Letting the Other Speak

Book excerpt: From prostitutes to polygamy, witches to widows, foreigners to slaves, the Bible is full of texts about women who have been classified as “other” and pushed to the margins of society. In the academy, feminist, liberation and post-colonial theologians have challenged the disparaging categorization of these biblical women and redefined them as sacred insiders, whose contributions to Judeo-Christian history offer ongoing lessons about the inclusive nature of God. Letting the Other Speak: Proclaiming the Stories of Biblical Women helps pastors, Christian educators, professors and theological students bring the stories of six controversial biblical women to congregations by surveying historical and contemporary exegetical work on each passage, modeling exegeting a congregation in preparation for moving from text to sermon, and providing two sample sermons, one prophetic and one pastoral, for each text.