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People of Faith:

insights from inside the religion and belief

traditions

What can be learnt from Feminist interpretations of the Bible?

(15-19 years)  

Subject Knowledge

and links to further information

Questions for pupils and

questions pupils ask

Focus for Learning &

Assessment: pedagogies and areas

of enquiry

Learning Activities:

supporting pupils’ progress

Interpreting Eve: Five Feminist

Thinkers

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 RE:ONLINE Banquet What can be learnt from Feminist interpretations of the Bible? (15-19 years)    Here are some key vocabulary and concepts to help you prepare for using this resource: • Hermeneutics: How we read, understand and handle texts, especially those written in

another time or in a very different life context. • Biblical Hermeneutics: The process of understanding the Bible using doctrinal,

historical and critical approaches. • Biblical Criticism: Making sense of the Bible through a better understanding of the

history and culture of the times. • Demythologizing the Bible: An approach to understanding that sought to remove the

other-worldly outdated understandings in the Bible to find what was thought to the essential ethical understanding.

• The Fall: the event in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen. 2 and 3).

• Feminism: Movements which aim to establish women’s equal rights. A feminist is an advocator or supported of the rights and equality of women and so can be male or female.

• Christian feminism: This movement seeks to understand the equality of men and women in terms of morality, society, spirituality and Christian leadership. One major area of work is in the reinterpretation of Christian doctrine. Another is in the movement for ordination.

• Feminist theology: A movement found in several religions that reconsiders religion from a feminist perspective, reinterpreting existing interpretations of religion, which have tended to be exclusively or largely made by men.

• Feminist theory: Thinking that seeks to understand gender inequality examining women’s social roles and lived experience.

• Patriarchal/Patriarchy: A system that puts and keeps women in submissive and/or subservient role to men.

• Reader response: Making sense of the Bible through personal prayer and meditation and reflection on words from the Bible and life experience.

• Sexism: Beliefs, attitudes and actions that see women as second class to men. • Inequality: A basic value position that gives more recognition and importance to one

‘kind’ over and against ‘another’. • Women’s liberation: a movement that opposes inequality, patriarchy and sexism in an

attempt to secure equal rights in all areas of life. • Women’s ordination: This practice of some religions and some Christian denominations

is an area of dispute both across religions and within Christianity.

Subject Knowledge  

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Further developing your subject knowledge We think the following links related to this resource should prove useful if you would like to explore the subject further: Developing your understanding of biblical interpretation: Biblical Criticism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_criticism http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_hcri.htm http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04491c.htm http://www.theopedia.com/Biblical_criticism Biblical Hermeneutics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_hermeneutics About Biblical Interpretation: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_inte.htm Liberation Theology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/beliefs/liberationtheology.shtml http://www.gotquestions.org/liberation-theology.html Demythologizing the Bible: http://jfoxonline.com/WUMC/BULTMANN.htm http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/nt-interpretation/nti_15.pdf Reader Response: http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/opr/t94/e1590 Feminist hermeneutic: http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/30/30-4/30-4-pp407-420-JETS.pdf http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/305/femtheo.htm Developing your understanding of Women in the Bible: Women in the Bible: http://www.womeninthebible.net The ten worst verses of the Bible: http://www.ship-of-fools.com/features/2009/chapter_and_worse_results.html 5 Strong Women From the Bible: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/5-strong-women-from-the-bible/ 20 Beautiful Bible Verses for Women: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/20-beautiful-bible-verses-for-women/

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Proverbs 31:10-31: http://www.biblestudytools.com/msg/proverbs/passage.aspx?q=proverbs+31:10-31 The Woman’s Bible by E Stanton (1898): http://www.sacred-texts.com/wmn/wb/ 10 Bible Reasons why a wife must submit to her husband: http://www.bible.ca/marriage/submission-independent-of-culture.htm The status of women in the Bible: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-elliott-friedman/the-most-underappreciated_b_954643.html The Dark Bible: Women’s Inferior Status: http://www.nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/darkbible7.htm London Times reports that the Bible is not anti-female: is this news?: http://creation.com/london-times-reports-that-the-bible-is-not-anti-female-is-this-news The Biblical View of Women: http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=3654 Eve’s story: Eve - Mother of All the Living: http://christianity.about.com/od/oldtestamentpeople/p/eveprofilebible.htm Eve- the first woman: http://www.womeninthebible.net/1.1.Eve.htm Eve and the Identity of Women: http://witcombe.sbc.edu/eve-women/1evewomen.html

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RE:ONLINE Banquet What can be learnt from Feminist interpretations of the Bible? (15-19 years)    Approaches to learning in the aims of the Learning Activities for this Resource. These three are most evident: 1. Phenomenological approach, for example:

• helping pupils know and understand beliefs and teachings, from the perspective of adherents;

• developing pupils’ ability to give accounts of the impact of some religious teachings upon believers.

2. Concept cracking, for example:

• encouraging pupils to consider religious content in ways that reflect and are consistent with, the religious community’s interpretation of that material;

• providing opportunities for pupils to ask their own questions about what life would be like if everyone followed the example of leaders of religion and beliefs;

• relating values and ‘truth claims’ to their own experiences. 3. Literacy-centred, critical realist, for example:

• challenging pupils to develop their own views about what might be ‘true’ in relation to a number of options;

• developing pupils’ ‘religious literacy’, inviting them to develop their views about religion itself and other critical narratives.

 This Banquet aims to: • support students’ investigations into how biblical texts and religious doctrines inform

different interpretations of the role of women in Christian life; • support a critical understanding of biblical interpretation with specific references to

women; • introduce women’s and feminist theology to students; • support students’ own beliefs, in relation, comparison or contrast with those ideas

found in Christian belief. It addresses the following questions as well as the key question, ‘What can be learnt form Feminist interpretations of the Bible?’: 1. Is the Bible sexist?

Focus for Learning and Assessment  

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2. How are biblical stories of women interpreted? 3. How are theologians making sense of the Christian tradition?  The outline activities and lesson ideas could support upper GCSE level work in feminist theology, sixth form general RE or A Level studies. Prior Learning This banquet presumes some learning in the area of women and religion, such as GCSE RS which include sections on women and equality, or women’s ordination, or Citizenship GCSE which included sections on women and society. In terms of assessing pupils’ progress in RE, the focus for this example is on the following Areas of Enquiry: • Area A (Beliefs, teachings and sources) and • Area F (Questions of values and commitments). Pupils participating in the investigation of this resource might be expected to make progress within the following range of expectations: Expectations: A & F refer here to the focus areas of enquiry identified above. By the end of this sequence of learning: All pupils can: Most pupils (majority

class expectation) can: Some pupils can:

A7 present a coherent picture of religious beliefs, values and responses to questions of meaning and truth which takes account of personal research on different religious topics and a variety of sources and evidence.

A8 analyse the results of different sorts of research and place different interpretations of religious, spiritual and moral sources in their historical, cultural, social and philosophical contexts.

A EP provide a consistent and detailed analysis of religions and beliefs and of how religious, spiritual and moral sources are interpreted in different ways, with an evaluation of the different methods of study used to conduct the analysis.

F7 give their personal view with reasons and examples on what value religious and other views might have for understanding what is important to them and to other people.

F8 weigh up in detail a wide range of viewpoints on questions about values and commitments, and come to their own conclusions based on evidence, arguments, reflections and examples.

F EP analyse in depth a wide range of perspectives on questions about values and commitments and provide independent, well informed and highly reasoned insights into their own and others’ perspectives on religious and spiritual issues, with well-substantiated and balanced conclusions.

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RE:ONLINE Banquet What can be learnt from Feminist interpretations of the Bible? (15-19 years)   As well as the key question, this example can be built around questions that pupils ask about the resource. How to develop pupils’ question-making powers, e.g., http://p4c.com/articles/community-enquiry-framework How to build pupils’ enquiries into the assessment scheme, e.g., http://amv.somerset.gov.uk/syllabus/standards-and-assessment/assessment-guide/ Here are some examples of questions students might ask, based on this Resource: • Can a man be a feminist theologian? • Are they just saying that God is female? • Will life be better for women if the Bible is reinterpreted in the way the feminist

thealogians suggest? • In the Garden of Eden, was Adam actually more to blame than Eve? Here are some more questions to ask the students; some that may provoke learning about religion and belief, and some that may inspire learning from religion and belief:  What is Biblical Interpretation? 1. How does an understanding of doctrines influence the interpretation of the Bible? 2. How does an understanding of history and culture help to make sense of the Bible? 3. How does an understanding of politics and power influence the interpretation of the

Bible? 4. How can the Bible be interpreted from the perspective of the life and experience of the

reader? How does feminist theology interpret stories of women in the Bible? Are there ways of understanding the stories of women in the Bible that show that the Bible: 1. can inspire women to reject patriarchy and inequality? 2. has been misinterpreted in patriarchal ways but can be interpreted to show an equal

understanding of men and women? 3. has been affected by a general unethical understanding of hierarchy?

Questions  

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4. should be rejected as sexist and replaced by something based on the life and experience of women?

How are biblical stories of women interpreted? Questions about Eve 1. Is Eve equal or subservient to Adam? 2. Is Eve more responsible for the fall than Adam? 3. Why is the serpent sometimes depicted with Eve’s face in medieval art?

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RE:ONLINE Banquet What can be learnt from Feminist interpretations of the Bible? (15-19 years)    In this banquet, the people of faith are the feminist theologians / thealogians whose ideas are described in Resource 1 Or, you can search for Christian answers to your questions at: www.reonline.org.uk/knowing/what-re/christianity/ or email a Christian or an RE Expert to find out an answer to your own question(s).  

People of Faith  

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RE:ONLINE Banquet What can be learnt from Feminist interpretations of the Bible? (15-19 years)   The resources for this banquet can be accessed here: Resource 1 ; Resource 2 Here are some ideas to use in the classroom to make the most of the Resources. Assessment opportunities are given to show where you need to watch for pupils’ participation and contribution to the lesson. At key points you may wish to make a record of individual responses. • Explain to the students that they are going to conduct two investigations to work out

what can be learnt from feminist interpretations of the Bible. Each investigation has a focus statement and some ‘tabloid headlines’. The headlines are used to characterise the learning investigation at each stage but could also be a template for producing media accounts of the examinations.

• The investigations should enable students, working in small teams, to produce TV style interviews with characters in the stories examined and with the Feminist commentators in the Resource. Newspaper stories can be written to reflect sexist interpretations of the stories, in the style of tabloid revelations, with follow up denials and alternative accounts of what really happened, generating the sense of the interpretation.

LEARNING INVESTIGATION 1: Christian comments on women and feminist comments on Christianity Tabloid  Headline:  SEXIST  RELIGION  OR  RELIGION  MADE  SEXIST?    • Introduce the students to some of the controversy surrounding women and Christianity.

Explain that they are going to investigate why some people might think the Bible, or Christianity, is sexist and to examine the thinking of some feminist theologians who in different ways respond to the question of sexism in the Bible or Christianity.

• Ask the students to investigate the following web-page and find three challenging or unexpected quotes [Alternatively select some of the quotes from this source and present them to students.] Encourage them to decide in small groups: which of the quotes are most striking to them and to write a written response: http://www.religioustolerance.org/lfe_bibl.htm

• Point out two further websites to students and encourage them to start weighing up arguments about sexism and Christianity: o http://www.rsrevision.com/GCSE/christian_perspectives/prejudice/sexism/sexist.ht

m o http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/sexism.html

Learning Activities  

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• Ask students to write a newspaper column under this headline: SHOCK REVELATIONS. EQUALITY HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION INVESTIGATES ACCUSATIONS OF SEXIST DISCRIMINATION IN SO CALLED COMPASSIONATE RELIGION Alternatively, they could produce a report on an investigation into what Christianity is really all about, identifying aspects of the Christian tradition that seem sexist. [Assessment opportunities: A7: present a coherent picture of religious beliefs, values and responses to questions of meaning and truth which takes account of personal research on sexism in the Bible and a variety of sources and evidence; and F7: give my personal view with reasons and examples on what value religious and other views might have for understanding what is important to them and to other people.]

• Now introduce some women who have also been struck by these quotes and other sources and who have responded in different ways to them: Trible, Fiorenza, Ruether, Hampson and Daly [Resource 1]. Explain that some of these women describe themselves as thealogians (with an ‘a’ instead of an ‘o’), using the Greek word for Goddess, Thea or Theia, rather than Theos (the masculine ‘God’), to describe their work as students of things to do with God. They believe the job of Feminist Theology / Thealogy is to: o Correct mistaken patriarchal interpretations of the Bible; o Search the Bible for anti-patriarchal sources; o Provide a better ethical framework to change Christian understanding of all

creatures; o Reinterpret religion from a feminist perspective based on women’s experience and

not tradition; o Move away from religion as something which upholds patriarchal systems.

• Make the ‘Five Feminist Theologians/ Thealogians’ Resource into separate cards for each of the five thinkers. Divide students into small groups and issue each group with one card. Ask them to express in a single sentence or two how their thinker has responded. This could be done with groups looking at the information on their card and responding initially to what they seem to be saying. For example, instruct them to ‘read the card with the information on your thinker and try to agree with your group on the three key things your person is saying’. So students might suggest, for example, ‘I think she is saying ….’

• In a plenary session, ask each group to report on their three key things to the whole class, listen to each other’s reports and then give some initial responses. [Until the students have sought to apply these interpretative perspectives that the thinkers have, it may be difficult to for them to see the implications of these perspectives but this provides an opportunity to ask the class, ‘how do you think each of these women might view x or y?’ for some hypothesis work.]

• Ask students to write a magazine column under this headline: WE TALK TO FOUR INSIDERS WHO REVEAL THE TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTIANITYʼS SEXISM! Here, the article author (or news item presenter) interviews four of the feminist thinkers capturing their beliefs about Christianity and their feminism. [Assessment opportunity: A7: present a coherent picture of religious beliefs, values and responses to questions of meaning and truth which takes account of personal research on sexism in the Bible and a variety of sources and evidence;

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and F7: give their personal view with reasons and examples on what value religious and other views might have for understanding what is important to them and to other people.]

 LEARNING INVESTIGATION 2: Adam and Eve PART  A:  Tabloid  Headlines:    SULTRY  TEMPTRESS  SEDUCES  ADAM  AND  LOOSES  EDEN  FOR  ALL  OF  US!    WAS  IT  ALL  EVE’S  FAULT?    • Ask students to apply the different kinds of feminist thinking introduced in Investigation

1 to interpret the Adam and Eve text, and to evaluate some questionable representations of Adam and Eve and the ideas they convey.

• Read, with students, the account of the creation of Eve in Genesis 2:4-25 and her role in the Fall in Genesis 3. It is important to read the actual text and begin there, in a suitable translation, instead of beginning with an enactment or video impression of the account for example, as these inevitably involve interpretation. See, e.g., http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+2-3&version=NIV The reading could be done in pairs with one reading to another, or as a whole class activity.

• Ask the whole class for their thoughts on the following questions: o Why do you think this story is so important in Christian tradition? [Some reference

to the place of the creation story in wider Christian belief could be made if they are unfamiliar with it: that it is commonly read from at Church; that some Christians believe it to be the literal account of the creation of the world; that others see it metaphorically or symbolically as having meaning but not actually happening as if it was history.]

o What is meant by ‘The Fall’? [It is essential that the doctrinal importance of the Fall is understood. If women play a key role in the fall then their status is affected for all time. Theologically, the Fall is the reason for the corruption in the world as we experience – the fallen world is a terrible place with all of its imperfections. Christians say that people need saving from this place but there was once a time and a place when life was good, back in the garden of Eden.

o Is it important to believe that the Adam and Eve narrative reflects an historic event that really happened? [Many Christians see the story simply as an expression of the Jewish people trying to understand the world as they saw it, and trying to find a reason for life being hard while at the same time believing in a creator God.]

o Which parts of the story appear to support the authority of men over women, i.e. patriarchy?

• Ask students then to work in pairs or threes to consider briefly the following ‘unpacking questions’: a) How and why is Eve made, according to the text? b) What is the role of Eve in this account? c) How is she punished? What do you think about that? d) What questions does this story ask about the place of women in Christianity? Is it

their fault?

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• Draw feedback from the students together and try to delineate different possible interpretations: maybe it is all Eve’s fault; maybe Adam is just as responsible etc.

Part B. How is the story of Adam and Eve depicted in medieval pictures? Tabloid Headline: DODGY ARTISTS BESMIRCH HONOURABLE EVE WITH ‘PAGE 3’ PAINTINGS OF GENESIS! • Move students’ focus to how some Christians in medieval times interpreted and

depicted this story. This will show how it was interpreted in different times and places. • Explain that in medieval Christianity no one really questioned the existence of Adam

and Eve or the Garden of Eden. The depictions of the story in paintings of the time provide an impression of what artists thought about the Creation story. Within these depictions certain attitudes and interpretations can be perceived. [Students may well have engaged with the idea of propaganda in history which could be drawn upon for comparison.]

• Show the students a selection of mediaeval depictions of the creation story, including: o Adam and Eve, from the 'Stanza della Segnatura':

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/raphael/adam-and-eve-from-the-stanza-della-segnatura-1511

o Adam and Eve - Lucas Cranach the Elder: http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/lucas-cranach-the-elder/adam-and-eve-1528

o Adam and Eve - Hans Holbein: http://www.abcgallery.com/H/holbein/holbein1.html

o The Temptation of Adam – Masolino: http://www.abcgallery.com/M/masaccio/masolino3.html

o The Fall of Adam - Hugo van der Goes: http://www.abcgallery.com/G/goes/goes4.html

• Explain that the pictures chosen here are an example of one of the things feminist

thinkers are concerned about so they illustrate the problem. Ask students to look at these images alongside the text and (a) pick out any ideas that appear to have been placed into the story and (b) decide whether the artist was reading other things into the account or was he revealing the implicit messages in the text itself?

• Explain that this discussion is a key question for feminist theology – is it that the interpretation is wrong, or is it the source itself that is the problem? [These could be looked at together as a class or in groups if the images are printed. These could be compared with traditional easily available images on Adam and Eve which do not so clearly reveal elements that feminist thinkers are concerned about.]

• Encourage students to write down their answers to the following questions: o What messages might the artists be trying to convey in these images? o Why might it be argued that these images reflect patriarchal or sexist images of

God?

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• Ask all the students to then produce their own caricature of the Genesis account emphasising the text and the interpretation. They could use a tabloid-style headline such as, “IT WAS EVE WHAT DONE IT!” with a by-line such as, “While the Bible just says she offered the fruit to him, insiders speak out in our exclusive report to reveal she was starkers at the time and the serpent was her sister.”

 Part C. How might Trible or Fiorenza, and Hampson or Daly respond differently to these images and texts? • Distribute Resource 2: ‘Interpreting Eve’ [Resource 2] and consider the Introductory

Points with students. • Explain that for feminist theologians these two stories of foundational importance for

Christian doctrine raise difficult questions. Ask students for their reflections on the Genesis accounts so far: are the stories in themselves sexist or is it the interpreters throughout history (usually men) who are sexist in their interpretation? Are they in need of reinterpretation or do they need to be rewritten?

• Now students need to return to the Thealogians resource [Resource 1] and try to apply what they know about their thinker (from Investigation 1) to this text, making some notes as they do so. They can be supported in this activity by the ‘Introductory Points’ in the ‘Interpreting Eve’ Resource and also by the ‘Feminist Interpretations’.

• Break the students up into small groups made up of individuals who had been studying different feminist thinkers so all are represented in the groups. Supply them with very large sheets of paper with the Genesis text inserted in the middle and some of the mediaeval Adam and Eve images round the outside. Ask each group to build an ideas map of feminist interpretations of the creation story by writing in notes on the interpretations of the feminist thinkers around the key phases of the story and next to the images. What might each thinker say, at each point? These could be highlighted in different colours. Students should demonstrate where the different feminist thinkers might agree or disagree about the interpretation of each significant part of the text by making connections on the sheets. The groups should aim to depict the possible interpretations of the story.

• Once the ideas maps are complete, students should share their findings with the rest of the class.

• A final report on their investigations will then enable students to demonstrate their ability to analyse and evaluate the biblical text in relation to feminist and other points of view. Ask them to compile their reports under the key question: What can be learnt from Feminist interpretations of the Bible? Ask students to include in their reports (which could be presented in a variety of ways) the following features: o their own research into sexism in the Bible, with comments on methods used; o different interpretations of the story of Adam and Eve in different times and places; o personal views on the importance of feminist interpretations of the Bible. [Assessment opportunities: A7: present a coherent picture of religious beliefs, values and responses to questions of meaning and truth which takes account of personal research on sexism in the Bible and a variety of sources and evidence; F7: give their personal view with reasons and examples on what value religious

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and other views might have for understanding what is important to them and to other people; A8: analyse the results of different sorts of research and place different interpretations of religious, spiritual and moral sources in their historical, cultural, social and philosophical contexts; F8: weigh up in detail a wide range of viewpoints on questions about values and commitments, and come to their own conclusions based on evidence, arguments, reflections and examples; A EP: provide a consistent and detailed analysis of religions and beliefs and of how religious, spiritual and moral sources are interpreted in different ways, with an evaluation of the different methods of study used to conduct the analysis; F EP: analyse in depth a wide range of perspectives on questions about values and commitments and provide independent, well informed and highly reasoned insights into their own and others’ perspectives on religious and spiritual issues, with well-substantiated and balanced conclusions.]