The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School College of The

The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts PREACHING WITHOUT A PULPIT: WOMEN’S RHETORICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENTIFIC CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA, 1880-1915 A Dissertation in English by Brandy Scalise © 2011 Brandy Scalise Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2011 ii The dissertation of Brandy Scalise was reviewed and approved* by the following: Cheryl Glenn Liberal Arts Research Professor of English and Women‟s Studies Dissertation Co-Advisor Co-Chair of Committee Jack Selzer Professor of English Dissertation Co-Advisor Co-Chair of Committee Robin Schulze Professor of English Head of the Department of English Anne Rose Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies * Signatures are on file at the Graduate School. iii ABSTRACT “Preaching without a Pulpit” considers the widespread public debate surrounding metaphysical healing in the late nineteenth-century and outlines the rhetorical theories and practices of important female metaphysical healers, particularly Mary Baker Eddy and Emma Curtis Hopkins. Because their theories assume the harmony of science and religion, Eddy and Hopkins engage both the Christian and liberal rhetorical traditions. I argue in this dissertation that metaphysical theologies such as those of Eddy and Hopkins are a powerful example of the conciliatory project of liberal Christianity during the period, challenging the assumption that the rhetorical practices exhibited in the liberal and Christian traditions are inherently contradictory. Their liberal characteristics provide metaphysical rhetorics with aims distinct from evangelical rhetorics and traditional pulpit oratory. Therefore, their relative absence in rhetorical history does more than marginalize a series of prolific “gurus”: it substantially stymies our theoretical understanding of the possibilities and limits of religious discourse. My analysis of the rhetoric of metaphysical healing draws from published and archival material from the period between 1880 and 1910 and approaches these texts from a historiographical and feminist perspective. The Introduction argues for increased attention to the tradition of liberal religious discourse; Chapter One (“Exploring the Intersections of Rhetoric, Gender, and Liberal Religion”) subsequently suggests that the metaphysical healing movement participated in the broader conciliatory project of liberal religion, as it sought a means of making scientific and religious modes of understanding compatible. It also introduces the three major themes that I will use to characterize metaphysical healing as a liberal religious discourse: social progress vs. individual enlightenment; reason vs. passionate iv belief; and professional authority vs. individual expression. Chapter Two (“„Neither Christian nor scientific‟: Character, Common Sense, and the Liberal Backlash Against Metaphysical Healing”) offers a detailed analysis of the popular debate over metaphysical healing, addressing each of the three themes introduced in Chapter One. I show that women held the same contested relationship to religious liberalism that they held to liberalism more generally: they risked being dismissed as speaking subjects, precisely because their arguments relied heavily on liberal assumptions about reason and objectivity. Chapters Three (“The Liberty of the Daughters of God: Mary Baker Eddy and a Rhetoric for Woman‟s Hour”) and Four (“„I AM the radiant Logos in Mind‟: Emma Curtis Hopkins, Spirituality, and the Divine Dialectic”) address the major figures of this study. Chapter 3 claims that Mary Baker Eddy melded Christian and liberal values to develop what she understood as a truly progressive Christianity. In integrating these two discourses, she redefined progressive, liberal standards in feminine terms and thus undermined the standard arguments against women‟s public speaking and active participation in public religious life. However, Eddy remained invested in nineteenth-century visions of feminine spirituality, ironically reifying the very stereotypes that stymied female preaching. Chapter 4 argues that Emma Curtis Hopkins advanced a dialectical vision of religious discourse that is in many respects more radical than Eddy‟s. Hopkins encouraged dialogue as a means of religious instruction, emphasizing the democratic and mutually uplifting relationship between teacher and student. However, the sense of empowerment Hopkins provided her followers rarely extended beyond the personal and private. The work of these two figures suggests that a liberal religious discourse held implications for nineteenth-century women that were contradictory, shifting, and undeniably complicated. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations…………………………………………………………….………...vi List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………..vii Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………..viii INTRODUCTION. Situating Scientific Christianity in Rhetorical Scholarship……………..1 CHAPTER 1. Exploring the Intersections of Rhetoric, Gender, and Liberal Religion…….20 CHAPTER 2. “Neither Christian nor scientific”: Character, Common Sense, and the Liberal Backlash Against Metaphysical Healing…………………………………………………...60 CHAPTER 3. Liberty of the Daughters of God: Mary Baker Eddy and a Rhetoric for Woman‟s Hour…………………………………………………………………………..120 CHAPTER 4. “I AM the radiant Logos in Mind”: Emma Curtis Hopkins, Spirituality, and the Divine Dialectic……………………………………………………………………...194 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………232 NOTES………………………………………………………………………………….242 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………...266 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations have been used for manuscript collections: MBEL Archives of the First Church of Christ, Scientist. Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity, Boston, MA The following abbreviations have been used for books by the major authors: CH Christian Healing and The People’s Idea of God: Sermons Delivered at Boston by Mary Baker Eddy. CL Class Lessons of 1888 by Emma Curtis Hopkins. FCC First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany by Mary Baker Eddy. HM High Mysticism: Studies in the Wisdom of the Sages of the Ages by Emma Curtis Hopkins. MW Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy. NY No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy. PP Pulpit and Press by Mary Baker Eddy. R Résumé: Practice Book for the Twelve Lessons in High Mysticism by Emma Curtis Hopkins. RDS Rudimental Divine Science by Mary Baker Eddy. RI Retrospection and Introspection by Mary Baker Eddy. SCMP Scientific Christian Mental Practice by Emma Curtis Hopkins. SH Science and Health with a Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. ST Self Treatments including “The Radiant I AM” by Emma Curtis Hopkins. UG Unity of Good by Mary Baker Eddy. vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 “When His Own System Failed to Work,” Life, 1894……..……………...100 Figure 2 The Mother Church and Extension, Boston, 1908……………………….136 Figure 3 “Seeking and Finding,” Portrait of Eddy at the time of her discovery of Christian Science………………………………………………………...190 Figure 4 Mary Baker Eddy at Pleasant View, 1903………………………………...191 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My foray in the world of nineteenth-century metaphysical healing began during the first year of my graduate program, and the subsequent six years have been a series snags, hiccups, and those moments of intellectual epiphany that make the scholarly process worthwhile. I could not have overcome these challenges without significant financial, intellectual, and emotional support. The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity provided me with a generous research fellowship, which allowed me to spend part of the summer of 2009 at the Christian Science archives in Boston, Massachusetts. Sherry Darling and her staff demonstrated a knowledge of and excitement for the library‟s materials that was truly inspiring. The Center for Democratic Deliberation at the Pennsylvania State University, through its fellowship program, granted me invaluable time and space to write in the early stages of this project. The investment of these organizations in promoting new research in Christian Science and civic discourse respectively was essential to the successful completion of this project. I also must thank the many colleagues who read drafts of this dissertation in its many stages. The members of my reading groups – Kevin Browne, Mike Hogan, Jessica Sheffield, Michelle Smith, Matt Weiss, and Rebecca Wilson-Lundin – reminded me consistently why scholarly work is a process best completed collaboratively. Anne Rose and Robin Schulze offered thoughtful and challenging comments that will be superb intellectual fodder for this project‟s future progress into a book. I also want to thank Cheryl Glenn for her faith my work and for “picking nits” – and Jack Selzer for his professional advice and for pushing me ix when I needed it. As my advisors, both demonstrated infinite patience throughout the writing process, even when it was not warranted. My final thanks I save for my family, especially my parents, Bill and Sandra Scalise, for giving me all the books I could read and for always believing (even when I didn‟t). Introduction Situating Metaphysical Religion in Rhetorical Scholarship In her 1916 book, Let’s Be Healthy in Mind and Body, Susanna Cocroft, a popular beauty and health expert, conjectured on the foundation of good health: The progressive physician has always recognized and used mental suggestion as a material agency in building up the body vitality. Only a few centuries ago we persecuted

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