Review of After Exegesis: Feminist Biblical Theology, Essays in Honor of Carol A.

Newsom.” Edited by Patricia Tull and Carol Lapsley (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press,
2015).

Out of their gratitude, respect, and love for their professor, Carol Newsom, Patricia Tull
and Carol Lapsley decided to publish a volume in her honor, After Exegesis: Feminist
Biblical Theology, Essays in Honor of Carol A. Newsome. Tull and Lapsley faced a
dilemma in developing the idea for their festschrift for their teacher and friend; there
were too many possible contributors. In order to make the project manageable, the
editors set some parameters for the authors invited to contribute a chapter.
Recognizing their own reading location, they chose to limit the invitations to women
who feel they owe their success to Carol Newsom “either as friend, as colleague, or as
protégée” (p 7). The contributors are primarily Christian European-Americans, which
opens the book to some critique for a lack of diversity, but the editors chose this path
over what they called “tokenism.”

The result of Tull’s and Lapsley’s efforts is a collection of essays covering a wide range
of topics and texts. At first glance, the offerings seem unrelated beyond a similar
phrasing for the end of each chapter’s title: “A Biblical Feminist Theology of/Concerning
(sequentially: Creation, Providence, Divine Judgment, Salvation, Praise, Justice,
Authority, Exclusion, Other, Moral Agency, Suffering, Violence, Reconciliation,
Flourishing, and Hope).” Otherwise, the essays have no obvious intersections. The
editors anticipate this impression and offer their understanding of how the fifteen
essays coalesce around four broad themes. The first of these is “agency,” both human
and divine, seemed to be the dominant connection (Chs 3, 8, 9, 10, and 11), which is
not surprising with the overarching topic being feminist biblical interpretation. The
second theme identified is “creation” as the interrelatedness of humans with the other
parts of the cosmos (Chs 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, and 16). Another hallmark concept of
feminist thought, “embodiment,” is also evident in several of the essays, particularly
around themes of experience, suffering/trauma, and oppression (Chs 5, 6, and 13).
Last, the claim that truth is multivocal is shared by four essays (Chs 2, 7, 14, and 15),
as well as being a present undercurrent throughout the volume.

Although these categories do not provide a tidy separation, with some essays
overlapping across themes, they do seem to be a helpful way to organize a review of
the final product. Tull and Lapsley provide a helpful “Introduction” to the book that
contains their motivations, aims, and process in building this attempt to offer their
mentor and colleague. They identify characteristics that are shared among most
feminist biblical interpreters (or female interpreters who do not self-identify as
“feminist”). While the androcentrism of these texts makes the idea of feminist biblical
theology appear as an impossibility, Tull and Lapsley claim that the “Old Testament,” if
read carefully, is quite “amenable . . . to feminist thought” (p 3).
Patricia Tull’s essay, “Jobs and Benefits in Gen 1 and 2,” introduces one of the shared
themes identified in the introduction, “creation.” In this piece, Tull considers the two
most prominently cited texts in discussions of humanity’s place in the world, with
special focus on the concepts of “dominion” and “imago dei.” She wonders how our
current environmental struggles might be different, if we focused less on what
supposedly makes humans unique within creation and more on the commonalities we
have as just part of the world that the Holy brought into being. Tull’s co-editor, Carol
Lapsley’s contribution, “Reading Psalm 146 in the Wild,” also reflects on creation and
how its different parts praise the Divine. Utilizing a feminist lens, she places Ps 146
alongside Ps 104 and Ps 148, and seeks a broader definition of what it means to
“praise” God. Her conclusions also move humanity from the center of creation to a
being among and interconnected to the whole world. Amy Merrill Willis searches for a
balance between optimism and escapism as ways to look at the future in the last essay
of the collection, “Counterimagination in Isaiah 65 and Daniel 12.” Utilizing a feminist
hermeneutic of suspicion of traditional views of eschatology, Merrill Willis offers
alternative ways to find “authentic hope” that encompasses action, attitude, and
emotion on a cosmic level.

In “Embodiment in Isa 51-52 and Psalm 62,” Kate Heffelfinger incorporates the themes
of creation and embodiment. With attention given to feminist commitments to
experience, embodiment, and emotion, she interprets these two ancient texts as
provoking an understanding of salvation that is found at the intersection of human
activity and divine liberation. Continuing on the same theme of embodiment, Carleen
Mandolfo considers the biblical notions of the absence and presence of God in her
essay, “Job and the Hidden Face of God.” Reflecting on the different uses of God
hiding God’s face and of God’s face being hidden, she argues that the Book of Job
offers a much needed vision of a reciprocal relationship between humanity and the
Divine.

Connecting with the embodiment theme, “The Traumatized ‘I’ in Psalm 102,” by Amy
Cottrill uses both trauma theory and a feminist “hermeneutic of resiliency” to consider
how the Hebrew Bible imagines and addresses suffering and trauma. Focusing on the
lament psalms in general and Ps 102 specifically, she makes the case that, despite their
patriarchal origin, provide a great resource for the articulation of bodily experience of
pain and suffering. Jo Ann Hackett addresses the issue of violence against women as
an embodied experience in her contribution, “’Missing Women’ in Judges 19-21.” She
places the stories of contemporary “missing women” (whose lives were extinguished
due to their biological sex) beside the violent stories of Judges 19-21, both of which
portray the ideology that males are more valuable than females. In addition, they
demonstrate how violence against women has been an all too common response to a
perceived lack of marriageable women, which never works out.

The way that women and other marginalized groups utilize their agency in Hebrew Bible
texts is addressed in Eunny Lee’s essay, “Women’s Doings in Ruth.” From considering
the text’s portrayal of God as a self-limiting deity, Lee concludes that the Book of Ruth
offers a meaningful understanding of “providence” that both acknowledges divine
sovereignty and celebrates the agency of humans. The only two female characters in
the Hebrew Bible who are portrayed as writing are Jezebel and Esther, so claims
Cameron Howard. In her contribution, “When Jezebel and Esther Write,” she considers
the similarities (both are royalty) and differences between these two women (one is
Israelite and the other is not), concluding that both reveal how ancient women made
the most of the power/authority they had. Another essay that focuses on female
characters in the Hebrew Bible is Sarah Melcher’s “Rahab and Esther in Distress.” After
sharing her basic understanding of “moral agency,” she depicts the conflicting loyalties
with which Rahab and Esther struggle: primary relationships and the greater good.
She concludes that we all make choices within constrained options, and that following a
“relationship model” or a “justice model” remains contextual and equally valid.

Two essays consider the issues of exclusivity and the creation of the “other.” Suzanne
Boorer’s “Miriam, Moses, and Aaron in Numbers 12 and 20,” looks at fluid distinctions of
“insider/outsider” status and how Miriam is the consummate outsider. Looking at Num
12 and 20 elicits questions of how we understand power and gender relations. In Julie
Galambush’s “Be Kind to Strangers, But Kill The Canaanites,” the conflicting
commandments given to the Israelites about how to treat the “other” are examined.
She suggests that these texts present a possible vision of how to acknowledge
“otherness” without bias, while expanding on our understanding of who is “us.”

The final theme identified by the editors, truth as multivocal, is shared by three essays.
In “Woman Wisdom and Her Friends,” Anne Stewart considers the great dilemma in
defining “justice,” with the implied questions of “for whom” and “by what standards” (p
91). She argues that the varied ways of understanding justice in the Hebrew Bible give
evidence for the importance of doing justice work. “Zechariah’s Gendered Visions” by
Ingid Lilly is an attempt to read Zechariah’s visions of reconciliation alongside the
history of South Africa. Despite the maleness of the prophet’s ideas, some texts prod
us to ask questions about how power works, the influence of conflict on gender
understandings, the use of scapegoating to avoid truth-telling, and the importance of
judgements in working for reconciliation. Proverbs presents at least two
understandings of the “good life”: a possession and a journey. These are examined by
Christine Yoder in her essay, “Path and Possession in Proverbs 1-9.” Her argument is
that both views of the “good life” are not mutually exclusive but rather should be
celebrated as a both/and opportunity for those who seek Wisdom.

This book opens with Tull’s and Lapsley’s admiration and respect for Carol Newsom,
and it ends with a brief biography and selected bibliography for their mentor, colleague,
and friend. In between these tributes to such an influential feminist biblical scholar, the
reader is treated to a diversity of writings from those who are indebted to her. Each
essay is as individual as the author, but the combination of these reflections on feminist
biblical interpretation supplies a sense of not only shared experiences of Newsom’s
teaching and scholarship but also shared commitments to serious scholarship by and for
the whole human community.

By: Lisa W. Davison

Phillips Theological Seminary