Hybridity in Nineteenth-Century Women’S Defenses of Women’S Preaching
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ABSTRACT Title of Document: A GENRE OF DEFENSE: HYBRIDITY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY WOMEN’S DEFENSES OF WOMEN’S PREACHING. Lisa Dawn Zimmerelli, Ph.D., 2009 Directed By: Professor Jane Donawerth, English This dissertation explores how nineteenth-century Protestant women negotiated genre in order to manage more effectively the controversial rhetorical project of defending women’s right to preach. After providing a comprehensive overview of the debate of women’s preaching in America, this project presents a genre study of a subset of these defenses: those women who do not adhere strictly to their “home” genres, but rather demonstrate a range of generic blending and manipulation in their defenses of women’s preaching. This study further reads religion as an integral identity category that was the seat for other activist rhetorics; by extension, then, women’s defenses of women’s preaching is an important site of activism and rhetorical discourse. Foote, Willard, and Woosley are rhetoricians and theologians; the hybrid form of their books provides them with a textual space for the intersections of their rhetoric and theology. This study examines three books within the tradition of defenses of women’s preaching—Julia Foote’s A Brand Plucked from the Fire (1879), Frances Willard’s Woman in the Pulpit (1888), and Louisa Woosley’s Shall Woman Preach? (1891)—as representative of the journey a genre takes from early adaptation to solidification, what Carolyn Miller calls “typified rhetorical action” (151) and as the containers for an egalitarian theology. Foote adapts the genre of spiritual autobiography to include the oral and textual discourses of letters, sermons, and hymn in order to present her holiness theology. Willard experiments with the epistolary genre in order to present her Social Gospel theology. Woosley includes all of the genres of defenses of women’s preaching: sermon, spiritual autobiography, editorial letter, and speech; she also appropriates Masonic rhetoric in order to merge the defense of women’s preaching with another kind of defense prevalent at the time: the scriptural defense of women. Significantly, each woman resolves “separate spheres” ideology by suggesting a new religious sphere where men and women participate equally: Foote’s sphere is the sphere of holiness; Willard’s is her reconceptualized Kingdom of God; and Woosley’s is a world of action, where men and women, after ritualized initiation, are responsible for building the temple of God. A GENRE OF DEFENSE: HYBRIDITY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY WOMEN’S DEFENSES OF WOMEN’S PREACHING By Lisa Dawn Zimmerelli Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2009 Advisory Committee: Professor Jane Donawerth, Chair Dr. Jeanne Fahnestock, Professor Dr. Shirley Wilson Logan, Professor Dr. Leigh Ryan, Instructor Dr. Claire Moses, Professor © Copyright by Lisa Dawn Zimmerelli 2009 Dedication I dedicate this work to my husband, John, who has been bringing me coffee for all- nighters since our undergraduate days together. ii Acknowledgements I have benefitted from the support of a wonderful group of colleagues, friends, and family. At the University of Maryland University College, I would like to thank my colleagues in the School of Undergraduate Studies for their interest and support, most notably, Dr. Cynthia Davis-Sbaschnig, Dr. Linda Di Desidero, Elizabeth Mulherrin, and Dr. Sabrina Marschall. I would also like to acknowledge the support of my tutors in the Effective Writing Center. I cannot speak highly enough of the Rhetoric and Composition faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park. From start to finish, my experience in the graduate program was supported and encouraged by scholars for whom I have a deep respect: Dr. Jane Donawerth, Dr. Leigh Ryan, Dr. Shirley Wilson Logan, and Dr. Jeanne Fahnestock. I am blessed with friends who have also supported me throughout my work in graduate school and on this project: Kelly Shenk, Gary Shenk, April Marcy, Matt Marcy, Wendy Hayden, and Sean Smith. And, finally, I thank my family—my parents, Dr. Steven Zimmerman and Tina Zimmerman, my brother, Brian Zimmerman, and my parents in-law, Lou Ungarelli and Lynn Ungarelli—for their unwavering confidence that I would see this project through to the end. My husband, John Zimmerelli, deserves special recognition for his love and support. He cooked meals, cleaned house, and often did the lion’s share of taking care of our children, Carmine and Hildegard. He also was my sounding board for much of my work and helped me over many a writing roadblock. iii Table of Contents Dedication .................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ....................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................. vi Chapter 1. The Little Book Defense of Women’s Preaching ...................................1 American Women’s Religious Participation ..............................................................9 Women and the Great Awakenings ......................................................................12 Populist Theology ............................................................................................15 The Revival .....................................................................................................18 Evangelism ......................................................................................................19 Women’s Preaching in the Early-Nineteenth Century .........................................21 Evangelical Motherhood .................................................................................24 Women’s Preaching in the Mid-Nineteenth Century ...........................................26 The Holiness Movement..................................................................................27 Women’s Preaching in the Late-Nineteenth Century ...........................................31 Foreign and Home Mission Efforts .................................................................32 Nineteenth-Century Women’s Religious Rhetorical Scholarship ............................36 Chapter 2. The Debate over Women’s Preaching...................................................44 Objections to Women’s Preaching ...........................................................................47 Male Defenses of Women’s Preaching ....................................................................54 Women’s Defenses of Women’s Preaching .............................................................61 The Genres of Women’s Defenses of Women’s Preaching .................................62 Sermons ...........................................................................................................63 Spiritual Autobiographies ................................................................................64 Treatises ...........................................................................................................67 Editorial letters ................................................................................................71 Speeches ..........................................................................................................74 Scriptural Defenses of Women ........................................................................77 The Topoi of Women’s Defenses of Women’s Preaching ...................................80 Authorization: Relating the Call to Preach ......................................................81 Biblical Hermeneutics: Employing a Range of Interpretation ........................87 Women’s Role in Society: Reconciling the Role of Female Preacher ............97 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................105 Chapter 3. The Little Book as Modification of Spiritual Autobiography: Julia Foote’s A Brand Plucked from the Fire .........................................................109 Introducing the Theologian: The Preface ...............................................................114 Letter of Introduction by a Male Colleague ...........................................................118 A Parabolic Early Life ............................................................................................120 Mapping an Itinerate Preaching Career ..................................................................128 The Gift of Literacy: Conversion and Sanctification .............................................130 A Negotiation of God’s Will, Woman’s Community, and Agency: Call to Preach133 Establishing Theological Proficiency: Exegetical Defense of Women’s Preaching137 iv Reconciling Women’s Role ...................................................................................140 Empowering a Female Ministry: Call to Other Women ........................................143 Performing a Ministry: Two Sermons ....................................................................144 Concluding the Service: Hymn and Benediction ...................................................150 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................152