Daughters of Thunder: Black Women Preachers and Their Sermons, 1850-1979. By Bettye Collier-Thomas. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998. 343pp. $25.00, cloth.

Bettye Collier-Thomas' purpose in Daughters of Thunder is "to explore the history of African American preaching women and the issues and struggles they confronted in their efforts to function as ministers and to become ordained" (xv). Her goal is important in that we cannot suggest that we know the history of the Black Church unless we come to a fuller understanding of women's roles in the development of the institution and the theology that drives it. This study of more than a century's worth of African American women's sermons puts us closer to knowing more fully Black Church history.

Collier-Thomas does the reader the favor of drawing together thirty-eight sermons preached by fifteen women between 1850 and 1979. Few other collections offer this sort of treasure trove of African American women's historical writings on matters of the spirit and social responsibility. She draws sermons from archives, personal collections, autobiographies, and other sources, and compiles them chronologically. This sequencing emphasizes the progressive development of three primary themes: the centrality of Holiness doctrine to women's faith and ministry, regardless of the denomination an evangelist joined; women's right to preach and ascend to permanent assignment in a pulpit; and the social responsibility of Christ's followers, these evangelists and preachers, in particular. This ordered collection also draws attention to common rhetorical practices employed by women evangelists and preachers over more than a century. Additionally, when possible, Collier-Thomas found portraits of many of the writers to accompany their brief biographies. From a material culture standpoint, the photographs and portraits are just as readable as are the sermons of these salvationists, and provide a useful 'second text'.

Daughters of Thunder is another in the growing library of studies of women's preaching experiences and careers over the past two centuries. Some of the contributions in this field are collective histories, and some consider only a few women. While most of these texts will reveal something new, Collier-Thomas' book is a truly sparkling contribution. She has presented and placed in useful social and political context the lives and sermons of many women who have been forgotten, but whose evangelical work was profoundly influential in the lives of African Americans, especially in the post-slavery and migration periods. Where little biographical information is available on some evangelists, Collier-Thomas has made special effort to provide some link to another woman preacher, or spent extra effort explaining doctrine central to the sermon presented. Where more is available, Collier-Thomas successfully draws relationships between groups of women preachers, and connects them to particular preaching traditions. More, Collier-Thomas points out firsts among these women. For example, she highlights the first African American woman to be ordained an elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination, and the first African American woman to broadcast her worship services from Harlem, New York.

Daughters of Thunder records a clear turn from preaching women's concerns about whether women really ought to preach the gospel, and toward feminist approaches to women's calls to preaching. Certainly one notes the biblical feminism of some of the earliest women included in this collection. Important here, though, is the repetition observed in the sermon titles. In each generation, at least one woman sermonized on the propriety of women's preaching. Raising the question, and the rhetorical pattern for doing so, has become a tradition, but the answer has never become ritualized. Collier-Thomas' collection draws together a council of African American women preachers whose calls are undeniably powerful.

Betty Collier-Thomas' Daughters of Thunder: Black Women Preachers and Their Sermons, 1850-1979 is ultimately an invaluable collection of historical sermons written and delivered by African American women. Scholars and students in search of an overview of preached texts, a variety of preaching styles, and a solid documentary history of women's pulpit and field leadership and daring should include this study on their list of required readings.

Martha L. Wharton, Ohio State University