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14. Narrative Loss, the (Important) Role of Women, and Community in Judges 19
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14 Narrative Loss, the (Important) Role of Women, and Community in Judges 19 Brad Embry Reader-Oriented Context This essay reflects research that began with a very different end in mind. Initially, I began research on Judges 19 with the intention of sorting out how the story functioned in the subsection of Judges 17–21, how that subsection fit within the wider narrative of the book of Judges, and how the author used the female figure to deliver the story. As the story began to occupy more and more of my thoughts and owing to the difficulty of the story due to its graphic nature and highly problematic characters, I began to reflect on how this story might be received or understood in my specific religious context. As a result, I began to look for the treatment or reference to this story outside my own, academic pursuits. Currently, I teach at a Christian liberal arts University associated with a Pentecostal-Holiness tradition from North America, the Assemblies of God (AG). My research work unfolds in this context, and so as I was saturating my time with Judges and Judges 19, I was also participating in the religious life of this tradition, the worldview of which is oriented by two primary features. One is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the community. For the AG, the Holy Spirit is an active presence in shaping and guiding a person’s life, from aiding in understanding Scripture to helping determine daily, life decisions. The idea is that the community of God (i.e., the AG church community) is led by the Holy Spirit into a deeper relationship with God, and directed in its daily, weekly, and yearly life as to the appropriate actions to undertake to ensure that they are doing God’s will. The guidance of the Holy Spirit also extends to an understanding of the biblical narrative and thus to the preaching of the “Word.” The second feature of this tradition is that the 257 biblical text (Protestant tradition) is inspired by God, many would say inerrant, and contains the essential “narrative” for how one is to live one’s life. Thus it is the “sourcebook” for determining the nature of God, humans, and the interaction between these two characters. Most critically, all of this narrative is true. More specifically, the narrative in its entirety is true. Alongside vocal worship, preaching of that “Word” is the primary expression within a church gathering. As I continued my research, I was increasingly aware of the importance of Judges 19 for the unfolding narrative of the book of Judges, and that the book of Judges was an important part in the unfolding narrative of the Israelite community. At the same time, as I participated in the life of this faith tradition I was equally impressed by how unimportant Judges 19 (and Judges for that matter) was, in practice, to the weekly expression of faith in this community. I realized that, in my five years with this institution and the AG, I had never heard a sermon preached on Judges 19, or a small-group discussion of it, or even had a conversation with a pastor in which this story was part of his thought world.1 Aside from a few idiomatic comments, the story of Judges 19 simply did not register in the religious conscience of this tradition. Given this tradition’s stated understanding of the biblical text as both a central authority and unified whole, this struck me as curious. As a result, as my research continued to suggest the importance of Judges 19, I began to think about the role played by the story not only in Judges but also in the contemporary community of faith that relied heavily on the biblical narrative to set the parameters for its communal identity. What did a community look like that on the one hand affirmed the canonical authority of Judges as a binding religious document, but on the other hand ceased to integrate this material into its religious consciousness? This dissonance is enhanced by virtue of the fact that the story of Judges 19 is specifically intended for the covenantal community, and so its effacement may be symptomatic of a more deeply seated and communally subconscious impression of the narrative. I realized that I was in a context that was gradually “unreading” the narrative owing to some impulse that finds portions of the narrative either too distasteful, or lacks...