Feminist Frameworks and the Bible - (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) by L Juliana Claassens & Carolyn J Sharp (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This volume on intercultural biblical interpretation includes essays by feminist scholars from Botswana, Germany, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States. Reading from a rich variety of socio-cultural locations, contributors present their hermeneutical frameworks for interpretation of Hebrew Bible texts, each framework grounded in the writer's journey of professional or social formation and serving as a prism or optic for feminist critical analysis.

The volume hosts a lively conversation about the nature and significance of biblical interpretation in a global context, focusing on issues at the nexus of operations of power, textual ambiguity, and intersectionality. Engaged here are notions of biblical authority and postures of dissent; women's agency, discernment, rivalry, and alliance in ancient and contemporary contexts; ideological constructions of sexuality and power; interpretations related to indigeneity, racial identity, interethnic intimacy, and violence in colonial contexts; theologies of the feminine divine and feminist understandings of the sacred; convictions about interdependence and conditions of flourishing for all beings in creation; and ethics of resistance positioned over against dehumanization in political, theological, and hermeneutical praxes. Through their textual and contextual engagements, contributors articulate a broad spectrum of feminist insights into the possibilities for emancipatory visions of community.

Review Quotes

"This excellent resource not only showcases what feminist and postcolonial biblical scholars are now doing but also helps readers who are not adept at using these approaches to further develop their expertise... This book is highly recommended for scholars and advanced students of the Bible." --Catholic Biblical Quarterly

About the Author

L. Juliana Claassens is Professor of Old Testament at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Carolyn J. Sharp is Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at Yale Divinity School, USA.