Preaching Women

Author Liz Shercliff
Publisher SCM £16.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780334058380

An ambitious book – asserting that (and why) women preachers need to find their voices as women, and how to go about it. It also includes a chapter on hermeneutics, one on hearing Bible women, a method of how to construct a sermon, sermon excerpts and questions for reflection, all in 168 pages. Much of it, e.g. the contention that women preachers are heard differently by virtue of their gender, and its implications, I found convincing; we do need a book (or more) on women preachers. Some of it, e.g. the chapter on hermeneutics, read like lecture notes. I tried the ‘method’ described in the penultimate chapter, which takes as sermon sources an awareness of experience, position, culture and tradition, and it led to a useful gathering of the building blocks of my sermon. I share some of the author’s experiences of patriarchy but not others, and to get the most out of the book, it might best be read and discussed by a group of women preachers, with maybe even a man present? I dislike the cover: lots of different smiling young women and not one grey hair, which is a form of sexism in itself.

GERTRUD SOLLARS

Feminism, Preaching