ST AUGUSTINE said that Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are. In the introduction to Out of the Shadows, Volume 2, the homileticians Kate Bruce and Liz Shercliff are courageous enough to admit that this is an “angry” book. They are right to be angry, as gender justice is still far from being universal, and gender-based violence, misogyny, and discrimination feel as if they are more prevalent than ever in Church, society, and the world. This is not a subject that will go away or a problem that has been solved: preachers of all genders need to speak up for the sake of the good news.

But their courage and anger has shaped a remarkably hope-filled narrative, once again bringing into the light the ignored, forgotten, and silenced voices of the women of the Bible. They admit that this second volume attends to the stories of the women whom they avoided in the first. These are hard and difficult stories that challenge, traumatise, and require patience and compassion from those who attempt to bring them to life. And yet, through their rediscovery and reinterpretation we do find hope, justice, and theological insights of real depth.

The journey begins with Hagar, Lot’s wife and daughters, and Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Bilhah, Zilpah, and Tamart. Through their stories, we come to know something of how God is at work, not only in those considered to be the main characters of scripture, but also through the ambiguities of those who have only a few lines in the drama. At the beginning of each chapter, the authors extract the spoken, first-person “lines” of each of the women they are studying. Some of these women are named, some are not named, and some have quite a lot to say, but it is sobering to note how many women in the Bible have no voice at all, and are instead forced to speak through their actions, making them open to varying historical interpretations, projections, and occlusions. Their presence, none the less, weaves through the scriptures. Bruce and Shercliff delve deeply into their stories though careful scriptural analysis and pastoral intuition.

With the help of biblical scholars and theologians, they ponder how the preacher can work with these texts. They are attentive to the little things that are often ignored, the choice of words, the use of phrases, and the important resonances and echoes; and these insights are brought to bear in each illustrative sermon at the end of each chapter. The result is that not only are these women’s voices brought out of the shadows: we gain a new perspective altogether on biblical exegesis. The authors, noting how many of these stories are omitted from the Revised Common Lectionary, challenge the framework that undergirds our liturgical reception of scripture through the year. Who chooses the narratives that we hear? Who decides whose voices are heard or not heard in our churches?

Some of the most intriguing vignettes come through characters known by their association: Potiphar’s wife, Pilate’s wife, the Levite’s concubine, the Queen of Sheba, the medium of Endor, and those women pictured in the Gospels, either through parable or encounter with Jesus: the Syrophoenician woman, the widow of Nain, the woman at the well, the woman with the lost coin.

This is an inspiring, timely, and extremely useful collection of homiletical reflections from two experienced preachers and teachers who offer hope to all those called to preach with truth, integrity, and justice. This is a book about scriptural interpretation and exegesis as much as it is about preaching the women of the Bible. By that measure, it is a book not only for all preachers, but for anyone who loves the scriptures. But, be warned: readers will have to be courageous enough to have their own assumptions challenged, and open to finding within themselves that righteous anger that will not only bring the voices of women out of the shadows, but the voices of all those who have been silenced for far too long.
 

The Revd Dr Victoria Johnson is Dean of Chapel at St John’s College, Cambridge, and Canon Theologian of St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

Out of the Shadows: Preaching the women of the Bible, Volume 2
Kate Bruce and Liz Shercliff
SCM Press £19.99
(978-0-334-06351-3)
Church Times Bookshop £15.99