Women and Spirituality in the Writing of More, Wollstonecraft, Stanton, and Eddy

by Ingham, Arleen M.

• ISBN13: 9780230102590
• ISBN10: 023010259X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-07-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This groundbreaking book explores the philosophical writing of four female reformers, identifying how their spiritual representations of the feminine attempted to authorize and empower women. Championing the benefits of well educated Christian women, Hannah More, Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mary Baker Eddy constructed an idiom through which to represent the spiritual equality of the male and female. Arleen M. Ingham critically investigates how these writers challenged historical identity formations and highlighted the potential for female influence in the private and public sphere.

Author Biography

Arleen M. Ingham completed her PhD in English and Theology at the University of Hull. She has lectured widely and applied her work with scholars from differing religious backgrounds to her community service.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. viii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Female Subject: Forceful Fathers, Prescriptive Pinnies, and the Reinforcing of Female Subjection	p. 17
ôThe Religious Is Personal Is Politicalö: Corrupt Politics, Personal Conversion, and the Reforming Potential of Spiritually Minded Women	p. 43
Education, Sensibility, and Religion: Intelligent Intuitivism, Fixed Principles, and a First Cause	p. 77
Woman's Right to Revelation: Spiritual Suffrage and the Word of God	p. 121
Woman, the Elect of God?: Slaves, Salvation, and Matriarchal Ministers	p. 161
Conclusion: Social Reform to Spiritual Redemption	p. 203
Notes	p. 207
References	p. 235
Index	p. 249
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