Frances Taylor Gench, professor of biblical interpretation at Union Presbyterian Seminary, tackles a conundrum: â??The Bible is a profoundly liberating documentâ? that contains â??deeply problematic textsâ? which have â??legitimated the right of some to exercise unjust power or control over others.â? How then are we to read faithfully and canonically without turning a blind eye to forms of oppression legitimated by the text? Can we wrest redemption out of these threatening passages?
Invoking the Genesis account of Jacob wrestling an angel at the river Jabbok, Gench commends the advice of biblical scholar Phyllis Trible, â??Do not abandon the Bible to the bashers and the thumpers. Take back the text. Do not let go until it blesses you.â? Here Gench wrestles with six controversial texts concerning women that were written by or have been attributed to the apostle Paul. She shows that not only are these texts capable of inflicting deep and lasting wounds, but, in the hands of tyrannous interpreters, they do indeed cause such harm.
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