Women Remembered: Jesus’ Female Disciples

Women Remembered:
Jesus’ Female Disciples

Author Joan Taylor & Helen Bond
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton £16.99
Format hbk
ISBN 9781529372595

This is an exciting read. Bringing together a wealth of scholarship, the authors give fresh insights into the lives of biblical women, and the roles they played as disciples. There was much I didn’t know about first century Jewish society – for example that polygamy was still acceptable. The authors make the point that the masculine pronoun is always used in Greek for any group, no matter how large, in which even a single male is present. Centuries of translation without taking this linguistic quirk into account have simply erased women from the record. Many of the conclusions seem obvious when the original language and context are examined. The only one by which I was not entirely convinced was the idea that ‘the twelve’ disciples sent out by Jesus consisted of twelve men each accompanied by a female co-worker. I would have liked to have seen more evidence. These authors have the gift of communicating in a manner that engages everyone. The book was written to accompany a television series. I hope its success will lead to the series being repeated

Reviewed by NANCY MAY

Biblical analysis, Feminism

 

Preaching Women

Preaching Women

Author Liz Shercliff
Publisher SCM £16.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780334058380

An ambitious book – asserting that (and why) women preachers need to find their voices as women, and how to go about it. It also includes a chapter on hermeneutics, one on hearing Bible women, a method of how to construct a sermon, sermon excerpts and questions for reflection, all in 168 pages. Much of it, e.g. the contention that women preachers are heard differently by virtue of their gender, and its implications, I found convincing; we do need a book (or more) on women preachers. Some of it, e.g. the chapter on hermeneutics, read like lecture notes. I tried the ‘method’ described in the penultimate chapter, which takes as sermon sources an awareness of experience, position, culture and tradition, and it led to a useful gathering of the building blocks of my sermon. I share some of the author’s experiences of patriarchy but not others, and to get the most out of the book, it might best be read and discussed by a group of women preachers, with maybe even a man present? I dislike the cover: lots of different smiling young women and not one grey hair, which is a form of sexism in itself.

GERTRUD SOLLARS

Feminism, Preaching

 

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