Conflicting Interpretations of the Bible
Substantive Blog Post #2
Biblical Feminisms: Knowledge, Theory, and Practice in the Study of Women in the Hebrew Bible
I have selected Biblical Feminisms: Knowledge, Theory, and Practice in the Study of Women in the Hebrew Bible by Esther Fuchs as the second article for my final paper. In this article Fuchs (2008) frames her argument around the idea that there are a variety of “feminist” approaches to interpreting the Bible. Her research questions consist of the following: “What is a feminist approach to the Bible? What is the difference that a feminist approach makes? What are the major theoretical debates in the field? What is the relationship between the production of feminist biblical knowledge, and the politics of its guiding theories (Fuchs, 2008)?”
Historically speaking, much of the feminist literature on the Bible has been excluded as a result of the male-dominate epistemology on the topic (Fuchs, 2008). With the use of feminist theory from various theoretical perspectives, such as postmodernism, theological, and academic feminist theory, Fuchs (2008) underscores the necessity of converging each theoretical approach into one, all inclusive theoretical reflection on the topic.
To further elaborate, postmodernism as a feminist theory approaches the Bible with a lense of exposure, which seeks to point out any evidence of a dominant discourse (Fuchs, 2008). “Theological feminism” uses the lense of Christianity to reflect on various interpretations of specific verses. Whereas, “academic feminism” approaches the Bible from a context of interpretative differences which motivate biblical literature. Fuchs intention is that each of these approaches both respect their differences while willingly being inclusive on one another, a major implication for practice (Fuchs, 2008).
By generating a theoretical approach that encourages inclusivity and intersectionality, the feminist epistemology on the Bible will become more widely accepted as a Biblical literary interpretation (Fuchs, 2008). This will allow women to make headway in combating the predominantly male discourse, that is about maintaining power based on a male interpretation of the Bible, and thus could have major impacts on gender inequality that results from Biblical gender roles (Fuchs, 2008).
References
Fuchs, Esther. 2008. “Biblical Feminisms: Knowledge, Theory and Politics in the Study of Women in the Hebrew Bible.” Biblical Interpretation, 16: 205-226.