2 of 2

As Woodward, who brings some much-needed balance to the package, says, "The promise of feminist Biblical scholarship is that it can alter this imbalance [between male and female characters in Scripture] by interpreting the Bible from the perspectives of women's experiences. The danger is that feminist ideology will overreach the text." He notes the Gnostic Gospels weren't so much suppressed as heresy, but rejected by New Testament compilers. It's easy to look beyond the Bible however, because there is a lot that the New Testament doesn't tell us, and archeology doesn't fill in the gaps. Woodward warns of the temptation to fill those gaps with "historical imagination." He says,

Feminists aren't the first to approach the Bible with a political agenda. But it would be exemplary if women were to be the first to check contemporary ideologies at the Bible's door … The test of Biblical scholarship is not how user-friendly it makes the Scriptures to groups that feel neglected. Rather, it is how well it sheds new light on texts that millions hold to be authoritative.

Despite inaccuracies, women are looking again at Mary, Eve, Hagar, Rahab and other (even warrior) biblical women and finding inspiration in their stories. Of course, Newsweek doesn't mention that they might be in the Bible because they are "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." Weblog admits it picked that up in Sunday school. The problem with much of the story may be that Newsweek didn't have its religion writer (who may have attended such classes on assignment) write the story.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Suggest links and stories by sending e-mail to weblog@christianitytoday.com

What is Weblog?

Check out Books & Culture's weblog, Content & Context.

See our past Weblog updates:

November 26 | 25b | 25a | 24

November 21 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 17

November 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10

November 7b | 7a | 6 | 5 | 3

October 31 | 30 | 29 | 28 | 27

October 24 | 23 | 22 | 21

October 17 b | 17a | 16 | 15 | 13

and more, back to November 1999

first page |  2 of 2

share this page

December (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47