After Exegesis: Feminist Biblical Theology. Essays in Honor of Carol A. Newsom ed. by Patricia K. Tull and Jacqueline E. Lapsley

Abstract

Reviewed by: After Exegesis: Feminist Biblical Theology. Essays in Honor of Carol A. Newsom ed. by Patricia K. Tull and Jacqueline E. Lapsley Christine Thomas patricia k. tull and jacqueline e. lapsley (eds.), After Exegesis: Feminist Biblical Theology. Essays in Honor of Carol A. Newsom (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2015). Pp. vi + 306. $49.95. Carol Newsom’s contributions to the field of biblical studies are rich and varied, comprising significant advancements in the study of texts from Qumran, provocative work on the Books of Job and Daniel, and the fostering of feminist biblical scholarship represented in the three successive editions of the Women’s Bible Commentary over the course of twenty years. As the editors of After Exegesis acknowledge, Newsom does not identify herself as a biblical theologian, but “her contributions to rethinking the problems and [End Page 734] possibilities of biblical theology are vast and fundamental” (p. 4). This collection takes up the spirit of Newsom’s contributions both in its methodological approach and in the mode of its production. Newsom has argued, in the editors’ words, for a vision of “dialogical, or polyphonic, truth capable of negotiating the compositional and ideological complexities of biblical texts” (p. 5). It is appropriate then to honor Newsom with a polyphony of feminist scholarship that puts biblical texts into dialogue in order to rethink and expand traditional approaches to biblical theology. Equally appropriate is the fact that this collection was brought into being with collaborative conversation among the contributors, carefully stewarded by the collection’s thoughtful editors. Each of the fifteen essays engages at least two biblical texts to explore an area of theological inquiry. Some reenvision familiar subjects of systematic theology, such as creation and salvation, while others add new areas of analysis, such as violence against women. The emphasis throughout is on texts from the Hebrew Bible. Each of the essays includes a bibliography for further reading. The volume is a valuable resource not only for specialists in biblical studies, constructive theology, and feminist scholarship but also for students and others seeking an introduction to these fields. Feminist methodological approaches create points of contact among the essays and allow for shared themes to be read across the collection. For instance, the essays that concern providence, hope, and divine judgment give rise to new conceptions of divine agency. Eunny P. Lee’s essay, “Women’s Doings in Ruth,” presents a feminist biblical theology of providence in which divine agency takes shape in the actions of women. In Lee’s reading, God acts “not by miraculous demonstrations of power but through human acts of boldness and kindness in the rhythmic flow of everyday life” (p. 42). Amy C. Merrill Willis’s essay, “Counterimagination in Isaiah 65 and Daniel 12,” places the differing depictions of salvation in these texts in dialogue with the work of feminist theologians Flora Keshgegian and Ivone Gebara. God’s redemptive work in Isaiah 65, which is immanent and grounded in human community, resonates with feminist constructions of hope and is in productive tension with the vision of divine transcendence in Daniel 12. In “Job and the Hidden Face of God,” Carleen Mandolfo brings the work of post-Holocaust thinker Melissa Raphael to bear on the patriarchal conception of a God who rewards and punishes through presence and absence. Mandolfo finds in the lament psalms and even more so in God’s response to Job texts that approach Raphael’s alternative conception of divine–human reciprocity. The essays on salvation, suffering, and praise intersect in their concern with embodiment. In “Embodiment in Isaiah 51–52 and Psalm 62,” Katie M. Heffelfinger considers the distinctive expressions of salvation in these texts, attending to the bodily imagery through which human and divine interaction is expressed. She argues that, while Isaiah 51–52 and Psalm 62 operate in differing emotional registers, they share the conviction that God alone can overcome human brokenness. The theological significance of embodied human suffering is the focal point of Amy C. Cottrill’s essay, “The Traumatized ‘I’ in Psalm 102.” In the lament psalms’ emphasis on “bodily intelligence” she finds resources for resilience in the midst of trauma (p. 184). On the other end of...