The Feminist Review

Alice Ogden Bellis collects a variety of womanist and feminist interpretations of the Hebrew Bible in Helpmates, Harlots, and Heroes, specifically focusing on the women in these stories. She traces this tradition of biblical interpretation to 19th century suffragists, a movement whose mainstream was made up of white women. Similarly, white Bellis’ first edition of this text focused on feminist scholarship. To her credit, she received criticism about this well, and her second edition pays thoughtful and significant attention to womanist scholarship.

Bellis’ comprehensive introduction gives helpful explanations of some of the richness in contemporary Biblical interpretation. Most interesting to me, she shares an overview of the variety of feminist understandings of biblical authority. My kneejerk reaction is to consider this a contradiction in terms, but to Bellis’ credit, she includes feminist scholarship that does not clearly empower women. I consider this “to her credit” because the work of feminism is not nearly as uniform as it may seem. It’s a healthy and humbling experience for me to know that I do not agree with all feminists, and that the ideals and struggles I believe are needed for empowerment are not what all feminists ascribe to. I hope to live long enough to look back and see what was helpful, and what wasn’t.

Bellis also introduces herself, particularly her social location, though she does fully claim her whiteness (instead saying that she grew up in a white family). I am happy to see that acknowledgement of social location has become common practice in academic writing in postmodernernity. This honors the fact that pure objectivity is impossible, and recognizing our potential biases is more useful than striving for superficial neutrality.

I also appreciate Bellis refusal to simply glorify any woman in the Bible. Bellis realizes that finding perfect female heroes in the Hebrew Bible will not give modern women the secret to empowerment. Treating biblical women as full humans, no woman is beyond judgment. Simultaneously, historical-cultural realities are explored as fully as possible, acknowledging the lack of options or choices that many biblical women faced.

So the women traditionally lauded in mainstream Christianity and Judaism, like Sarah, are given a thorough examination. At the same time, women traditionally vilified, such as Delilah, are given a fresh glance.

Filed under: books on January 6th, 2009 by Anna Lisa