Whispering The Word

In the past twenty-five years there has been an explosion of work focusing on women in the Old Testament. However, because much of this work has reflected a perspective that is either uninterested in or hostile to theological implications of the text, many Christian feminists wonder if they can simultaneously maintain their commitment to principles of gender equality and their faith in the Scriptures, particularly the Old Testament.

Writing in response to feminist biblical scholars who approach the Old Testament with a hermeneutic of suspicion, Princeton theologian Jacqueline Lapsley offers Christian feminists strategies to hear the subtle ideas and voices of the less powerful within the Old Testament texts. Reading and interpreting a number of Old Testament narratives in which women are prominent, Lapsley considers how these stories may reflect God’s word for us. In doing so, she demonstrates how the narrative often attempts to shape the moral response of the reader by revealing the intricacy and complexity of the moral world evoked. In this gentle shaping of the reader’s ethical sensibilities, she argues, is where God may be whispering a word for us.