Origins of the Salvation Army

Origins of the Salvation Army PDF

Author: Norman Murdoch

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2014-09-19

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 172523498X

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The Salvation Army is today one of the world's best-known and best-regarded religious and charitable movements. In this deeply researched study, Norman Murdoch offers some surprising new insights into the denomination's origins and its growth into an international organization. Murdoch follows the lives and work of the Army's founders, William and Catherine Booth, from their beginnings as Wesleyan evangelists in the 1850s to their inauguration of a Utopian social plan in 1890. In particular, Murdoch identifies quick accommodation to failure as a persistent theme in the Army's early history. When the Booth's East End mission faltered in the mid-1870s, Booth took his preaching to the provincial towns. The failure of that ministry led him in 1878 to reorganize his efforts along then-popular military lines, and the Salvation Army was born. With women as its "shock troops," this Christian imperium would spread beyond Britain's boundaries to become as international in scope as Victoria's empire. Challenging various notions popularized in the denomination's official histories, this book will be of special interest to historians of nineteenth-century social reform, scholars of evangelical Protestantism, and readers interested in the relationship between class and religion in the Anglo-American world.

Christianity in Action

Christianity in Action PDF

Author: Henry Gariepy

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2009-09-15

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 0802848419

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This meticulously researched yet engaging book traces The Salvation Army s history of service from its beginnings in Victorian England to its present-day mission in all parts of the world. / A phenomenal religious movement, acclaimed for its compassionate service, The Salvation Army now works in no fewer than 118 countries, yet no contemporary book has chronicled this high-profile organization until now. Henry Gariepy s well-written, comprehensive account effectively fills that gap.

The Life & Ministry of William Booth

The Life & Ministry of William Booth PDF

Author: Roger Joseph Green

Publisher:

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13:

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Church History/Theology Throughout his life, William Booth sought to minister to the least, the last, and the lost. Booth, together with his wife Catherine, founded and organized the world-wide mission that is still known as The Salvation Army. Booth's focus on the poor and marginalized comes directly from his theological convictions and his relationship with the Methodist movement in Great Britain, particularly his understanding of John Wesley's doctrine of sanctification and emphasis on social activism. This grounding was the matrix from which Booth transformed his world. "Dr. Roger J. Green has written a bold, insightful biography of a remarkable man whose legacy continues today in more than one hundred countries of the world. This portrait of an imperfect but dedicated leader will illumine readers and awaken them to a new understanding of William Booth as a thoroughly biblical Christian and adaptable pioneer with a heart that burned for God." Lt. Colonel Marlene Chase, Editor in Chief, Literary Secretary, The Salvation Army National Headquarters "Roger Green brilliantly shows how the life of William Booth was shaped by: (1) the early Methodists in England and their commitment to both personal and social holiness, (2) his own poverty, and (3) the organizational genius of John Wesley. This is a valuable book that underscores the link between The Salvation Army and the worldwide Methodist family. It can only deepen our kinship and strengthen our resolve to more closely work together " George H. Freeman, General Secretary, World Methodist Council "This biographical study by Roger Green is a wonderfully textured and theologically sensitive portrait of General William Booth. May it enable readers to recognize and emulate Booth's synthesis of vital Christian piety and active social service." Paul W. Chilcote, Professor of Historical Theology & Wesleyan Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary, Orlando, Florida "Roger Green gives us remarkable and unprecedented insight into the life of the founder of The Salvation Army, William Booth. His scholarship carefully documents the powerful influence of John Wesley and Wesley's Methodist legacy on General Booth's life, theology, and world-wide ministry. Green gives us a balanced and provocative look into the strengths and flaws of this very human soldier-saint, illuminating the Wesleyan DNA of Booth's legacy, The Salvation Army." Jonathan S. Raymond, Ph.D., President and Vice Chancellor, William & Catherine Booth College, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Roger J. Green is Professor and Chair of Biblical and Theological Studies at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. He is co-editor of Word and Deed: A Journal of Salvation Army Theology and Ministry. Dr.Green is also a member of the Salvation Army International Doctrine Council.

Pulling the Devil's Kingdom Down

Pulling the Devil's Kingdom Down PDF

Author: Pamela J. Walker

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2001-04-02

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 9780520925854

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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.

Saved to Save and Saved to Serve

Saved to Save and Saved to Serve PDF

Author: Harold Hill

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2017-07-24

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 1532601670

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The Salvation Army has now been around for more than one hundred and fifty years, having celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2015 with an International Congress in London. Over the years both the Army and the world in which it appeared have changed beyond recognition. This is a good time for the movement to stop and look back—not just to celebrate, but to see where it is today. The Army has not evolved in isolation from the world. Bringing its own history with it, it nevertheless belongs to the twenty-first century world as much as William Booth’s little East End Mission belonged to nineteenth-century London. This book attempts to explore the interaction between mission and world as it has impacted the Army’s beliefs and practices as well as the place it now occupies in the wider world. This critical and analytical study may also be of interest to those beyond the Army’s ranks who would like to learn more about this remarkable organization.

Red-Hot and Righteous

Red-Hot and Righteous PDF

Author: Diane Winston

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9780674045262

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In this engrossing study of religion, urban life, and commercial culture, Diane Winston shows how a (self-styled "red-hot") militant Protestant mission established a beachhead in the modern city. When The Salvation Army, a British evangelical movement, landed in New York in 1880, local citizens called its eye-catching advertisements "vulgar" and dubbed its brass bands, female preachers, and overheated services "sensationalist." Yet a little more than a century later, this ragtag missionary movement had evolved into the nation's largest charitable fund-raiser--the very exemplar of America's most cherished values of social service and religious commitment. Winston illustrates how the Army borrowed the forms and idioms of popular entertainments, commercial emporiums, and master marketers to deliver its message. In contrast to histories that relegate religion to the sidelines of urban society, her book shows that Salvationists were at the center of debates about social services for the urban poor, the changing position of women, and the evolution of a consumer culture. She also describes Salvationist influence on contemporary life--from the public's post-World War I (and ongoing) love affair with the doughnut to the Salvationist young woman's career as a Hollywood icon to the institutionalization of religious ideals into nonsectarian social programs. Winston's vivid account of a street savvy religious mission transformed over the decades makes adroit use of performance theory and material culture studies to create an evocative portrait of a beloved yet little understood religious movement. Her book provides striking evidence that, counter to conventional wisdom, religion was among the seminal social forces that shaped modern, urban America--and, in the process, found new expression for its own ideals.