Claiming God for Themselves Too: Women Write About the Bible

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	• Out of the Garden: Women Writers on the Bible Celina Spiegel, Christina Buchmann Ballantine Books, 1995 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Claiming God for Themselves Too: Women Write About the Bible

Throughout history, religion has been man's domain: written by and for him alone. Christianity and Judaism are just two more example of male-centered religious theory. Right? Maybe. But "Out of the Garden: Women Writers on the Bible" is a startling wake-up call, and it is a powerful voice for those who feel that women (as well as the feminist movement) can find their own places within the Bible. The combination of essays provided here are strongly convincing in the argument that they present: women are important figures in the Bible, and it was written with them in mind, too. An important factor in the book is that its essays are written by women with a wide diversity of religious backgrounds, from many sects of Protestanism, to Catholicism, to Judaism. This is a powerful message of unity for women, and for religion. Many of the essays shine as personal examples of the Bible touching women's lives. Patricia J. William's personal essay was especially moving, because she tied in her own life experience with a Bible story; specifically, that of the adoption of Moses. If women can relate the Bible and the Christian and Jewish religions to their own lives, is this not important evidence in itself that they are not excluded in these theories' teachings and reachings? The only problem with this book is its tendency to make wild interpretations of Christianity and Judaism, and sometimes it is questionable whether more than the one author writing the essay could ever see a feminist message in a particular passage or story. However, this does not take away from the book's resounding message, that women should not be discouraged from claiming Christianity and Judaism as their own as men have done since its conception. "Out of the Garden" is an important book to add to any feminist theology collection, or to read in order to find out just how the Christianity of men can be looked at from the perspective of many different women.

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"Essays of considerable literary erudition and sophistication that... dislodge dull stereotypes to enable both women and men readers to see the Bible with fresh eyes."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review
As the one work that has held moral and religious sway over the Judeo-Christian tradition for thousands of years, the Bible is unsurpassed in world literature. For women, its meaning is particularly complex; traditionally, the Bible has been used to keep women in their place, but it has also been a book of enduring inspiration. Out of the Garden marks a new stage in women's relations to the Bible: this is the first collection of essays in which women read and respond to the Bible out of pleasure and curiosity--free to explore what is really relevant to women's lives.
Drawing on their own experiences and interests, Louise Erdrich, Cynthia Ozick, Fay Weldon, Phyllis Trible, Rebecca Goldstein, June Jordan, Ursula K. Le Guin, and twenty-one other writers boldly, imaginatively--and sometimes reproachfully--address the Old Testament stories, characters, and poetry that mean the most to them. Thoughtful, challenging, and playful, these beautifully written essays explore the Bible in fresh new ways. Out of the Garden reclaims the Bible for women and shows readers that the Bible is a source we can return to again and again.
"A many-splendored achievement...This grand collection is a bold revitalization of our relation to our tradition. It offers the reader the gorgeously varied company of strongly delineated temperaments as they take on the compelling, threatening figures of our imaginative forebears."
--Harold Bloom
Author of The Book of J and The Western Canon

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