One of the reasons I loved reading The Red Tent was to imagine the woman behind what is a brusque biblical narrative. The women of the Bible are intriguing, so often mentioned as footnotes in a broader narrative. Some might say that’s because the story is patriarchal, that we’re missing […]
This week in my Pentateuch class, we looked at the 10 Commandments. They’re given twice in the Pentateuch: in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy 5. They’re almost word for word the some, with only one or two differences. One of those differences concerns women.
Esther is a pretty difficult book to preach. It’s set in an obscure time in history; it doesn’t mention God; it’s largely narrative with little theological reflection; and the story takes a while to get going. And on top of that, its first chapter records some pretty negative treatment of […]
I’ve been reflecting on the Christa this Easter. It’s this piece of art, of a woman crucified. I started thinking about it because of this very stimulating article on the ‘Women in Theology’ blog. The author argues there that the Christa is a stunning expression of Christ’s solidarity. Some women […]
Tonight a girl from our Melbourne church asked me how a feminist can read the Bible. In particular, she wondered why the Bible treats women so negatively, as the ones who do the wrong thing. I thought it was a good question and it expresses what I think is a common perception […]
In our Pentateuch class, I was struck by Genesis 22, the story of Abraham’s would-be sacrifice of Isaac. Surely this would be the passage to compare with Jephthah’s daugher in Judges 11! Both involve the notion of child sacrifice, yet the boy is spared and the girl killed. That’s rich fodder for any […]
Summer’s almost over (at least, it feels that way in Melbourne at the moment!) and classes start back in less than two weeks which means it’s time to put my summer project to bed for a bit. I find the whole area of feminist theology fascinating and when I started […]
Meet Jesus at uni 