Feminine Registers: The Importance of Women's Voices for Christian Preaching

Women have been adding their voices to the proclamation of the gospel for as long as there has been a gospel to proclaim but only in the last half-century have these voices become part of the official catalogue of Christian preaching. Diagnosing the distinctiveness of womens voices and exploring the richness they convey about the presence of God requires a detailed look at the meaning-making strategies used by those who preach and those who listen. Register provides a tool for analyzing not only the theological and semantic contributions of women but also demonstrates how gender impacts the meaning-making possibilities of the sermon. Feminine Registers offers a gendered analysis of preaching that does not rely on essentialist claims about gender and moves the analysis of the preaching beyond sermon content to include the relational dynamics operating between the communicating parties and the medium used to communicate. A critical examination of this constellation of meanings influenced by gender-related issues of authority and self-disclosure helps illuminate the production of meaning within the church and expands the homiletical possibilities for the Christian faith. Through the lens of register Jennifer Copeland offers us preachers a fresh look at the way we witness to the gospel in our congregations. Using sophisticated gender studies and linguistic insights in practical revealing ways she helps us preachers to reframe our preaching task. Particularly noteworthy in this book is the strong encouragement Copeland gives for the distinctiveness of womens voices in preaching. --Will Willimon Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry Duke Divinity School In Feminine Registers Jennifer Copeland manages to transcend essentialist models of gender to create a deeply relational and communicative approach to feminist preaching. Copeland situates gender in the midst of complex relationships and expectations within communities and asks how the field (content/context) tone (roles and relationships) and mode (embodiment implementation) conspire together to create a distinctively feminist register. This promises to become one of a handful of important books on feminist homiletical method. --John S. McClure Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship Vanderbilt Divinity School Feminine Registers is a wake-up call to homiletics. Drawing on feminist theory and the linguistic concept of register Jennifer Copeland provides a thick analysis of the often-ignored role gender plays in preaching. Along the way through homiletical reflection and practical examples Copeland demonstrates the ways in which womens voices enrich the churchs proclamation. This book is an important contribution to the homiletical literature and a valuable gift to both teachers and preachers. --Charles Campbell Professor of Homiletics Duke Divinity School An important addition to the ongoing work on gender-specific analyses of Christian worship and preaching. . . . Jennifer Copeland sheds new light on womens practices of preaching by making use of discourse analysis all the while foregoing essentialist claims. An original and intriguing study highly recommended. --Teresa Berger Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School Jennifer Copelands Feminine Registers is an important book. It grounds the preaching of women in a practical and theoretical understanding of what is actually happening when a woman speaks in the traditionally male domain of the pulpit. It recounts not only the challenges faced by women in the church but also the great blessing delivered to the church when it receives the gospel in the feminine register. Copelands contribution will be of great value wherever women are preparing for the ministry of preaching and it will open the eyes (and ears) of everyone who cares about the preached word of God. I recommend this book enthusiastically. --Richard Lischer Duke Divinit