The Rebound Bible
Engaging the Bible: Critical Readings From Contemporary Women
edited by Choi
Hee An and Katheryn Pfisterer Darr
Fortress Press, 2006
(144 pages, $18.00, paperback)
reviewed by Donna Thoennes
I read Engaging the Bible in New Delhi, India, where there was no escape from the harsh daily evidence of oppression based on caste, sex, religion, and disease. Sharing the authors’ concern “to address conflict and oppression and give us transforming power to deal with these realities,” I read the book looking for transforming power to deal with oppression.
But the transforming power to eradicate oppression ultimately comes from God and the truth of his Word, yet as editor Choi Hee An reveals in the introduction, the authors seek to expose oppression not just in contemporary culture but in biblical texts. Not only do they hope to equip the reader to identify such passages, but to embolden her to step out from under Scripture’s authority.
The authors ask, “How do shifting circumstances affect our efforts to communicate Christ’s message to others?” They are concerned with interpretation, and with discovering “how we can better equip ourselves, our churches, and our communities to raise multicultural consciousness and to broaden and enrich the interpretive strategies by which we bring our own struggle and experiences into dialogue with biblical traditions.”
Oppressive Texts
To accomplish their goal, the contributors, who include theologians, biblical scholars, a church leader, and a sociologist, offer a “Prophetic Apocalyptic” reading (by Cheryl Townsend Gilkes of Colby College), a “Postcolonial” reading (Kwok Pui-Lan of the Episcopal Divinity School), a “Communal” reading (Aida Irizarry-Fernandez, a United Methodist official), a “Critical Feminist Emancipative” reading (Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza of Harvard Divinity School), and a “Critical Relational” reading (Carter Heyward of the Episcopal Divinity School).
Heyward, a lesbian-activist Episcopal theologian, most explicitly challenges the authority of Scripture. The work of the Christian theologian is “to denounce oppression, including oppressive biblical texts, to announce liberating interpretations wherever we can, and to disrupt biblical authority and shatter its hold over us.”
The goal of the theologian’s work is liberation from obedience: “No longer are we put under obedience to Jesus, God, Church, or Bible. We have become friends, justice-loving friends, to Jesus, God, Church, and Bible. Together with them we can grow, empowered through the Sacred Spirit of mutuality that is none other than the Holy Spirit, the Christic Spirit.”
Heyward urges readers to “think against the text,” particularly any biblical text that “contradicts” the Micah 6:8 mandate to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God,” though she does not explain why Micah 6:8 holds this privileged position. And while eager to use Micah 6:8 as an interpretive grid, she neglects the context of the passage in Micah.
For there we find a less than flattering picture of the Jews and a picture of a wrathful, jealous God who defines justice as unyielding faithfulness to him, who does not allow Heyward’s easy rejection of his authority. Further, the terms “justice,” “kindness,” and “humility” must be defined according to God’s character, not the author’s notions. Apart from any objective biblical definitions of these lofty words, they lose authoritative meaning.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on bible from the online archives
32.3—May/June 2019
on the Implications of Changing the Pater Noster by John M. McCarthy
24.3—May/June 2011
The Making & Endurance of the King James Bible, 1611-2011 by Barton Swaim
31.4—July/August 2018
on the Brevity & Theology of Her Recorded Words by Judith Anderson
more from the online archives
24.5—Sept/Oct 2011
on Wondering or Wandering Through College Education by Anthony Esolen
30.6—Nov/Dec 2017
on Benedict XVI on the Fairest of the Sons of Men by Michael Martin De Sapio
22.8—November/December 2009
on the Real Men Behind the Christmas Carol by Michael Baum
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
