Katie Geneva Cannon Research Collection

oward a Womanist Homiletic builds on the work of Katie G. Cannon and Alice Walker to offer a womanist paradigm for analyzing the sermons of Black women and proposes the content of a womanist homiletic. This womanist homiletic is a foundational construct that includes an examination of theological language, the insights on the 'trans-rational' nature of preaching and the function of embodiment and performed identity in preaching. It also includes insights from a womanist critique of language in Black preaching, particularly the prevalence of derogatory language about women in the sacred rhetoric of Black preaching.

This book provides a brief review of the rich heritage of African American female proclaimers and examines contemporary African American women's sermon preparation, content, delivery, and personhood. Brown draws heavily on interviews and conversations, as well as audio and video tapes of women proclaiming God's word, to relate how and why African American women tell others about God despite resistance (weary throats) and with the help of support (new songs) in religious and social communities.

The author shares many of her rich life experiences as a black clergywoman and seminary professor. She preaches and teaches to all women so they can begin to break through the very real brick ceiling that threatens to hold them in and keep them from their call to ministry, using the coping mechanisms familiar to the African American experience. Each chapter includes invaluable practical suggestions to help women in ministry faithfully navigate the internal and external challenges at every turn.

Cannon's (ethics and women's studies, Temple Univ.) pun-intentional canon is a compilation of previously published essays, papers, and articles. An eclectic mix of literary criticism, social commentary, liberation theology, and womanist ethics, this is more of a "best of" than a systematic theology; the author's canon represents her evolving analyses of the black female experience in its totality. She excels at unpacking the literary heritage of Zora Neale Hurston and the vitality of the black oral tradition. Cannon moves easily from the passion of folklore and legend to the conceptually rich but heavily academic language of ethics and womanist theology. Her role "is to speak as `one of the canonical boys' and as the `noncanonical other' at one and the same time." In this, she most assuredly succeeds. (Sandra Collins, Library Journal)