Searching the Scriptures, Vol. 1: A Feminist Introduction

DO MEN AND WOMEN read the Scriptures differently? Do they bring different concerns and presuppositions to the text, use different methods? read with different eyes? And should they? These are some of the basic questions addressed in this book. Searching the Scriptures is a feminist introduction, and it differs from any book in that genre ever written. It charts a comprehensive approach to feminist interpretation and prepares the way for a second volume which will engage in critical feminist commentary on the Christian Testament and other early Christian writings. The two-volume commentary project grew out of a five-year-long series of discussions in the "Women in the Biblical World" section of the Society of Biblical Literature, involving feminist scholars from all over the world. Their aim was to explore the ambivalent feminist legacy of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Woman's Bible, the centenary of which falls in 1995. Like that volume, Searching the Scriptures underlines the political character of biblical interpretation. However, it does not adopt the conceptual and methodological approach of The Woman's Bible, nor, like another recent study, does it limit its theoretical focus to gender. Rather, it seeks to be inclusive, ecumenical and multicultural. It brings together the best in contemporary feminist biblical and historical studies to explore critical issues of perspective, method and communication. This first volume explores the many facets of feminist hermeneutics, outlines modes of enquiry and theological approaches, samples the history of interpretation by women, and shows possible ways forward for feminist biblical studies for both worship and teaching. ELISABETH SCHUSSLER FIORENZA is the Krister Stendahl Professor of Harvard Divinity School and the first woman president of the Society of Biblical Literature.