Witherington, Ben, and Anne Witherington, ed. Women and the Genesis of Christianity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
This book is a comparison of women's positions in ancient Judaism, the Hellenic World, the Roman Empire and the New Testament reveals that Jesus' "new" conception of women’s' social rights broke significantly with the conventions of his time. Witherington looks at women not as they are sometimes read into the New Testament, but as they are portrayed by New Testament writers. In this way he allows the Bible to address contemporary concerns rather than serve partisan purposes. The result is rich and surprisingly revolutionary. Jesus, Paul, and the Gospel writers move well beyond the limits of their own and surrounding societies in their respect for women and their vision for women in the new reality of God's kingdom. They do so on their own terms and within their actual context, rather than as advocates for anyone's contemporary agenda.
Comments
Post a Comment