In highly accessible essays, the book covers the history, achievements, and cutting-edge questions in the area of gender and biblical scholarship, including violence and the Bible, female biblical God imagery, and sexuality."--Jacket.
Kristina LaCelle-Peterson seeks both to affirm the central place of Scripture in the Christian life and to highlight the liberating nature of the gospel for both men and women. To do this the author considers the biblical ideal for human beings and then proceeds to offer a biblical foundation for each of the topics under discussion--identity, body image, personal relationships, marriage, church life, and language for God. Along the way she examines the cultural nature of gender roles and the ways in which they have become entangled with ecclesial expectations. This book will help women better appreciate themselves as women, gain a better understanding of their value in God's eyes, and recognize their potential for meaningful engagement in a variety of relationships and vocational callings.
What were the lives of women and men like in ancient Israel? How does it affect their thinking about gender? Recent discussions of "biblical womanhood and manhood" tend to reflect our current concepts of masculinity and femininity, and less so the lived world of the biblical authors. In fact, gender does not often appear to be a noteworthy issue in Scripture at all, except in practical matters. Nonetheless, Genesis 1 invests the image of God itself with "male and female," making sex central to what it means to be human. Instead of working out gender through Genesis's creation and Paul's household codes, we want to ask: What was life like on an ancient Israelite farmstead, in a Second Temple synagogue, or in a Roman household in Ephesus? Who ran things in the home, in the village, in the cities? Who had influence and social power, and how did they employ it? Taking insights from anthropology and archaeology, the authors of this collection paint a dynamic portrait of gender in antiquity that has been put into conversation with the biblical texts. The Biblical World of Gender explores gender "backstage" in the daily lives and assumptions of the biblical authors and "on-stage" in their writings.
Gender and sexual identity are immensely complicated topics. An expert on human sexuality, Mark Yarhouse offers a Christian perspective of transgender identity that eschews simplistic answers, engages the latest research and listens to people's stories. This accessible guide challenges Christians to rise above the politics and come alongside individuals navigating these issues.
In Bible, Gender, Sexuality James Brownson argues that Christians should reconsider whether or not the biblical strictures against same-sex relations as defined in the ancient world should apply to contemporary, committed same-sex relationships. Presenting two sides in the debate -- "traditionalist" and "revisionist" -- Brownson carefully analyzes each of the seven main texts that appear to address intimate same-sex relations. In the process, he explores key concepts that inform our understanding of the biblical texts, including patriarchy, complementarity, purity and impurity, honor and shame. Central to his argument is the need to uncover the moral logic behind the biblical text. Written in order to serve and inform the ongoing debate in many denominations over the questions of homosexuality, Brownson's in-depth study will prove a useful resource for Christians who want to form a considered opinion on this important issue.
From prostitutes to polygamy, witches to widows, foreigners to slaves, the Bible is full of texts about women who have been classified as “other” and pushed to the margins of society. In the academy, feminist, liberation and post-colonial theologians have challenged the disparaging categorization of these biblical women and redefined them as sacred insiders, whose contributions to Judeo-Christian history offer ongoing lessons about the inclusive nature of God. Letting the Other Speak: Proclaiming the Stories of Biblical Women helps pastors, Christian educators, professors and theological students bring the stories of six controversial biblical women to congregations by surveying historical and contemporary exegetical work on each passage, modeling exegeting a congregation in preparation for moving from text to sermon, and providing two sample sermons, one prophetic and one pastoral, for each text.
Recovering a neglected chapter of reception history, this unique volume gathers select writings by thirty-five nineteenth-century women on the stories of several women in Joshua and Judges, including Rahab, Deborah, Jael, and Delilah. (Back cover).
Inspired by the current political moment around the globe in which uprisings, protests, revolutions, and movements are on the rise, this book examines the intersections between the Bible and activism. It does this by showcasing intersectional readings of the Bible as an activist act and a tool for activism; historicizing the uses of the Bible within activist/freedom movements around the globe; and offering activist approaches to teaching the Bible.Each chapter in this volume provides a critical and substantive response from the discipline of Biblical Studies to global political trends. International in scope, with contributors from Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, Oceania and the United States, they address themes such as gender politics, racial injustices, violence toward women, political resistance, and activist hermeneutics and pedagogies. Together they harness the intellectual energies of minoritized Biblical scholars in a nonessentialist manner to reflect on the Bible as a tool for liberating social and political change. Reflecting on the activist potential of the Bible, this book will be of keen interest to scholars in Biblical Studies, Political Theology, and Religious Studies.
Chart the development of feminist approaches and theories of interpretation during the period when women first joined the ranks of biblical scholars This collection of essays on feminist biblical studies in the twentieth century seeks to explore four areas of inquiry demanding further investigation. In the first section, articles chart the beginnings and developments of feminist biblical studies as a conversation among feminists around the world. The second section introduces, reviews, and discusses the hermeneutic religious spaces created by feminist biblical studies. The third segment discusses academic methods of reading and interpretation that dismantle androcentric language and kyriarchal authority. The fourth section returns to the first with work that transgresses academic boundaries in order to exemplify the transforming, inspiring, and institutionalizing feminist work that has been and is being done to change religious mindsets of domination and to enable wo/men to engage in critical readings of the Bible. Features: Essays examine the rupture or break in the malestream reception history of the Bible Exploration of the term feminism in different social-cultural and theoretical-religious locations Authors from around the world present research and future directions for research challenging the next generation of feminist interpreters
Designed for both Hebrew and non-Hebrew students, A Handbook to Old Testament Exegesis offers a fresh, hands-on introduction to exegesis of the Old Testament. William P. Brown begins not with the biblical text itself but with the reader, helping students to identify their own interpretive lenses before engaging the biblical text. Brown guides the student through a wide variety of interpretive approaches, including modern methodologiesâ€"feminist, womanist, Latino/a, queer, postcolonial, disability, and ecological approachesâ€"alongside more traditional methods. This allows students to critically reflect on themselves as bona fide interpreters. While covering a wide range of biblical passages, Brown also highlights two common biblical texts throughout the work to help show how each interpretive approach highlights different dimensions of the same texts. Students will appreciate the value of an empathetic inquiry of Scripture that is both inclusive of others and textually in-depth.