The Womanist Preacher

Proclaiming Womanist Rhetoric from the Pulpit

By (author) Kimberly P. Johnson

Publication date:

28 July 2017

Length of book:

208 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498542050

The Womanist Preacher: Proclaiming Womanist Rhetoric from the Pulpit performs a close textual analysis of five womanist sermons to answer the question: how does womanist preaching attempt to transform/adapt the tenets of womanist thought to make it rhetorically viable in the church? And what is gained and lost in this? The sermons come from five women who are considered exemplars of womanist preaching: Elaine M. Flake, Gina M. Stewart, Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Melva L. Sampson, and Claudette A. Copeland. This book takes the first step in womanist scholarship to dissect what is rhetorically going on in womanist preaching, to categorize womanist sermons under the four tenets of womanist preaching, and to then create four rhetorical models that reflect the rhetorical attributes of the four different categories or phrased tenets that Stacey Floyd-Thomas uses to represent Alice Walker’s “womanist” definition.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One: The Emergence of Womanist Preaching

Chapter Two: Radical Subjectivity

Chapter Three: Traditional Communalism

Chapter Four: Redemptive Self-Love

Chapter Five: Critical Engagement

Chapter Six: Conclusions about Womanist Preaching & Womanist Rhetoric

Appendix A: Elaine M. Flake’s sermon, “The Power of Enough”

Appendix B: Gina M. Stewart’s sermon, “Enough is Enough!”

Appendix C: Cheryl Kirk-Duggan's sermon, “Women of the Cloth”

Appendix D: Melva L. Sampson’s sermon, “Hell No!”

Appendix E: Claudette A. Copeland's sermon, "What Shall We Do For Our Sister?”

Appendix F: Four Rhetorical Models

Bibliography

About the Author

In her groundbreaking work on womanist preaching, Kimberly P Johnson reveals how the unique experiences of African American women, marginalized by both gender and race, but strong and hopeful in their vision of what might be, leads to discourse that can “liberate oppressed people through a social justice discourse.” Womanist theory grounds Johnson’s discussion of womanist preaching as a rhetorical genre, thus informing future discussions of womanist rhetoric more generally. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in African American studies, women’s studies as well as rhetoric and social change.