Full Description
This volume on feminist, postcolonial and queer biblical interpretation gathers perspectives from a global body of researchers; in offering innovative interpretations of key texts from the Hebrew Bible, both established and emerging biblical scholars consider the question of how commonplace interpretative practices may be considered to be transgressive in nature. Utilizing innovative strategies, they read against the grain of the text and in support of the marginalized, the subordinated or subaltern others both in the text and in our world today.
Important questions regarding power and privilege are constantly raised: whose voices are being heard, and whose interests are being served? Knowing all too well the harm that stereotypical constructions of the Other can do in terms of feeding racism, sexism, homophobia and imperialism in their respective interpretative communities, the essays in this volume interrogate constructions of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and class, both in the text as well as in their respective contexts. By means of these thought-provoking interpretations, the contributors show their commitment not merely the sake of scholarship but to a scholarly ethos, which in some shape or form contributes to the cultivation of more just, equitable societies.
Contents
List of Contributors
Introduction: From Transgression to Transformation, L. Juliana Claassens, Christl M. Maier, and Funlola O. Olojede
PART I: TRANSGRESSIVE CHARACTERS
1. Numbered with the Transgressors: The Story of the Daughters of Zelophehad as Retold by Noah, Funlola O. Olojede, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
2. Silence Breakers: Woman Zion & the #Metoo Movement: Lamentations 2.20-22 as Path to Resilience, Gina Hens-Piazza, Jesuit School of Theology, USA
3. Reclaiming Jezebel and Mrs Job: Challenging Sexist Cultural Stereotypes and the Curse of Invisibility, Lerato Mokoena, University of Pretoria, South Africa
4. Interventions to the Drama of a Broken Family in Jeremiah 2:1 - 4:4, Christl M. Maier, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany
PART II: TRANSGRESSIVE METHODOLOGIES
5. Excavating Trauma Narratives: Haunting Memories in the Story of Lot's Daughters, L. Juliana Claassens, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
6. Normative Masculinities Turned Upside Down? Reading Gen 19:30-38 Side by Side with Selected African Proverbs, Madipoane Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele), University of South Africa, South Africa
7. Justice for Rahab and the Gibeonites in the Book of Joshua? The Elusive Communities of Justice in Imperial/Colonial Contexts, Dora Rudo Mbuwayesango
8. Postcolonial Botho//Ubuntu And Ruth: Women Networks and Agency in the Botswana Urban Space, Musa W Dube, University of Botswana, Botswana
8. Come On, Come Out, Come Here, Come Here ... : Queering Desire in the Story of Jacob, Leah And Rachel, Charlene van der Walt, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
9. Tamar Summons Jesus: A Trans-Textual (2 Sam 13:1-22, Mark 5:22-43, Matt 20:17-34) Search for Sectorial Solidarity with Respect to Gender and Masculinity, Gerald O. West, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Concluding response
Bibliography
Index
