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The Rev. Dr. Donna Giver-Johnston is director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a position she has held since 2023. She is an Ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with more than 20 years of experience in pastoral ministry. She is also an experienced theological educator and writer. Her areas of expertise include homiletics and liturgics, practical theology, feminist scholarship, and theological education.
Giver-Johnston earned the doctorate of philosophy from Vanderbilt University. She also has a certificate of teaching from the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. She was awarded the John T. Galloway Preaching Award by Princeton Theological Seminary in 1996, and was named the Field Education Supervisor of the Year by Vanderbilt Divinity School in 2013.
She is the author of Claiming the Call to Preach: Four Female Pioneers of Preaching in Nineteenth Century America (Oxford University Press, 2021) and Writing for the Ear, Preaching from the Heart (Fortress Press, 2021), in addition to several published journal articles and book reviews.
Claiming the Call to Preach traces the history 
of call through the nineteenth century, at a time when the question of women’s call to preach, although seemingly fixed by ecclesial authority and cultural convention, was being raised by courageous women in different settings, through different genres, and to different effect. This book recovers the neglected narrative of women’s call to preach through the historical accounts and rhetorical witness of four groundbreaking women preachers: Jarena Lee, Frances Willard, Louisa Woosley, and Florence Spearing Randolph. Scholarship has been written on women who have preached in history, but not on how they managed to claim their call to preach despite the restrictions of gender inequality. In response, these women received endorsement of their claims to pulpit places, engaged in sacred persuasive speech, and preached as ministers of the sacred office.
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Select Bibliography
The links below will take you to either Bookshop.org (which supports local bookstores) or Amazon.com, where you can purchase the book.
Hancock E. Lee. 1999. The Book of Women's Sermons : Hearing God in Each Other's Voices. New York: Riverhead Books.
Knoll, Benjamin R. and Cammie Jo Bolin. She Preached the Word: Women's Ordination in Modern America. New York NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Massey, Karen G. And Your Daughters Shall Prophesy: Sermons by Women in Baptist Life. 1st ed. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2012.
Books in Barbour Library
Print books below may be checked out by PTS students, faculty, and staff, as well as local area patrons who have library accounts (requires an annual fee). Ebooks are indicated by asterisks, and are available to current PTS students, faculty, and staff only.
Claiming the Call to Preach: Four Female Pioneers of Preaching in Nineteenth-Century America by
Few debates divide the contemporary church more than the issue of call. The question of who can be called to preach segregates denominations, divides people within churches, and undermines its public witness. Yet, curiously little homiletic attention has been paid to the issue of call.Because the practice of call has not been subjected to critical inquiry, it has taken on power. Power lies hidden in the crevices of the question of who can be called to preach; power lies in the institutional narrative and approved stories of call; power lies in the discordant debates, equally inthe stifling silence.Claiming the Call to Preach critically examines the dominant historical narrative that overtly or covertly has exercised its power to keep women from preaching. Donna Giver-Johnston here recovers the histories of four notable female preaching pioneers who affected change in the religious landscapeof nineteenth-century America: Jarena Lee, Frances Willard, Louisa Woosley, and Florence Spearing Randolph. These women, diverse in religion, race, class, and culture each told their story of call in distinctive ways that articulated strong and effective rhetorical arguments for ecclesiasticalsanction to give them a place in the pulpit. Recovering their rhetorical witness helps to fill in the gaps in the history of preaching in America, contribute to research and pedagogies in the field of homiletics, and provide today's women - and all candidates for ministry - with differenttheological models and narrative strategies by which to effectively interpret and claim their calls to preach. These women who spoke truth to power help us reimagine a church today that no longer questions the legitimacy of one's call to preach, but endorses previously silenced voices, and istherefore strengthened by women's voices from the pulpit.
Call Number: BV676 .G56 2021ISBN: 9780197576373Publication Date: 2021-06-17
How Women Transform Preaching by
Women preachers are everywhere. The pulpit, once a bastion of male presence and power, has become, in many denominations, a place where women regularly exercise their gifts, leading congregations and proclaiming God's word each week. The number of women scholars who are publishing and teaching in the field of preaching has also expanded dramatically.Leonora Tubbs Tisdale explores how the presence of women preachers and scholars of preaching has transformed the practice of homiletics this country--from the reclamation of women's "herstory" in preaching, to the topics addressed in preaching and scholarship, to the way in which Biblical hermeneutics and theologizing are undertaken in preaching, to the imagery, illustrations, shape and embodiment of the sermons themselves. How Women Transform Preaching begins with a fascinating survey, including statistical information and historical analysis. Interviewing 16 women preachers/homileticians, Tisdale shares 'untold stories' of women preachers throughout history who are largely unknown but who serve as examples of both the struggle and power of women's preaching. She then tells the stories of contemporary women preachers. Throughout, Tisdale draws practical lessons for the reader, showing what students, homileticians, and preachers can learn from extraordinary women preachers.
Call Number: BV4207 .T57 2021ISBN: 9781791013363Publication Date: 2021-04-06
The Gendered Pulpit : preaching in American Protestant spaces by
In this feminist investigation into the art of preaching--one of the oldest and least studied rhetorical traditions--Roxanne Mountford explores the relationship between bodies, space, race, and gender in rhetorical performance and American Protestant culture. Refiguring delivery and physicality as significant components of the rhetorical situation, The Gendered Pulpit: Preaching in American Protestant Spaces examines the strategies of three contemporary women preachers who have transgressed traditions, rearranged rhetorical space, and conquered gender bias to establish greater intimacy with their congregations. Mountford's examinations of the rhetoric inherent in preaching manuals from 1850 to the present provide insight into how "manliness" has remained a central concept in American preaching since the mid-nineteenth century. The manuals illustrate that the character, style, method of delivery, and theological purpose of preachers focused on white men and their cultural standing, leaving contemporary women preachers searching for ways to accommodate themselves to the physicality of preaching. Three case studies of women preachers who have succeeded or failed in rearranging rhetorical space provide the foundation for the volume. These contemporary examples have important implications for feminist theology and also reveal the importance of gender, space, and bodies to studies of rhetoric in general. Mountford explores the geographies of St. John's Lutheran Church and the preaching of Rev. Patricia O'Connor who reformed rhetorical space through the delivery of her sermons. At Eastside United Church of Christ, Mountford shows, Rev. Barbara Hill employed narrative style and prophetic utterance in the tradition of black preaching to address gender bias and institute change in her congregation. The final case study details the experiences of Pastor Janet Moore and her struggles at Victory Hills United Methodist Church, where the fractured congregation could not be united even with Pastor Moore's focus on theological purpose and invention strategies.
Call Number: BV4208.U6 M685 2005ISBN: 9780809326501Publication Date: 2005-04-22
She Offered Them Christ: The legacy of women preachers in early Methodism by
Twentieth-century United Methodist women will meet some of their female predecessors in this fascinating account of early Methodism. For decades, the role of women in early Methodism has been overshadowed by that of their male counterparts. She Offered Them Christ is a piece of United Methodist family history that serves as a link between today's women in The United Methodist Church and their predecessors in the early history of The Methodist Church.Women preachers in John Wesley's day had his support, encouragement, and formal approval to travel and preach. Wesley valued the full involvement of women in the life of early Methodism. Unfortunately, Wesley's support for women was not shared by other male leaders of the movement; and shortly after Wesley's death, women preachers were censured. Paul W. Chilcote has collected in one volume the stories of Methodism's early women preachers - including excerpts from their diaries and journals - and introduces a segment of women's (and United Methodist) history that will enlighten today's church as it fosters an understanding of John Wesley's appreciation of and support for women in early Methodism.Today's United Methodists will find She Offered Them Christ to be a rich legacy of John Wesley's power and vision for the role of women in The Methodist Church. Wesley's message reached across the decades to provide today's United Methodists - especially women - with affirmation, encouragement, and support.
Call Number: BX8345.7 .C46 2001ISBN: 9781579106683Publication Date: 2001-06-15
Strangers and Pilgrims : female preaching in America, 1740-1845 by
Margaret Meuse Clay, who barely escaped a public whipping in the 1760s for preaching without a license; "Old Elizabeth," an ex-slave who courageously traveled to the South to preach against slavery in the early nineteenth century; Harriet Livermore, who spoke in front of Congress four times between 1827 and 1844--these are just a few of the extraordinary women profiled in this, the first comprehensive history of female preaching in early America. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Catherine Brekus examines the lives of more than a hundred female preachers--both white and African American--who crisscrossed the country between 1740 and 1845. Outspoken, visionary, and sometimes contentious, these women stepped into the pulpit long before twentieth-century battles over female ordination began. They were charismatic, popular preachers, who spoke to hundreds and even thousands of people at camp and revival meetings, and yet with but a few notable exceptions--such as Sojourner Truth--these women have essentially vanished from our history. Recovering their stories, Brekus shows, forces us to rethink many of our common assumptions about eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American culture.
Call Number: BV4208.U6 B74 1998ISBN: 9780807824412Publication Date: 1998-12-07
Click on the links below to perform subject/author searches in the library catalog:
Preaching -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Sermons, American -- Women authors.
Select Bibliography
The articles below without links are not available in the Barbour Library journal collection - please check your local library for interlibrary loan services in order to obtain copies of these.
Brooks, Gennifer Benjamin. “This Is Our Story: Black Clergy Women Preaching through Cultural Boundaries.” Liturgy 35, no. 3 (July 2020): 38–44.
Articles in Barbour Library
Articles that are available online have links, and are only available to current PTS students, faculty, and staff. Articles without links are in the print journal collection.
Cannon, Mae Elise. “Rising Above the Stained-Glass Ceiling: In the Middle East, a Growing Number of Women Are Claiming Their Place in the Pulpit.” Sojourners Magazine 50, no. 10 (November 2021): 32–35.
Casey, Emilie. “Enfleshing the Spirit through Avatar Performance: Objecthood as Resistance in Women Preachers—Rachel Baker, Jarena Lee, and Florence Spearing Randolph.” Feminist Theology 29, no. 2 (January 2021): 140–55.
Selby, Gary S. “‘Your Daughters Shall Prophesy’: Rhetorical Strategy in the 19th Century Debate over Women’s Right to Preach.” Restoration Quarterly 34, no. 3 (1992): 151–67.
Thysell, Carol. “Unearthing the Treasure, Unknitting the Napkin: The Parable of the Talents as a Justification for Early Modern Women’s Preaching and Prophesying.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 15, no. 1 (Spr 1999): 7–20.
- Discipleship Ministries, United Methodist Church: Preaching ResourcesWhether you're preparing for your first sermon or your 1,000th, you'll find helpful sermon resources here.
- Revised Common LectionaryThe online Revised Common Lectionary is a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, a division of the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries.
- SMU Perkins Center for Preaching ExcellenceWe equip preaching students and seasoned preachers to take their preaching to the next level through innovative courses, workshops, coaching and peer group experiences.
- Working PreacherGood Preaching Changes Lives. A resource for the whole church from Luther Seminary. We have enlisted hundreds of friends—biblical scholars, theologians, homileticians and pastors dedicated to the craft of biblical preaching—to provide you timely, compelling and trustworthy content.
- Young Clergy Women InternationalYoung Clergy Women International is a network of the youngest ordained clergy women, defined as those under forty. While we know that we cannot provide a place for every young clergy women, YCWI has identified the need for nurture and support of those that are discerning a call into the ministry. To this end, we created On the Road to Ordination to encourage those pursuing the ministry.
Check back soon for a list of curated print and online books from the collection of Barbour Library that compliment this BookTalk. All print items are available for checkout to current account holders. Online resources are available to current PTS students, faculty, and staff.