I majored in English in the early 70s at a regional university.  My major interest was English literature.  During those days, English majors had tools which they used to understand the meaning of literature.  I remember going to class to hear about contemporary methods which were new criticism, Jungian interpretation, mythical/archetypal interpretation and the historical/biographical context of the author.  At that time, “new criticism” was the “new kid on the block.” 

I never did much with my English major, teaching English in high school for one year and then teaching writing in a community college for several years before concentrating on human communication for the bulk of my teaching career [36 years].  I never really got to teach English literature.

Little did I know that the world of understanding literature [referred to as literary criticism] had changed significantly over the years.  In the last few years, I have taken more time to interpret literature and when I considered the tools used to understand, I found that Feminist interpretation had come into the critic’s toolbox.  Women have insisted on having their perspective considered as they feel their views have been subsumed by a patriarchal society.

What does this have to do with the Bible?

That same feminist perspective has changed the interpretation of the greatest work of literature in the world, the Bible.  Feminist theologians began to assert that the Bible was written in a world of patriarchy and even though many women are mentioned in the Bible, they are [for the most part] denigrated.  Is this fair?  What does it say about the value of women to the world?  How can God write the greatest book in the whole world and place women in such an inferior position?

As feminist theology gained steam, Christians were challenged by this new approach.  Many believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God so if He portrayed a patriarchal world, that is how He intended it to be.  God does not make errors.  Others felt that God’s word needed updating.  The world of the Old and New Testament is not that relevant and that emphasis on patriarchy is very much “out of style.” 

My denomination resolved this problem in its earliest days, with John Wesley licensing a woman to preach in 1761.  Officially, full rights were granted to United Methodist Women to preach in 1956.  However, other denominations are still struggling with this issue, most notably the Southern Baptist Conference. 

Can anyone deny the power of women in the church?  I think not.  Women are in the majority in many churches  Often the ministry program is managed and supplied by women.  Initiatives in religious education have been instituted by women and church charity has long been the province of females in the church.

In short, women have had a profound moral and religious impact on the church.

Where is the problem?  One must look at First Corinthians 14: 34-35 and First Timothy 2: 11-12.  In both cases women are supposed to be silent in the church.  In both cases women are supposed to submit to men.  Women cannot teach or “have authority over” a man.

Peter Gomes writes in his book [The Good Book] this problem with female participation is comparable to other interpretation of Scriptures [e.g. the institution of slavery] because the more seriously one takes Scripture, “the more difficult becomes the problem of several, often contradictory voices, and therefore the more urgent becomes the development of a persuasive principle of interpretation by which the differences are reconciled” [131].  The question of interpretation is one of understanding the text as best as one can and it is not simple especially if you consider text, context and subtext.  Often Protestants want to interpret the Bible for themselves, but are there aspects of meaning that are missed?  I am one who believes that this is so.

Take the feminist subtext for example.  The text says one thing and to have an ample meaning of God’s word, one has to try to determine what the writer and readers felt in the time of the writing.  What about an underlying subtext?  Feminist theologians cry out that the writers of the Bible were all men who considered women as second class individuals, of little value to society as a whole.  “There is a substantial and growing body of Christians in all communions, for whom the Biblical texts in question and the climate of interpretation are in fact out of sync” [133].   Gomes goes on to admit that the most “interesting, creative and demanding scholarship” in the field of Biblical interpretation since the translation of the Bible into English has been the feminist interpretation of Scripture. 

Has this view been accepted with open arms?  No it has not.  “It has become the habit on the part of some evangelicals and religious conservatives to dismiss the mountain of female scholarship on the Bible with the taint of the most extreme and deconstructive dimensions of that scholarship, suggesting pagans and goddesses reside under every hermeneutical bed” [Gomes, 134].  I am afraid that does not sound like acceptance. 

This past year the Southern Baptist Conference expelled two large churches that have women pastors and amended their constitution with the following words: “a Southern Baptist congregation should not affirm, appoint, or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind.”

Where are we to go from here?

I will go further into the examination of the text where women feel they are being harassed.  Gomes writes, “Language has become the battlefield for the conflict between inclusion of females and exclusion of females.”  One extreme position says it is no longer appropriate to pray “Our Father” and other masculine titles like “Lord” and “King” need to be excluded from the text.  The other extreme position is one of fear.  Like the abolitionists of the Nineteenth Century, many Christians today are scared of women who insist that the subtext of male chauvinism is evident throughout God’s word.  What will that mean for my interpretation of God’s word?  Are these women wrong?

Are there people who are making the effort to avoid extremes?  Of course there are.  Has the role of women changed in our world today? Of course it has.  Are women more dominant than ever before?  They are.   Are they capable of leadership, do they have superior abilities, do they have superior intelligence?  As society has changed, many feel that the interpretation of God’s word needs to change.  There is a conflict between the feminist view and the conservative, patriarchal view. 

We need to move on from that.

Yet there is a denomination of 13,680,000 Christians who are not there yet—the Southern Baptists.

I will look deeper into the texts that the Baptists are standing on in the next section of Gomes’ book, a section aptly entitled “Textual Harassment?”