Feminist Theory and the Bible

Feminist Theory and the Bible: Interrogating the Sources conceptualizes, contextualizes and maps a new kind of burgeoning scholarship that has grown up in recent decades. This scholarship emerged in the margins of Feminist Studies and Biblical Studies and has yet to find a foothold in either one of these more established contexts. In this book, Esther Fuchs argues that in order to find an enduring, stable place in the academe, this scholarship requires a theoretical perspective. Biblical Studies as a whole has not yet been sufficiently theorized as an academic field, and currently consists of multiple disciplines relying for the most part on traditional scholarly discourses. In this regard, Feminist Biblical Studies is both a departure from and an important supplement to both Feminist Studies and Biblical Studies.

This compact volume by one of the foremost contemporary feminist scholars of the Hebrew Bible packs a big punch. Feminist Theory and the Bible: Interrogating the Sources contains six well-defined essays, each of which can stand independently, but which together weave into a succinct yet remarkably comprehensive and thought-provoking assessment and interrogation of feminist theory of the Bible.... In the course of this introduction, Esther Fuchs constructs helpful thumbnail sketches and synopses of arguments, but her generalizations are never simplistic; only someone so completely on top of her game can pull something like this off so deftly.... [I] am left deeply admiring this volume and how Fuchs succeeds in being both concise and comprehensive; self-reflective, aware of the big picture, but able to provide insightful and pertinent detail; theoretically informed but also providing concrete examples. This volume distills significant contours and developments in feminist biblical theory and pushes them further, demonstrating in the process the significant contributions of Fuchs herself, which span over three decades. Feminist Theory and the Bible is erudite but accessible, and is consequently a rich resource for both students and scholars., This rich and challenging collection of essays brings together six of Esther Fuchs’ groundbreaking studies, integrating feminist theoretical discussions into the analysis of the Hebrew bible in the context of a succinct overview of feminist theory and biblical studies. In offering options and trajectories for moving feminist biblical criticism forward, Fuchs has provided a map for the future of the field as well as a valuable resource for the next generation of feminist biblical scholars., Esther Fuchs is one of the most important feminist bible critics of the so-called Third Wave. Her importance stems, first and foremost, from her insistence on methodological approaches that combine literary criticism with extrabiblical feminist approaches. Moreover, her status as a Jewish bible feminist scholar is uncontested, in historical as well as present terms. Her erudition, energy and understanding—even anger—have helped blaze a path for all of us. We are grateful that she has now given us another guide in the form of this book.

Esther Fuchs, PhD, is the author of numerous academic books and essays in Hebrew literature, Israel studies, Holocaust studies and biblical studies. She taught for over a quarter of a century at the University of Arizona, as a tenured professor of Judaic studies, and prior to that she taught at the University of Texas in Austin and at Brandeis University. Her interest is focused on the intersection of gender, identity and scholarship in Jewish studies. Among her publications are Cunning Innocence: Ironic Art in S.Y. Agnon’s Work (1985 in Hebrew), Israeli Mythogynies: Women in Contemporary Hebrew Fiction (1987), Women and the Holocaust: Narrative and Representation (1999), Sexual Politics in the Biblical Narrative: Reading the Hebrew Bible as a Woman (2000), Israeli Women’s Studies: A Reader (2005) and Israeli Feminist Scholarship: Gender, Zionism and Difference (2014). She is the co-editor of On the Cutting Edge: The Study of Women in Biblical Worlds (2004), and her latest book is Feminist Theory and the Bible.