Phoebe Palmer

Author: Sally Bruyneel
Publisher: CBE International

After languishing in obscurity for many years, the work of Phoebe Palmer (1807-1874) has been rediscovered by church historians and scholars. Although virtually unknown today, Palmer was a widely-recognized religious figure in her day—a woman whose concern for the holy life enabled her to transcend the limitations of both gender and denominational affiliation. As a premier proponent of “the holiness way,” Palmer functioned as teacher, writer, social activist, theologian and evangelist for the cause of Christ. She desired nothing less than full consecration to God, and her passionate devotion compelled her into the pulpit and onto the printed page. Consumed by the divine fire of God’s call, Phoebe became a dominant force in the nineteenth-century Holiness Movement, “a woman to whom thousands of people looked for leadership, and by whom thousands were instructed, in a time when women were not generally accorded positions of leadership or authority in American culture.” The brief biography that follows is intended as an introduction to this amazing woman. It is also offered as encouragement for all who, like Phoebe Palmer, desire nothing less than to be used fully of God.

This is my original 1996 University of Toronto/Toronto School of Theology Doctoral Dissertation.  I have previously uploaded a gussied up version of the dissertation under the title Romans 7, Conversion & Sanctification from Arminius to Ironside (1591-1928): How Theology, Personal Experience & Wishful Thinking Shaped our reading of the Seventh Chapter of Romans.  The latter has been corrected and changed and added to at points.

This is a chapter for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of 19th Century Christian Thought. It traces theological appeals to the category of 'religious experience' in 19th century theology from Schleiermacher to William James. Figures discussed include Schleiermacher, Coleridge, Bushnell, the Erlangen School, Methodist Holiness theologian Phoebe Palmer, Christoph Blumhardt, and James. The chapter contextualizes these theological appeals to 'experience' in light of the long history of Protestant debates over 'enthusiasm' and subjective experience as well as the search for new foundations for theology after the Enlightenment. Overall, it demonstrates the lasting and often underestimated importance of Pietistic and 'enthusiastic' theologies in 19th century Christian theology as both a resource and a foil for new developments.

In this chapter, I discuss autobiography in the Evangelical tradition, and how this genre can help us understand Evangelical identity. Conversion – the experience of “new birth”, or being born again – was the center of these stories. The emphasis on personal storytelling (witnessing) united Evangelicals, but the way they told their stories divided them. As the movement grew more fragmented over the centuries, this pattern becomes more evident. Personal storytelling was part of what made this a modern movement, but the way they told their stories set it apart as a distinct modernity.

From the volume "Spiritual and Ecclesial Biographies: Research, Results, and Reading" edited by Anders Jarlert and published by Kung. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. Stockholm: 2015.

Author: Shelly Siemens Janzen
Publisher: CBE International

Although evangelical and Canadian histories have tended to under-examine the contributions of women, an emphasis on the example of Phoebe Palmer readily offers a visible standard of Canadian evangelical emancipation.