19th century british culture
19th century british history
A01=Pamela J. Walker
Author_Pamela J. Walker
Category=JBSF
Category=NHD
Category=QRM
Category=QRMB39
christian institutions
christianity
cultural studies
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
feminism
gender studies
hallelujah lasses
methodist christianity
neighborhood religion
raising money for the poor
religion
religious studies
right to preach
salvation army
sociology
street preaching
theology
urban life
urbanization
victorian christians
victorian culture
victorian history
victorians
women and gender studies
Product details
- ISBN 9780520225916
- Weight: 680g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 02 Apr 2001
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Those people in uniforms who ring bells and raise money for the poor during the holiday season belong to a religious movement that in 1865 combined early feminism, street preaching, holiness theology, and intentionally outrageous singing into what soon became the Salvation Army. In "Pulling the Devil's Kingdom Down", Pamela Walker emphasizes how thoroughly the Army entered into nineteenth-century urban life. She follows the movement from its Methodist roots and East London origins through its struggles with the established denominations of England, problems with the law and the media, and public manifestations that included street brawls with working-class toughs. The Salvation Army was a neighborhood religion, with a 'battle plan' especially suited to urban working-class geography and cultural life. The ability to use popular leisure activities as inspiration was a major factor in the Army's success, since pubs, music halls, sports, and betting were regarded as its principal rivals. Salvationist women claimed the 'right to preach' and enjoyed spiritual authority and public visibility more extensively than in virtually any other religious or secular organization.
Opposition to the new movement was equally energetic and took many forms, but even as contemporary music hall performers ridiculed the 'Hallelujah Lasses,' the Salvation Army was spreading across Great Britain and the Continent, and on to North America. The Army offered a distinctive response to the dilemmas facing Victorian Christians, in particular the relationship between what Salvationists believed and the work they did. Walker fills in the social, cultural, and religious contexts that make that relationship come to life.
Pamela J. Walker is Associate Professor of History at Carleton University, Ottawa. She coedited Women Preachers and Prophets through Two Millennia of Christianity (with Beverly Mayne Kienzle, California, 1998).
