Bearing Fruit in Due Season: Feminist Hermeneutics and the Bible in Worship

Bearing Fruit in Due Season: Feminist Hermeneutics and the Bible in Worship. By Elizabeth J. Smith. Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1999. viii + 248 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Elizabeth J. Smith holds a doctoral degree in liturgy from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and is presently a parish priest in the Anglican Church of Australia. This combination of the academic and the pastoral is evident throughout this thoughtful and stimulating study of the use of Scripture in Christian worship from a feminist perspective. And indeed, the result not only "bears fruit," as the title suggests, but offers a rich and well-balanced feast for the reader.

The richness is found in Smith's careful and critical analysis of feminist approaches to biblical texts. Establishing the importance of the authority of scriptural texts that resides in the believing community, she then goes on to build on the pivotal work of Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza and of Sandra Schneiders. From a comparison of the approaches of these two influential scholars, Smith constructs a valuable model for assessing the use of Scripture in Christian worship. She also adds to the feast insightful and revealing critiques of Anglican studies in worship, history, and Scripture, drawing the reader's attention to the implications of these views for the question of women's ordination in the Anglican Church. Clearly, Smith does not limit herself to a review and critique of Anglican (or other) lectionary systems, but is concerned with the ways in which Scripture functions in Christian worship, as "problem, danger, even liability" for worshipers, as well as gift. She attends to the scriptural basis of prayer and hymnody, as well as reading and sermon.

The well-balanced nutrition is found in Smith's firm commitment to the practical implications of these academic approaches to Christian Scripture for real-life Christian worshipers, and especially for women worshipers. At the outset of chapter 1, "Christians at Worship, and What They Seek," she presents a range of fictionalized female worshipers, from the grandmother active in the Mother's Union to seven-year-old Sophie; from the comfortably middle-class woman to the residents of a shelter for battered women, to street kids, to Anglican women in Uganda, Sri Lanka, and the Middle East. These figures constitute a kind of cloud of witnesses, to whom Smith holds herself and the reader accountable. Smith argues convincingly that the voices of women worshipers have not been considered by liturgical historians or taken into account in liturgical reform. By thus insisting on the inclusion of diverse and normally silenced voices in the conversation about the authority and function of Scripture in Christian worship, Smith makes a significant contribution to the future of Christian worship.

Those involved in the preparation and revision of liturgical resources and texts will want to read her analysis and recommendations very carefully, and take them to heart. Anglicans from all parts of the globe will find nourishment and (if they are open to the possibility) satisfaction at the feast that Smith has prepared. And the whole church will be a healthier place if the timely fruits of Smith's labors are shared and enjoyed.

MARJORIE PROCTER-SMITH

Perkins School of Theology

Southern Methodist University

Dallas, Texas

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Winter 2002
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