Toward a womanist homiletic: Katie Cannon, Alice Walker and emancipatory proclamation

Abstract

RELIGION

TOWARD A WOMANIST HOMILETIC: KATIE CANNON, ALICE WALKER AND EMANCIPATORY PROCLAMATION

Donna E. Allen

Dissertation under the direction of Professor John S. McClure This project builds on the work of Katie Cannon and Alice Walker to offer a womanist paradigm for analyzing the sermons of Black women. This paradigm is a minimal construct to consider when examining the complexity of African-American women’s sacred rhetoric in preaching. Cannon’s work provides a critical analysis of sermonic content focusing on linguistics. This project presents a paradigm for analyzing sermons by African-American womanist preachers to unmask the themes of womanist thought in the performance and content of their preaching as we move toward a womanist homiletic. Ultimately, this discourse will contribute to our understanding of the Black preaching tradition through an examination of sermons by a womanist preacher. The sermons for analysis are by Rev. Dr. Prathia Hall, an accomplished leader in the Black church and a nationally acclaimed preacher.