Josephine Butler, Esoteric Christianity, and the Biblical Motherhood of God
This article explores a little-known aspect of the theology of renowned feminist campaigner Josephine Butler: her development, in her later publications and correspondence, of the idea of God as a mother. While Butler was by no means unique among her contemporaries in envisaging the divine in matern...
| Published in: | Religion & literature |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Dep.
2017
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| In: |
Religion & literature
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| RelBib Classification: | KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KDE Anglican Church NBC Doctrine of God NBE Anthropology |
| Further subjects: | B
Christian Literature
B Christianity B Biblical Literalism B BUTLER, Josephine Elizabeth Grey, 1828-1906 B MOTHERHOOD of God |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article explores a little-known aspect of the theology of renowned feminist campaigner Josephine Butler: her development, in her later publications and correspondence, of the idea of God as a mother. While Butler was by no means unique among her contemporaries in envisaging the divine in maternal terms, she was unusual in basing her claims entirely upon the Bible, as an extension of her Evangelical biblicism. Buder drew on strategies of scriptural interpretation akin to those practiced by esoteric Christians who, through highly selective and schematized exposition, revealed a hidden 'woman doctrine' in the Old and New Testaments. Like these, Butler called for a widespread recognition of the motherhood of God to bring about a new era for humanity which would reverence social equality and moral purity, and would recognize divine immanence within human and nonhuman life. Butler's work is here contextualized alongside esoteric Christian writings on divine motherhood (e.g. Anna Kingsford), and more orthodox works which incorporate heterodox elements (e.g. by Elizabeth Charles). The article brings to light a little-known aspect of nineteenth-century religious revision-the biblical image of God the mother as a symbol of feminism, divine immanence and social transformation. |
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| ISSN: | 2328-6911 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion & literature
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