More on Paul: Reading the Messianic in Hannah More through the Lens of Giorgio Agamben

Abstract

This paper seeks to explain the power behind the abiding legacy of Hannah More, a key Evangelical of her time whom many view as inaugurating the values of the Victorian era. Viewed as an inconsistent figure even by admirers for overriding the demarcation of separate spheres and classes she herself promulgates, More was able to wage war on social injustice even while championing the status quo, providing considerable fire power to movements such as Abolition, the creation of schools for the poor, and the Bible Society. Her serious religion was the primary marker of her identity as well as her agency, and yet her rigorous investment in her faith has been hard to fully appreciate in the context of modern liberal sentiment. I seek to bring a renewed focus to her Evangelicalism by reading her work as fueled by Pauline messianism closely explicated in the recent exegesis of Giorgio Agamben in The Time that Remains. By paying close attention to the Pauline message of the good news as the revocation of all callings, I hope to explain the energy motivating the vast body of work of a most conservative woman who cannot be defined by her conservatism alone. By extension, the growing work of Christian women in transforming the modern world, extending their sphere of influence far beyond the home, can be read as similarly driven by the messianic call to action in the ho nyn Kairos, the now of the time remaining.