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

Ingham, Arleen M. Women and Spirituality in the Writing of More, Wollstonecraft, Stanton and Eddy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Ingham takes up the extensive writings of four spiritual pioneers—Hannah More, Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mary Baker Eddy—to examine how they interpreted biblical texts to challenge ‘historical identity formations.’ These women “pointed to spiritual representations of femininity in Scripture” (3), and “ultimately reworked patriarchal theological doctrine” (11). Their writings speak to such themes as: the female subject, the virtuous feminine as moral reformer of slavery and women’s subjugation, equality of the sexes and empowerment of women, women’s right to revelation, and the identification of the Motherhood of God. These themes authenticated an elect womanhood. Specific to Eddy, Ingham relates these themes to her groundbreaking textbook, Science and Health, as well as many of her earlier writings and sensibilities. Moreover, Ingham explores how both personal suffering and public opposition triggered the spiritual awakening of the four women. A highlight is Ingham’s final chapter where she “lays out Stanton’s and Eddy’s exegesis of the first and last books of the Bible,” thereby providing “an interpretive space from which to challenge a singular definition concerning creation in Genesis and prophecy in Revelation” (161).

ISBN-10: 1349286931
ISBN-13: 9781349286935