I noted after reading Cheryl Exum’s work on Deborah that the Old Testament’s conception of motherhood is broader than family or biological ties. Though the Reformation elevated and celebrated biological motherhood, there were some women who claimed a larger title of mother. Katharina Schütz Zell (KSZ) was one such woman […]
One of Kirsi Stjerna’s conclusions in Women and the Reformation is that “more than any other factor, gender determined a woman’s ability and avenues to respond to the Reformation.” However, their responses were not uniform and she stresses that it would be a mistake to see women as responding en […]
While the apostle Peter may have taken his wife along with him in his ministry, for the better part of church history, the church considered celibacy to be the acceptable state for a priest. The reality was quite different – many priests in the medieval world had women on the […]
I’ve temporarily shifted my focus in my summer project from feminist theology to feminist readings of church history. Most of the time, that’s not trying to reinterpret events so much as to fill out the picture and show where and how women were involved or what changes in church history […]
If feminist theology is primarily for and about women, does it have a place in the mainstream? Despite the stereotype of being angry man-eaters, feminists claim that their theology is broad. Ruether’s vision is of an inclusive humanity: inclusive of both genders, inclusive of all social groups and races, even […]
In part 1 of this post, I looked at Katharine Sakenfeld’s critique of feminist hermeneutics. Here I want to look more generally across a number of scholars at how they conceive of how to read the Bible. What are the keys that unlock the way they read the Bible?
In my post about some African feminist theology I briefly mentioned the issue of feminist hermeneutics and I want to revisit that here. Just what is a feminist approach to reading the Bible? Katharine Sakenfeld says it’s one of the most common questions she is asked: how can feminists use the […]
Meet Jesus at uni 