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"This book presents dramatic, convincing evidence that the tradition of women's preaching extends back to the beginnings of Christianity. . . . It will be an inspiration to all who suffer from the legacy of constraints on female speech."—Carole Slade, author of St. Teresa of Avila
"The essays are individually inspiring and collectively interdisciplinary. . . . A powerful contribution to the history of preaching and public discourse."—Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, author of Jesus: Miriam's Child, Sophia's Prophet
List of contents
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PREFACE: AUTHORITY AND DEFINITION
Introduction: The Issue of Blood-Reinstating Women into the Tradition
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PREFACE: AUTHORITY AND DEFINITION
Introduction: The Issue of Blood-Reinstating Women into the Tradition
Elaine J Lawkss
PART ONE: EARLY CHRISTIANITY
1. Prophetic Power and Women's Authority: The Case of the Gospel of Mary (Magdalene)
Karen L. King
2. The Early Christian Orans: An Artistic Representation of Women's
Liturgical Prayer and Prophecy
Karen Jo Torjesen
3. Maria Magdalena: Apostolorum Apostola
Katherine Ludwig]ansen
PART TWO: THE MIDDLE AGES
4. The Prostitute-Preacher: Patterns of Polemic against Medieval
Waldensian Women Preachers
Beverly Mayne Kienzk
5. The Voice of the Good Women: An Essay on the Pastoral and
Sacerdotal Role of Women in the Cathar Church
Anne Brenon
6. The Right of Women to Give Religious Instruction in the Thirteenth Century
Nicole Beriou
7. Prophecy and Song: Teaching and Preaching by Medieval Women
Carolyn Muessig
8. Proclaiming Sanctity through Proscribed Acts: The Case of Rose of Viterbo
Darwen Pryds
g. Women's Sermons at the End of the Middle Ages: Texts from the Blessed and
Images of the Saints
Roberto Rusconi
PART THREE: SIXTEENTH THROUGH EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
10. Feminine Exemplars for Reform: Women's Voices in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments
Edith Wilks Dolnikowski
11. Preaching or Teaching?: Defining the Ursuline Mission in Seventeenth-Century France
Linda Lierheimer
12. A Voice for Themselves:
Women as Participants in Congregational Discourse in the Eighteenth-Century
Moravian Movement
Peter Vogt
13. In a Female Voice: Preaching and Politics in Eighteenth-Century British Quakerism
Phyllis Mack
PART FOUR: NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES
14. Spirituality and/as Ideology in Black Women's Literature:
The Preaching of Maria W. Stewart and Baby Suggs, Holy
Judylyn S. Ryan
15. A Chaste and Fervid Eloquence: Catherine Booth and the Ministry of
Women in the Salvation Army
Pamela]. Walker
16. Prophetess of the Spirits: Mother Leaf Anderson and the Black Spiritual
Churches of New Orleans
Yvonne Chireau
17. Transforming the Pulpit: Preaching and Prophecy in the British Women's
Suffrage Movement
Jacqueline R deVries
Afterword: Voices of the Spirit-
Exercising Power, Embracing Responsibility
Karen L. King
CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX
About the author
Beverly Mayne Kienzle is Professor of the Practice in Latin and Romance Languages at Harvard Divinity School, and Pamela J. Walker is Assistant Professor of History at Carleton University.
Summary
Investigates the diverse voices of Christian women who claimed the authority to preach and prophesy. The text examines centuries of arguments against women's public speech and the ways in which women have nonetheless exercised religious leadership in their communities.
