein, Watson, and most recently, Sciretti) to overcome the historical amnesia regarding this underheard figure active during the burgeoning years of the evangelical movement. In particular, we will evaluate Dutton’s major published theological opposition to Wesley’s conception of the doctrines of perfection and election: Letters to the Reverend Mr. John Wesley against Perfection as Not Attainable in This Life (published anonymously in 1743, comprising four letters originally sent to Wesley in 1739-41) and A Letter to the Reverend Mr. John Wesley. In Vindication of the Doctrines of Absolute, Unconditional Election, Particular Redemption, Special Vocation, and Final Perseverance (a public ‘letter-treatise’ published anonymously in 1742). Two primary questions will guide our exploration of these texts: to what extent did Dutton’s critique echo that of her fellow Calvinist contemporaries? And to what extent was her critique sensitive to the theological nuances of Wesley’s Arminian soteriology? We shall observe that while Dutton’s was undoubtedly a rare female Calvinistic voice on the eighteenth-century theological landscape, the content and style of her critique of Wesley’s doctrines bore strong resemblances to the contributions of many of her male Calvinist contemporaries.

“Enspirited by the masculine/feminine Divine”

Irene Alexander

The questions of who God is and who we are, are inextricably intertwined. While many of us would consider that God is “above” gender, humans are gendered beings, and our genderedness impacts on our understanding of God, and, as in a mirror, our understanding of ourselves and what our genderedness means.
Growing up Methodist in the 50’s and 60’s I saw God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as entirely male. While I accepted that unquestioningly I did not realise the effect on my own sense of self and my place in the world and the church. Discovering the divine feminine in the writings of the Christian mystics, and in the Bible itself, I began to see an alternative perspective. Relating to the feminine in God I am freed more into the wholeness of who I am. I have become convinced that as long as we continue to use only masculine names for God, we limit the spiritedness, the freedom and the full development of both men and women.
This presentation includes the writings of men and women mystics, scriptural references and nuances of the divine feminine, as well as more contemporary writing. My book Awakening Desire: Encountering the Divine Feminine in the Masculine Christian Journey is an exploration of some of these ideas.

“Catherine Booth on Female Ministry: A Question of Salvation”

Jennifer HEIN

Catherine Booth’s 1959 pamphlet, Female Ministry; or, Women’s Right to Preach the Gospel, is well known in Salvation Army circles, but largely unknown in wider church discussions on the subject. Even in home territory its theological basis is assumed and dismissed by some as failing to break new ground.
However, most analyses of her argument are based – like other standard arguments in favour of women’s ministry - on the refutation of ‘problematic texts’, such as 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 2 Timothy 2:13, and the citing of women’s leadership in the scriptures and Church history. Catherine does use these approaches, but as proof of her central thesis which is located in the role of women pre-Fall and in particular the nature of salvation. The resulting position maintains a high view of scripture (including Paul’s letters) and the headship of husbands in marriage, while providing a compelling argument for equality of women in ministry.
This paper will examine the theological basis of Catherine’s argument, placing emphasis on her view of salvation. It will also consider 2 Timothy 2:14, a verse Catherine did not address but which is used by conservative theologians to argue for the eternal subordination of women. Catherine’s argument for a cultural reading of the preceding verse will be applied to verse 14, and also verse 15 which is not mentioned in conservative arguments. This results in a statement in favour of equality in ministry as relevant to the present day as it was in the nineteenth century.

“Margaret Gaines: Persistent Pentecostal, Friend of Palestinians”

Kimberly Ervin Alexander

Margaret H. Gaines was celebrated as a missionary in her Pentecostal denomination, the Church of God (Cleveland, TN), having served in North African Arabic and Palestinian cultures, for over 46 years. Yet, sixty-six years before her 2017 death, that same denomination had refused to endorse and support her given her status as a single woman. Undaunted, she began a lifetime of ministry to the Arab people to whom she believed she was called, as an independent woman, following a long tradition of independent women missionaries. After receiving Church of God support, beginning a year after she arrived in Tunisia, but not appointed as a missionary until 1956, Gaines continued to navigate the patriarchy of her denomination. Seeing “love as a passport,” Margaret Gaines embraced Arabic cultures, again navigating patriarchy, first in Tunisia (ten years), and then in Aboud, a Palestinian village on the West Bank (thirty-two years). Gaines was a church planter in both Tunisia and Palestine, but it is her establishing of the Aboud Elementary School in 1970 that may be the work of greatest significance and is the focus of this presentation.
Relying on examinations of her own writings, archived papers, and interview material, this paper will trace Margaret Gaines' loving contributions to and from the Arabic peoples of Tunisia and Palestine.

“Ann's story”

Leanne Davis

In discovering what we can learn and researching the role of Methodist women in colonial South Australia (1836 - 1900), the story of Ann Roberts (nee White) - a Bible Christian preacher, wife and mother, is being told.
Ann was among the first (if not the first) women to preach in the Colony of South Australia upon her arrival in 1854, and continued to preach, lead class meetings, and visit those in need for forty years as a ministry partner with her husband, and also on her own after his passing.
This paper tells her story.