William and Catherine Booth's Mobilisation of an Army of All Believers Through Partnered Ministry

by Jonathan Evans Catherine and William Booth began the Christian Mission, which became The Salvation Army in 1878, to respond to the economic, moral and spiritual destitution of London ’s notorious East End . Gender stratification enabled social mores such as worker exploitation, poverty, gambling, and systemic alcoholism. This paper will argue that the partnered leadership and exemplary lives of Catherine and William Booth as “Army Mother” and “Army Father” respectively enabled the recruitment of marginalized men and women into the priesthood of all believers. The Salvation Army condemned the depravity of the East End of London, whilst it marched into the darkest pubs and theatres to win recruits who would “renounce the drinking and fighting that exacerbated their impoverished existence.”[1] Those who joined The Salvation Army were overwhelmingly men and women from the working class. Men isolated themselves with leisurely pursuits characterized by drinking and gambling while women were confined to family and private piety.[2] Women and children, desperate to keep the social fabric from untangling, were confined in impoverished living conditions and “sweated labour.”[3] The genius of William and Catherine reconstituted gender roles of Victorian England, inviting women into the foray and men to become contributors in the home and in ministry. The Booths believed that in their time every effort to mobilise the whole people of God was required to win the world for Jesus. Catherine declared, “The decree has gone forth that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and that He shall reign, whose right it is, from the River to the ends of the earth. We shall win. It is only a question of time. I believe that this Movement is to inaugurate the great final conquest of our Lord Jesus Christ."[4] World Saving’s important emphasis was that of individual salvation, “We believe in the old-fashioned salvation. We have not developed and improved into Universalism, Unitarianism, or Nothingarianism, or any other form of infidelity, and we don’t expect to. Ours is just the same salvation taught in the Bible, proclaimed by prophets and apostles, preached by Luther and Wesley and Whitfield, sealed by the blood of martyrs – the very same salvation which was purchased by the sufferings and agony and Blood of the Son of God.”[5] This salvation experience was the necessary empowerment and commissioning in the Army rather than social class, gender or age.[6] William demanded a pragmatic approach to create a full force of converts released with the gospel, “We must have improvement and variety. We must have more speakers. Old converts, if their joints are not too stiff; but new converts at any rate. For freshness, for sweetness, and flow of feeling, there is nothing like the speaking of new converts. It goes all over you, and makes you feel all over alike. We must have variety in sex both male and female. Let the women talk.”[7] William announced ordination was not to be an obstacle for anyone: You cannot say you are not ordained. You were ordained when you signed Articles of War, under the blessed Flag. If not, I ordain every man, woman and child here present that has received the new life. I ordain you now. I cannot get at you to lay my hands upon you. I ordain you with the breath of my mouth. I tell you what your true business in the world is, and in the name of the living God I authorise you to go and do it. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”[8] It is to the example and writings of Catherine that will highlight the mobilisation of women in The Army. The Salvation Army and its contemporaries agreed that the Army offered unprecedented opportunities for women. Catherine Booth had defended women’s right to preach and the Army’s regulations enshrined their equal position in all areas of Army government.[9] John Wesley had previously given women the prominent teaching position in Methodism as class leaders.[10] Catherine Booth, inspired by Wesley, furthered the status of women in her pamphlet, Female Ministry; Or, Woman’s Right to Preach the Gospel, responding to the Victorian criticism of Phoebe Palmer’s preaching in England in 1859.[11] She alleged the attitude toward women was based on contemporary culture rather than Biblical interpretation, “Oh, that the ministers of religion would search the original records of God’s Word in order to discover whether the general notions of society are not wrong on this subject, and whether God really intended woman to bury her gifts and talents, as she now does.”[12] Catherine believed that the Biblical precedent for women to preach was by the leading of the Spirit, “If she have the necessary gifts, and feels herself called by the Spirit and Word of God to preach, there is not a single word in the whole book of God to restrain her, but many, very many, to urge and encourage her.”[13] Following her defense she vowed to God that she would no longer bury her gifts but obey the Holy Spirit’s promptings. William continued to incite her to begin preaching.[14] On Whit Sunday in 1860 upon the conviction of the Holy Spirit, Catherine stood next to William at the conclusion of his sermon and said, “I want to say a word.” The congregation was moved and William announced that Catherine would preach at the evening service.[15] William soon fell ill and Catherine assumed regular preaching responsibilities.[16] It was the example and defense of Catherine that enabled female proclamation of the gospel in The Salvation Army. The organization’s inaugural constitution stated, “Godly women possessing the necessary gifts and qualifications shall be employed as preachers… and they shall be eligible for any office, and to speak and vote at all official meetings.”[17] Furthermore, The Salvation Army’s first manual declared, “[T]he Army refuses to make any difference between men and women as to rank, authority and duties, but opens the highest positions to women as well as to men.”[18] Women following Catherine emerged from the confines of the home and became the mainstay at the front lines and leaders amongst their male counterparts.[19] The Salvation Army was founded amidst British imperialism, the age of the “Christian soldier” and the muscular Christianity of Sir Henry Havelock and Charles Kingsley.[20] The Salvation Army tapped into this ethos through its militarism language, titles and uniforms. General Booth, tall and fit himself, appropriated the muscular ideal and masculinity in the Army.[21] “His Army may have adopted the nomenclature of these militarist decades,” Lauer asserts, “but Army values were at odds with them over the issues of physical strength verses spiritual strength and war and militarism.”[22] When The Salvation Army “opened fire” in East London violent opposition came from The Skeleton Army. The Skeleton Army persecuted the Salvationists, injuring 669 soldiers and martyring Captain Susannah Beaty.[23] The apparent unwillingness of Salvationists to defend themselves reinforced the ideals of spiritual warfare and strength outside of the physical realm. The rejection of physical force was intentional considering the Army was composed of men whom were physically endowed: “blackguards, pugilists, dockers and labourers.”[24] The Army’s emphasis on a new life in Christ was the catalyst of non-violence. Men had a new identity and separation from an unredeemed working-class male culture. Walker observes, “Salvationist men, in turn, offered a masculine religiosity that stressed temperance, frugality and discipline all of which were at odds with pervasive notions of manliness.”[25] Booth encouraged men to utilise their conversion experiences to advance the Salvation War, “God Almighty wants veterans who have been themselves delivered from the foe, and washed in the blood of the Lamb, and who will follow Him whithersoever He leadeth. This is the only medal out of which God can make spiritual ‘ironsides,’ ‘invincibles,’ ‘more than conquerors.’”[26] Indeed, William Booth allowed Victorian notions of masculinity fall to the wayside in favour of being a fool for the gospel. An 1892 St. Stephen’s Review illustration depicts William Booth in women’s attire, shaking a tambourine while three men applaud.[27] Depictions like these ridiculed the new Salvation Army man yet Booth’s chief concern was the gospel, “if I thought I could win one more soul for Christ by standing on my head and beating a tambourine with my feet I would learn how to do it.”[28] Lauer summarizes, The Salvation Army created a new masculinity by rejecting the hallmarks of male identity – physical strength, all-male spaces – and offering in its place access to spiritual power and the support of the Army organization, an organization of men and women. In place of an authority which had its roots in gender segregation, Salvationist men gained authority as evangelists and possessors of spiritual gifts, in much the same way women enjoyed status in the Army.[29] The Salvation Army sought to remake men as domesticated beings reintegrating them into household as a fitting partner for a woman who had her own spiritual work to do in the world.[30] Another shared sphere was the authority that William and Catherine showed to their Salvationists as father and “Army Mother.” [31] In this way The Booths reclaimed the family as a meaningful site of authority and ministry. William and Catherine’s healthy and loving partnership was essential in The Salvation Army’s warfare. William and Catherine modelled a family leadership through the titles of Army mother and father; played out in their romantic and professional relationships. The egalitarian marriage would be the governmental paradigm in the home and in Army governance. William wrote on shared authority: A good family government must mean, therefore, that there is a head to whom all look up. Nominally that head is the father, but between father and mother there should be such union of spirit, aim and will, that both shall be felt to be as one. The expressed will of the one will then be taken as that of the other, and the children will know no difference in power and authority between the one and the other. This is the order of God who puts both parents conjointly over their children.[32] During Courtship William and Catherine wrote letters cementing their love and devotion while becoming “… of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (Phil 2:2). Issues such as temperance and the role of women would be settled in favour of Catherine’s views. Catherine, whose father was prone to drinking, rebuked William for his use of alcohol for medical reasons. He was convinced to “be a teetotaller in principle and practice.”[33] William also initially sided against Catherine regarding women, “But as to concede that she [Woman] is man’s equal, or capable of becoming man’s equal, in intellectual attainments or prowess – I must say that is contradicted by experience in the world and my honest conviction.”[34] Catherine responded lovingly, “Perhaps sometime with thy permission (for I am going to promise to obey thee before I have any intention of entering such work) I may write something more extensive on the subject.”[35] However, the argument would continue to move to Catherine’s favour culminating in William stating “She [Woman] has filled with honour the most important positions of authority in our ranks, and directed with success many of our difficult enterprises. Indeed, she has justified every demand ever made by the Army upon her capacity, her courage and her love.”[36] Egalitarian views of the Booths remained ambiguous. Catherine acknowledged William’s “headship,” while at dinner the Booths sat side-by-side; “there was no head at their table.”[37] Lauer translates this ambiguity to their Army, “William, the General, stood at the head of a great Army/family. Catherine, the ‘Army Mother’, was placed in a somewhat unclear relation to the rest of the hierarchy.”[38] The Booths would instruct their soldiers on the institution of marriage. Marriages were to make soldiers and officers “a good deal better after” marriage to God and The Army.[39] One of “The Articles of Marriage” vowed, “We each severally promise to use all our influence with each other to promote constant and entire self-sacrifice for the Salvation of the World.”[40] Parents, dedicating their children to God in The Army were admonished, “You must be willing that the child should spend all its life in the Salvation Army, wherever God should choose to send it, that it should be despised, hated, cursed, beaten, kicked, imprisoned or killed for Christ’s sake.”[41] William and Catherine promoted child conversion and wrote on child rearing relying heavily on their experience of raising their eight children together.[42] William wrote Training of Children Or, How to Make the Children into Saints and Soldiers, which implores parents to set an example as, “faithful Soldiers, giving all the time, strength, ability and money possible to help on the War”.[43] Children, following their parents, were to be prepared to “suffer all manner of persecution, and perhaps, be half killed for the testimony they must bear and the separate life they will have to live.”[44] Thus, children were mobilised with men and women for The Army’s viability and witness. Railton, in the appendix, admonishes the Booths for their child rearing, “All the children of The General regard the Salvation of the world as the one object of their lives – the six eldest already taking a most prominent part in the working of The Army.”[45] The example had been set for other prominent youth to move up the ranks of The Army alongside complete obedience to the General. Strikingly the authority William prescribed in the home impacted The Army. He required perfect obedience: What is a soldier? Is it not someone ready at a moment’s notice to throw himself into the breach, whatever the danger, in order that the interests of his Sovereign may be advanced? To refuse would be to play the part of a deserter. … My dear comrades, do let us look seriously into the question of obedience. It is the duty of all those who have our Salvation warfare to heart to ask themselves, Am I a soldier in very truth? Can my captain depend upon me at all times and in all places?[46] Disobedience was not accepted, even from Booth’s own children who left the Army. They became ostracised; members of the family that were not talked about.[47] Lauer concludes, “As disobedient soldiers and wayward children, they had forfeited their place in the Army family because they had challenged their father’s authority.” Unfortunately, this precedent has long outlasted the Booth’s legacy whereby officers may only chose to resign if they are unwilling to obey their authorities. Contrastingly, William’s obedient children would be promoted instigating allegations of nepotism. Eva Booth, for example, became the fourth General of The Army, promoted from the rank of captain to commissioner (the second highest rank), bypassing all intermediate ranks.[48] Eason surveys, “The Booth children were placed in positions of considerable authority at very young ages, often replacing more seasoned officers in the process.”[49] Consequently, William and his son, Bramwell, who became the next general, withstood allegations of favouritism to promote youth and women as instrumental to The Salvation Army’s leadership personnel. To conclude, the Booths aimed to transform all aspects of its members’ lives, including relations between husbands and wives, by creating new men and women.[50] It was the first Christian group in modern times to treat women as men’s equals by offered a compelling, if sometimes ambiguous, vision of gender and authority.[51] The thrust of the new people of God was the Victorian optimism and sheer necessity to “get people saved.” The Booths argued that female authority was justified in scripture and absolutely necessary if all the lost souls were to be saved.[52] Being useful or promoted was not by social status or education but by “blood and fire” (Salvation and Regeneration) and radical obedience to God through the hierarchical chain of command in The Army, making The Salvation Army a dynamic organization across the globe.

Bibliography Anderson, Olive. “The Growth of Christian Militarism in Victorian England.” The English Historical Review, 86 (1971): 46 – 72. Barclay, William. The Gospel of Luke. Rev. ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. Begbie, Harold. The Life of General William Booth the Founder of the Salvation Army: Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan, 1920. Blocker, Jack S., David M. Fahey, and Ian R. Tyrrell. Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO 2003. Booth, Catherine. Female Ministry: Or, Woman's Right to Preach the Gospel. New York: The Salvation Army, 1975. Booth, William. Salvation Soldiery. London: International Headquarters Of The Salvation Army, 1883. Booth, William. Training of children: Or How to Make the Children Into Saints and Soldiers of Jesus Christ. London: Salvationist publishing and supplies, 1884. Booth, William. The Founder Speaks Again: A Selection of His Writings. London: Salvationist Publishing and Supplies, 1960. Bramwell-Booth, Catherine. Catherine Booth: The Story of Her loves. London: Hodder And Stoughton, 1970. Collier, Richard. The General Next to God; The Story of William Booth and The Salvation Army. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1965. Eason, Andrew. Women in God's Army: Gender and Equality in The Early Salvation Army. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2003. Gariepy, Henry. Christianity in Action: The International History of the Salvation Army. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2009. Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day Vol. 2 The Reformation to the Present Day. Peabody: Prince Press, 2001. Green, Roger Joseph. Catherine Booth: A Biography of the Cofounder of The Salvation Army. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996. Hughes, R. Kent. John: That You May Believe. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1999. Lauer, Laura. “Soul-saving Partnerships and Pacifist Soldiers: The Ideal of Masculinity in the Salvation Army.” In Masculinity and Spirituality in Victorian Culture, 194 - 208. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. Murdoch, Norman H. Origins of the Salvation Army. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1994. Rhemick, John. A New People of God: A Study in Salvationism. New York: The Salvation Army, 1984. Sandall, Robert. The History of The Salvation Army. London: Thomas Nelson, 1947. Walker, Pamela J. “A Chaste and Fervid Eloquence. Catherine Booth and the Ministry of Women in the Salvation Army.” In Women Preachers and Prophets Through Two Millennia of Christianity, 288 - 302. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. ________. Pulling the Devil's Kingdom Down: The Salvation Army in Victorian Britain. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. ________. "Booth, William 1829 - 1912." In The Encyclopedia of Protestantism, 264 - 5. New York: Routledge, 2004. Winston, Diane H. Red-hot and Righteous: The Urban Religion of The Salvation Army. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.

[1] Andrew Eason, Women in God’s Army: Gender and Equality in the Early Salvation Army ( Waterloo , ON : Wilfred Laurier Press, 2003), 14. [2] Pamela J. Walker, Pulling the Devil’s Kingdom Down: The Salvation Army in Victorian England ( Berkeley : University of California Press , 2001), 71 - 84. [3] Eason, Women, 14. [4] Catherine Booth, quoted in John Rhemick, A New People of God: A Study in Salvationism (New York: The Salvation Army, 1984), 202 – 3. [5] William Booth, The Founder Speaks Again: A Selection of the Writings of William Booth ed. Cyril J. Barnes (London: Salvationist Publishing and Supplies, 1960), 45 – 6. [6] Walker , Pulling, 92 - 93. [7] William Booth, “How to Improve our Open-air Services,” The War Cry, 24 January, 1880, quoted in Laura Lauer, “Soul-saving Partnerships and Pacifist Soldiers: The Ideal of Masculinity in the Salvation Army,” in Andrew Bradstock et al. eds. Masculinity and Spirituality in Victorian Culture ( New York : St. Martin ’s Press, 2000), 194. [8] William Booth, The War Cry, 22 January, 1898. [9] Pamela J. Walker, “A Chaste and Fervid Eloquence. Catherine Booth and the Ministry of Women in the Salvation Army,” in B. M. Kienzle and P. J. Walker eds., Women Preachers and Prophets through Two Millennia of Christianity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 288 – 302. Robert Sandall, The History of the Salvation Army. Vol. 1, 186 – 1878 (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1947), 179 – 80, 84. [10] Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day Vol. 2 The Reformation to the Present Day ( Peabody : Prince Press, 2001), 213. [11] Walker , Pulling, 9, 22-29. Roger J. Green Catherine Booth: A Biography of the Cofounder of The Salvation Army (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996), 125. [12] Catherine Booth, Female Ministry; Or, Woman’s Right to Preach the Gospel (New York: The Salvation Army, 1975), 14. [13] Ibid. [14] Catherine Bramwell-Booth, Catherine Booth: The Story of Her Loves (Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, 1970), 157. [15] Ibid., 158. [16] Walker , Pulling, 33. [17] Christian Mission Minutes, 1st conference, June 15 – 16, 18, 1870, sec 12. Quoted in Eason, Women, 44. [18] Quoted in Sandall, The History of The Salvation Army, Vol. 1, 215 – 16. [19] Walker , “Chaste,” 289, 298. [20] Olive Anderson, “The Growth of Christian Militarism in Victorian England ,” The English Historical Review, 86 (1971): 46 – 72. [21] Harold Begbie, The Life of General William Booth: The Founder of the Salvation Army, Vol. 1 (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1920), 67-8. [22] Lauer, “The Ideal,” 201. [23] R. Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), 479. [24] Lauer, “The Ideal,” 202. [25] Walker , Pulling, 243. [26] William Booth, Salvation Soldiery (London: The Salvation Army, 1883), 50. [27] Walker, Pulling, 123. [28] William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, Rev. ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 82. [29] Lauer, “The Ideal,” 198. [30] Ibid., 205. [31] Ibid., 204. [32] William Booth, Training of Children: Or, How to Make The Children Into Saints and Soldiers (London: The Salvation Army, 1884), 42. [33] Jack S. Blocker Jr., David M Hahey, and Ian R. Tyrrell eds. Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara: ABC – CLIO Inc., 2003), 542. [34] Begbie, The Life, 236. [35] Catherine Booth, quoted in Walker, Pulling, 20. [36] Quoted in Henry Gariepy, Christianity in Action: The International History of The Salvation Army (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 2009), 36. [37] Norman H. Murdoch, Origins of The Salvation Army (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1994), 27. [38] Lauer, “The Ideal,” 204. [39] Walker, Pulling, 124. [40] Ibid. [41] Richard Collier, The General Next to God: The Story Of William Booth and The Salvation Army (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1965), 110. [42] Lauer, “The Ideal,” 189. [43] William Booth, Training, 27. [44] Ibid., 135. [45] Ibid., 261. [46] Quoted in Lauer, “The Ideal,” 205. [47] Lauer, “The Ideal,” 205. [48] Eason, Women, 148. [49] Ibid. [50] Lauer, “The Ideal,” 196. [51] Diane Winston, Red Hot and Righteous: The Urban Religion of The Salvation Army (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 95. [52] Pamela J. Walker, “Booth, William 1829 – 1912” in The Encyclopedia of Protestantism.