Pauline “Adoption” Theology as Experiential Performance in the "Memoirs" of African American Itinerant Preacher Zilpha Elaw

Abstract

Zilpha Elaw’s "Memoirs" (1846) are distinctive in the degree to which Elaw filters her experiences through a particular systematic theology, crafting a text that coheres around a central doctrine from the New Testament letters of Paul: “the spirit of adoption.” Elaw’s own conversion, sanctification, and commission, together with her ministrations to her “spiritual children” through emotional, participatory salvation experiences, can be read as performative rituals that organize Elaw’s text and prove her theological construct of the Holy Spirit as a living, moving “spirit of adoption.” From the pulpit to the mourner’s bench, sinners were actively (and theatrically) being transformed into children of God. In Elaw’s text, these transformations culminate in the conversion of her own biological daughter, who becomes a decisive “seal” to her ministry at a camp meeting in 1830: the child of her body who becomes part of the body of Christ. Fueled by the Holy Spirit, the Pauline machinery Elaw sets in motion propels her through her own spiritual journey and itinerant preaching career, while holding out the promise of spiritual adoption for all—her daughter, her readers, and all Christians. Elaw’s "Memoirs" are thus a sophisticated theological declaration of inclusivity (one Spirit, one family of God, cutting across boundaries of race, gender, and denominational divisions).