Calling Forth More Witnesses: Claiming the Voices of Preachers Silenced by History
Examples of preaching by women are relatively rare until the modern era. This issue is compounded by some restrictive aspects of present definitions that delineate a sermon from other forms of spoken discourse by limiting the act of preaching to the context of a worship service, spoken by one who is...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2010
|
| In: |
Toronto journal of theology
Year: 2010, Volume: 26, Issue: 1, Pages: 47-58 |
| Further subjects: | B
Women
B M.G B Preaching B Victorian B Sermon |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
|
| Summary: | Examples of preaching by women are relatively rare until the modern era. This issue is compounded by some restrictive aspects of present definitions that delineate a sermon from other forms of spoken discourse by limiting the act of preaching to the context of a worship service, spoken by one who is authorized by the Church. Expanding definitions of preaching to include spoken addresses by spiritually qualified individuals in other contexts would generate more potential sermons by women. "M.G.," a nineteenth-century British woman known only by her initials, serves as a test case. Her work, Women like Ourselves, survives in print but was originally a series of short addresses given for mothers' meetings or other women's gatherings. M.G. was qualified to speak to other women within the boundaries of traditional women's roles of the Victorian era, as women were viewed as having special spiritual and moral qualities that allowed them to be spiritual leaders in the home and private sphere. In addition to being rhetorically and organizationally similar to sermons from the late nineteenth century, M.G.'s addresses also display "feminine qualities" and address women's experience, which represent patterns noted in women's preaching. This article introduces a more inclusive definition of preaching and explores M.G.'s addresses as sermons, which opens the possibility of finding more women preachers from throughout history, empowering women today and acknowledging the important work women were doing for the Church within their own sphere of influence. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1918-6371 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Toronto journal of theology
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3138/tjt.26.1.47 |
