Join us today at the JFSR Panel: Sacred Scriptures and Violence Against Women (P22-326)!

 

Theme: Sacred Scriptures and Violence Against Women 

 

The Sacred Scriptures of all 3 monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam inscribe not only violence against wo/men and the culture of feminine subordination but also values of self-affirmation, justice, and well-being. Feminist scholars in religion are well versed in analyzing and interpreting sacred texts in critical, historical, literary, religious and cultural terms. However, we also need to develop methods of religious consciousness-raising and empowerment which seek to enable religious wo/men who have experienced violence and abuse both to critically name the rhetoric of violence inscribed in sacred texts and to identify resources for well-being and for resisting the culture of feminine subordination, objectification, and dehumanization. The panel will continue our conversation, across religious interpretive boundaries, about the search for methods of Scriptural interpretation that foster wo/men’s religious agency and the ability to reject violence and subordination on religious grounds.

 

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Harvard University, Presiding & Introduction 

 

Mika Ahuvia, University of Washington 

 

Julia Watts Belser, Georgetown University

 

Juliane Hammer, University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill 

 

Break (5 minutes)

 

Angela Parker, The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology 

 

Jerusha Tanner Lamptey, Union Theological Seminary 

Scriptural and Horizontal Violence: Pitfalls and Possibilities in Comparative Feminist Hermeneutics 

 

Karri Whipple, Drew University 

 

Discussion