View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Birmingham Research Archive, E-theses Repository THE VOICE OF THE OUTCAST: JOSEPHINE BUTLER’S BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION & PUBLIC THEOLOGY by AMANDA BARBARA RUSSELL-JONES A Thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of History & Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham February 2014 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT Amanda Barbara Russell-Jones Doctor of Philosophy School of History & Cultures February 2014 University of Birmingham THE VOICE OF THE OUTCAST: JOSEPHINE BUTLER’S BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION & PUBLIC THEOLOGY This thesis argues that Josephine Butler cannot be understood as a campaigner and biblical interpreter apart from her core self-understanding as ‘the voice of the outcast’. Part One, ‘The Making of a Prophet’, demonstrates that Butler’s chosen term ‘outcast’ has a biblical background and explores the key influence of anti-slavery on her interpretation of Scripture. Her husband George’s biblical interpretation is shown to be an important but previously overlooked parallel to her own. The close relationship and theological affinity she had with the women of the Salvation Army is seen to result in important developments in their mutual thought and praxis. Part Two, ‘The Voice of a Prophet’, analyses her innovative gendered exegesis and its application to the critical issue of the day – the sexual double standard. Parallels between the interpretative techniques she employed and those of later women bible interpreters like Phyllis Trible are explored. Parallels with Womanist and Mujerista readings on behalf of the oppressed are delineated. Butler is seen to be a radical prophetic voice in the public sphere who deliberately and subversively interpreted Scripture into the culture of her day to demand inclusion of the outcast and challenge the standards of church and state. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank Professor Hugh McLeod for his always gracious and insightful supervision of my work. My interest in Josephine Butler and the history of women and religion in the Nineteenth Century began whilst studying with him and I was very grateful when he agreed to supervise this study even beyond retirement. My thanks go to all those who have supported me and inspired an interest in the Bible and history: including the professors at Columbia Theological Seminary who first taught me about American history and culture including the theological legacy of slavery: Erskine Clarke, Will E. Coleman, Marcia E. Riggs and George Stroup and those who taught me that the Bible could be read from the point of view of women and in prophetic ways: David Gunn and Walter Brueggemann. I wish to thank the University of Birmingham for generously funding attendance at various conferences to give papers. My sincere thanks go to Dee McLoughlin, Stacey Johnson all the Birmingham University staff for help with my many administrative queries and for letting me out of a locked library in time to catch my train on what I thought was just a quiet evening. Particular thanks go to the librarians who have helped me track down original documents, including Richard Matiachuk of Regent College Library, the staff of the Liverpool University library and Special Collections, the Northumberland Record Office and the Bodleian Library. I am grateful to those who have listened to and commented on conference papers, including Christine Joynes and Beverly Gaventa; and to Joy Schroeder, Marion Ann Taylor and all the participants in the Recovering Women Bible Interpreters seminar for the stimulus of their papers and feedback on my own. I am also grateful to members of the community at Regent College for their encouragement including Bruce Hindmarsh and Don Lewis. Special thanks go to Sarah Williams for the stimulus of sharing in some of her classes and for letting me try out Butler material on her students. My personal thanks go to my family, in particular to my parents who have always supported my endeavours. I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to my children for their support and interest and for coincidentally going to university in Liverpool which provided me with accommodation and company whilst researching in the archives. Special mention must be made of Dafydd who whilst engaged on his own student research in Liverpool discovered the important resource of Josephine Butler Ale and of Martha and Greg for an insight into Church and society on the streets in Liverpool today. Back in Cardiff thanks go to Gruffydd and Meredydd for all the wonderful meals cooked and live music distractions. It remains for me to attempt the impossible task of expressing my gratitude to Iwan, which I will only do in the time honoured manner: “This very good husband for me this” – a sentiment that Butler often expressed of George but in more eloquent though not more heartfelt language. Dedication This thesis is dedicated to Iwan Russell-Jones who helped me more than I can say throughout my PhD studies ‘i weld y bore wawr, dros y bryniau tywyll niwlog’, and those mountains of words. It is also dedicated in memory of Mair Russell-Jones (1917-2013) who taught him to see and who, recognising another remarkable woman, took a great interest in Josephine. THE VOICE OF THE OUTCAST: JOSEPHINE BUTLER’S BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION & PUBLIC THEOLOGY Introduction 1 PART ONE THE MAKING OF A PROPHET Chapter One The Voice of the Outcast 37 Chapter Two Am I Not A Woman and a Sister? 78 Butler’s Anti-Slavery Heritage Chapter Three A Class of Sinners 111 Chapter Four Not of the Church of England 132 PART TWO THE VOICE OF A PROPHET Chapter Five The Typical Acts of Christ 187 the Dangerous Leveller Chapter Six The Typical Tragedy 209 Chapter Seven The Typical Sin or Crime 235 of the Universe Chapter Eight The Typical Outcast 261 Conclusion 312 Bibliography 323 PART ONE THE MAKING OF A PROPHET INTRODUCTION The Voice of the Outcast With the naming of Josephine Butler College by Durham University, the 1981 lament of Elizabeth Longford can no longer apply: ‘Mrs. Fawcett was created a Dame; Dr. Garrett Anderson has a hospital named after her...’ ‘Yet where are Mrs. Butler’s honours?’1 Nevertheless, written seventy five years after Butler’s death, Longford’s explanation as to why Butler had not been honoured is still undoubtedly valid: Josephine Butler ‘did not champion the “right women”’.2 Butler became famous, or infamous, for campaigning on behalf of outcast women who had fallen foul of the sexual double standard in Victorian society. Passionate as Butler was about gaining greater opportunities for girls and women in the spheres of education and work,3 she was convinced that if the sexual double standard were not tackled it would be like ‘building a beautiful house on top of a bad drain’: there would be a ‘fatal poison’ in the foundations.4 Hence, despite the important work she had done in the field of education through writing and presenting the memorial which persuaded Cambridge University to authorise examinations to ‘test and attest’ the abilities of women thus paving the way for the women’s colleges,5 Butler turned instead to an open attack on the double standard, convinced that others would carry on the work in the field of education, but 1 Elizabeth Longford, E., Eminent Victorian Women (London, 1981), p.109 2 Longford (1981) p.109 3 See The Education and Employment of Women (Liverpool, 1868) 4 The Dawn (January 1893) No.17, p.2 5 Memorial on behalf of the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (1868). [Held by Cambridge University Library, classmark: UA Grace Book Sigma p.359*] 1 ‘who would care to go down to the deeper and more hidden work and to encounter the special difficulties, the disgust and the sorrow which met us there?’6 She said that those who did not believe in the moral reclaimability of prostitutes ‘call them by all kinds of ugly and ungracious names’,7 and she was deeply grieved ‘that even enlightened people will contrive to mass all these women into one great class, labelled with the ugly name of prostitute’.8 Butler believed that she was ‘called... to walk side by side, hand in hand, with the outcast’ woman.9 Accepting the invitation to lead the Ladies National Association to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts,10 Butler waged a sixteen year battle to end state regulated prostitution until the British Parliament finally repealed the Acts in 1886. By this time her campaign had spread with national organisations in several European countries, supported by the International Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice,11 fighting to end state regulated prostitution. Concern about the prostitution of young girls and about trafficking led to a further campaign to expose the practice of selling girls into prostitution. The resulting ‘Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’ scandal in 1883 led to raising the age of consent in Britain from twelve to sixteen. A sustained campaign was also mounted to oppose the practice of the British authorities setting up and regulating brothels in India patronised by the British armed forces.