Jennifer E. Copeland

Feminine Registers: the Importance of Women's Voices for Christian Preaching Jennifer E. Copeland

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 women's 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.