Tired Of Holy Texts Subjugating Women, Feminist Theologists Have Published ¡®Women¡¯s Bible¡¯

Holy texts have played a pivotal role in justifying hegemonizing and oppressing women for ages. In the social context, women have remained second-class citizens. And that¡¯s context religions have shaped.

¡°Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths, creating an environment in which violations against women are justified,¡± former US President Jimmy Carter noted in 2010 to the Parliament of the World¡¯s Religions in Australia.

¡°The belief that women are inferior human beings in the eyes of God,¡± Carter continued, ¡°gives excuses to the brutal husband who beats his wife, the soldier who rapes a woman, the employer who has a lower pay scale for women employees, or parents who decide to abort a female embryo.¡±

There have been continuous calls to religious leaders of the world to change all discriminatory practices within their own religions and traditions.

AFP

And the first wave of change is here.

A group of feminist theologians from across the Protestant-Catholic divide have joined forces to draft "A Women's Bible".

The #MeToo movement has been exposing sexual abuse across cultures and industries and some scholars of Christianity are clamouring for a reckoning with biblical interpretations they say have entrenched negative images of women.

Women, according to the translations and interpretations of Bible have mostly been referred to as servants, prostitutes or saints, seen dancing for a king or kneeling to kiss Jesus' feet.

"Feminist values and reading the Bible are not incompatible," insisted Lauriane Savoy, one of two Geneva theology professors behind the push to draft "Une Bible des Femmes" ("A Women's Bible"), which was published in October.

Mulnews.com

In a bid to counter such notions, Savoy and her 57-year-old colleague Parmentier joined forces with 18 other woman theologians from a range of countries and Christian denominations.

The scholars have created a collection of texts challenging traditional interpretations of Bible scriptures that cast women characters as weak and subordinate to the men around them.

However, they are not the first to offer a more women-friendly insight of the scriptures.

Back in 1898, American suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a committee of 26 other women drafted "The Woman's Bible", aimed at overturning religious orthodoxy that women should be subservient to men.