The Salvation Army grew out of a welfare and preaching mission in London's East End, led by Methodist minister William Booth. Initially he named his fledgling organisation the East London Christian Mission, but Booth modelled its structure on the military, and it soon became the Salvation Army. It was distinctive in the late nineteenth century for devoting attention to the underclasses of society, but also for a church hierarchy that saw women on a par with men: its first leaders were Booth and his wife, Catherine, who similarly acted as a minister. The central tenets of the organisation were what they characterised as the "three S's": first "soup", then "soap", and finally "salvation". According to this policy, feeding the poor was …

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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Salvation Army founded". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5229, accessed 23 November 2024.]