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I Am Going to Do It": the Complex Question of Action in Theology and Science in the Life of America's First Woman Minister, Rev

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I Am Going to Do It “I am going to do it": The Complex Question of Action in Theology and Science in the Life of America's First Woman Minister, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825-1921) The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Hutton, Nancy Sue. 2015. “I am going to do it": The Complex Question of Action in Theology and Science in the Life of America's First Woman Minister, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825-1921). Doctoral dissertation, Harvard Divinity School. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:15821955 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA “I am going to do it": The Complex Question of Action in Theology and Science in the Life of America's First Woman Minister, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825-1921) A dissertation presented By Nancy Sue Hutton To The Faculty of Harvard Divinity School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology In the Subject of Religion, Gender & Culture Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts April 2015 © 2015 Nancy Sue Hutton All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Janet Browne Nancy Sue Hutton “I am going to do it": The Complex Question of Action in Theology and Science in the Life of America's First Woman Minister, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825-1921) Abstract Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825-1921) became one of the most outspoken and remarkable women of her era: an ordained minister, a published author, a prominent public speaker, and a philosophical thinker whose writings described and explicated her syntheses of theology and science. Her life was punctuated by “firsts” that have significance within women’s history as evidence of female success in what were then male-dominated arenas. In this dissertation I propose that the arguments that Brown Blackwell presented on behalf of women’s rights can be understood as a synthesis of Rev. Charles Grandison Finney’s religious teachings around doing with science-based theories that she believed revealed validating evidence about women’s nature and abilities to do. After the publication of her book, The Sexes Throughout Nature (1875), her contributions to women’s rights movements and her books were less documented by historians, perhaps because she was less focused on suffrage. I argue that during that time, her contributions to woman’s rights were nevertheless significant as she worked among women who resonated with her religious sensibilities, agendas, and rhetoric: while many actively supported woman’s suffrage, most did not. In advancing woman’s rights, Brown Blackwell used rhetoric that synthesized her Finney-inspired ideals with her iii interpretations of science. This dissertation will add to the existing scholarship about women’s rights, by recognizing the existence and thoughts of the thousands of religious women who contributed to woman’s rights, even if they all did not support suffrage, as an outward expression of their inward piety. iv Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................................... vii Dedication .................................................................................................................................................... ix Illustrations ................................................................................................................................................... x Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1 “I am going to do it.” ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................................................................... 16 1825-1845: Religion is something you do. .................................................................................................. 17 The events that shaped Brown Blackwell’s religious disposition ........................................................... 21 National narratives woven through the fabric of Brown Blackwell’s life ............................................... 30 What was the “Woman Question”? ....................................................................................................... 32 American millennialism ........................................................................................................................... 38 Arthur and Lewis Tappan: Underwriting millennialism and benevolence .............................................. 42 Women’s contributions to millennial and benevolent activities ............................................................ 45 Brown Blackwell’s parents and the western frontier ............................................................................. 48 Revivalism ............................................................................................................................................... 51 Rev. Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875) ........................................................................................... 55 Rev. Finney as part of the Brown Blackwell household .......................................................................... 65 The Evangelist ......................................................................................................................................... 67 The Moral Reform Journal ...................................................................................................................... 72 The National Era ...................................................................................................................................... 75 Brown Blackwell leaves soon for Oberlin ............................................................................................... 75 Chapter 2 ..................................................................................................................................................... 77 1845-1869: Religion was something she did .............................................................................................. 78 The history of Oberlin ............................................................................................................................. 83 Perfectionism and Sanctification ............................................................................................................ 85 The manual labor education system ....................................................................................................... 88 Abolition .................................................................................................................................................. 94 Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................................................... 142 “Science” according to Brown Blackwell .................................................................................................. 143 Assumptions and issues that emerge in writing about science. ........................................................... 143 The decade before Studies in General Science (1869) ......................................................................... 146 Science and Religion debates ................................................................................................................ 148 v A “theology” of science? ....................................................................................................................... 151 Another approach to science: The Sexes Throughout Nature (1875) ................................................... 160 Darwin, Spencer, and Clarke ................................................................................................................. 162 Charles Darwin (1809-1882) ................................................................................................................. 166 Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) ............................................................................................................... 169 Edward Clarke, M.D. (1820-1877) ......................................................................................................... 175 Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 177 Darwin and Spencer on marriage ......................................................................................................... 178 Overview of The Sexes Throughout Nature .......................................................................................... 180 Sex in Education .................................................................................................................................... 187 Brown Blackwell’s response to Clarke .................................................................................................
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