The Book of Women's Sermons: Hearing God in Each Other's Voices [Mass Market Paperback]

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Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2000

"If you're looking for divine inspiration or a graceful way to reaffirm your faith, this collection of sermons and talks from women priests and poets, rabbis and canons, ministers and professors may light your path. Many of these writings are inspired by Scripture and others grew out of the authors' individual searches for God. While traditionally women have played marginal roles in church leadership, this collection shows that in today's world the voices of religion increasingly are feminine. Here are Kathleen Norris, Lauren Artress, Joan E. Hemenway, Alice Walker and others, lifting their voices to heaven and, as Barbara Bedway writes, building 'bridges to God.'" --Chicago Tribune

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

By definition, the American sermon delivers spoken words of inspiration, comfort, and enlightenment. Here we have a collection of sermons from famous women writers (Alice Walker and Kathleen Norris) as well as religious leaders speaking from the uniquely feminine vision of the divine. Because women were traditionally relegated to the back row, the sidelines, or even the kitchens of their temples, churches, and religious classrooms, the sermons in this book often speak to those who feel powerless. Calls for feminine solidarity abound, but so do compassionate references to race, homosexuality, poverty, abuse, and violence. While God is a central theme, these women find evidence of their creator in making the bed, baking bread, surviving child abuse, and the births of their children. Read these beautiful words as if they were being spoken aloud, and without a doubt they will reach the contours of your heart and the core of your beliefs. --Gail Hudson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This collection of 35 sermons speaks to the increasing presence of women in positions of religious leadership and the continuing controversies and challenges they face. Contributors include ordained clergy and elders, professors, community activists, and professional writers. Episcopalians have the largest representation, but the collection is well balanced, with voices from traditionally black denominations as well as the Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, Moravian, Unitarian Universalist, Unity Fellowship, Roman Catholic, and both Reform and Conservative Jewish traditions. The book's strength is in the variety and quality of writing, which is uniformly thought-provoking. Latino and African American voices add richness, as does the inclusion of nonordained women. The weakness is the book's organization, which is alphabetical by name; there is no clear way to identify shared themes or texts, and only two of the sermons are dated. Recommended for public and academic libraries.AJan Blodgett, Davidson Coll., NC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573227838
• ISBN-13: 978-1573227834
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #669,788 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An extraordinary collection of 35 contemporary sermons., July 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Book of Women's Sermons: Hearing God in Each Other's Voices

This is an extraordinary collection of 35 contemporary sermons. If I were to recommend a single book, to convey the best in Judeo-Christian thought on issues of American life and society, this is the book. Some of the sermons are clearly political, because as Rev. Hancock notes in her vibrant introduction, "preaching is indeed a political act." So power structures, race, and gender are frequent topics of reflection. More conventionally religious concerns are also prominent: the nature of good and evil, of spirit, of heaven, of mystery, and of faith. There are sermons that focus on the joy and the grit of daily life: "on community, on dying, on parenting, on grief." There are sermons that some would label feminist: "on the divine feminine, on domestic violence, on the motherhood of God." And there are others on social issues: "on homelessness, on homosexuality, on resistance." Although most of the authors are clergy (Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish), half a dozen are not, including Alice Walker and Kathleen Norris. All of them draw richly on the depth and complexity of their own lives. None are doctrinaire. Some are indignant, some are aggrieved, some are compassionate, some are challenging, some are wise. There are stories and images here that you'll want to share with others. Some of them will curl up in your mind and reappear in your thoughts days and weeks later. Some will reshape the ways you think and feel about others, about life, and about religion. Some will make you laugh; some will trouble you. None of them are simplistic or boring. These are wonderful sermons to read aloud, to small groups for discussion, or to a close friend with whom you share your life. It's also a great collection to give to friends, whether they consider themselves religious or not. The concerns they deal with are often the ones we've grown used to avoiding, or that we deal with unreflectively, with cant or dogma. None of these sermons do that. Somehow all of them strike true chords that resonate with the universal human condition.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Important collection of sermons by some leading women, December 9, 1999

By 

David J. Huber "Addicted to books!" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Book of Women's Sermons: Hearing God in Each Other's Voices

I don't know what the reviewer 'a reader' from august is thinking - perhaps he just adds that particular comment to every religious book he can find. This sermon collection is theologically very, very far from the 700 club mentality. I don't think Pat Robertson would let women preach this way, least ways not lesbian women, and especially not Jewish women. This collection has some wonderful, wonderful gems of sermons, especially by the Jewish women, and Annie Ruth Powell, Lundblat, and some others. It also has some sermons that are fairly weak in terms of logic, relevancy, use of Scripture, or ability to speak to people (although they must have spoken to someone). I don't see God living in some of these sermons, nor the liberating truth of God's message coming through - even for these 'inclusive' women, their theology can be quite narrow and exclusive. But, the majority of the sermons are well-done, and all the sermons are important to read for anyone who wants to know what is happening in the theological world of liberal Christianity (which is absolutely not the Murdoch and Robertson world), since the liberal Christian world gets very little media play. If you are sickened by televangelists, male-dominated churches, anti-gay bigotry in the church, etc., you should read these. And if you believe have no place in the pulpit, you especially should read these and take them to heart, because God speaks quite eloquently and forcefully through these pages, and it is important to realize that the Spirit can, does, and will work through whoever it chooses, not just men.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific for Women's Study Group, October 21, 2002

By A Customer

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This review is from: The Book of Women's Sermons: Hearing God in Each Other's Voices (Mass Market Paperback)

Our women's church school class uses this text and loves it. Each of us in the group choose a sermon she likes and leads the group in discussion after we all read it. Because the selections are short but pithy, they are quick reads and yet they provoke lots of illuminating discussion about our faith, our feelings, and our gender.