Out of the Shadows

Revd Dr Kate Bruce is an Anglican priest, working as an RAF Chaplain, with a PhD in homiletics. She is a published author with a love of written language and the spoken word, especially preaching.Liz Shercliff is on the academic staff of the Luther King Centre, Manchester and has completed a doctorate on women's preaching.

"Shercliff and Bruce boldly take on stories of biblical women—from the patriarchally oppressed and abused to the feisty survivors and tricksters. They offer the reader pastoral and preaching guidance for how one might inhabit these ancient texts and find therein a way to weave one's own life stories of pain, hope, trauma, healing, and faith."

• Introduction1 One who sees and lives: Hagar 2God of the Traumatised: Lot’s wife and daughters3God in the Muddle: Rebekah 4 Sisters, wives and servants: Rachel, Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah 5A daughter defiled: Dinah (Gen 34)6Sex-trading for Justice: Tamar, daughter-in-law of Judah7Vilified and Vindicated: Potiphar’s Wife8Acting Above her Station: Zipporah 9A dancing rebel: Miriam 10Inheritance matters: Zelophehad’s daughters 11An ambiguous figure: Rahab 12Women warriors: Deborah and Jael 13A misunderstood migrant: Naomi14Raped, dismembered, remembered: the Levite’s Concubine 15A woman who challenges God: Hannah 16A player or a pawn? Bathsheba 17A desolate woman: Tamar, sister of Amnon and Absalom 18Eloquence in word and action: the wise woman of Tekoa, the wise woman of Abel, Merab and Rizpah 19A woman of substance: The Queen of Sheba 20Wicked Women and an Unexpected Saviour: The Medium of Endor, Jezebel, Athaliah, Jehosheba21Nameless Presences: The wife of a prophet and the Shunamite woman 22A slave in Syria, but a servant of God: Na’man’s wife’s maid 23Caught up in power politics: Samson’s wife, Delilah, Ahinoaam, Michal, Jeroboam’s wife and Abishag24Prophetic Pictures in Partnerships: Gomer, Ezekiel’s wife, mother of Isaiah’s son, Shallum’s daughters 25Interrupting Power: Pilate’s Wife26Daughters of Dysfunction: Herodias and Salome 27She answered back: The Syrophoenician woman 28Seen by Jesus: The widow with the two coins 29A faithful prophet: Anna30Touched by Christ’s compassion: Widow of Na’in 31A daughter of Abraham: Women bent over for eighteen years32‘Rejoice with me’: The parable of the woman and the lost coin 33The power of her testimony: The Woman at the well34‘Some women’ encounter God: Peter’s mother in law , Women of Jerusalem, Sapphira Drusilla, and BerniceAppendix – Sermon Series SuggestionsBibliography