Let Her Speak for Herself: Nineteenth-Century Women Writing on Women in Genesis

Conclusion

443 1 D. K. McKim, in Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1998), focuses on major figures and only includes the work of two modern femi- nists interpreters in his book. Timothy Larsen speaks of the importance of listening to other voices in his work, Contested Christianity: The Political and Social Contexts of Victorian Theology (Waco, Tex: Baylor University Press, 2004). 2 Dorothy C. Bass, “Women’s Studies and Biblical Studies: An Historical Perspective,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 22 (1982): 6–12; and Dorothy C. Bass, “Women with a Past: A New Look at the History of Theological Education,” Theological Education 8 (1972): 213–24. Bass focuses on the modern period when women began to be involved in the academy. 3 Women’s contributions to religious education are widely recognized. Contributions of twentieth-century women are recognized in works like Barbara Anne Keely, ed. Faith of our Foremothers: Women Changing Religious Education (Louisville: John Knox, 1997). Also see James E. Reed and Ronnie Prevost, A History of Christian Education (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1993). Reed and Prevost carefully include a chapter on women in each period of his- tory they present; however, women are often presented as recipients of education, are seldom named, and their written contributions before the twentieth century are not acknowledged. Conclusion In The Women of Israel, Grace Aguilar called Jewish women to rediscover their foremothers, the matriarchs of their faith. We have now heard Aguilar’s voice along with the voices of forty-nine other women who wrote in the nineteenth century. These women have spoken. We need to listen to them and acknowledge them as our foremothers in biblical interpretation. Their diverse voices need to be heard and included in scholarly discussions of the history of biblical interpretation1 and the history of feminist biblical schol- arship in particular,2 as well as in other scholarly discussions, such as the intellectual and social histories of the nineteenth century, the history of religious education,3 and women’s studies. Some of these voices (Crocker, Grimké, Weld, and Stanton) have already been acknowledged as important in any reexaminations of traditional interpretations of biblical texts related 444 Let Her Speak for Herself to women.4 However, the whole range of women’s voices, from traditional to feminist must be heard for a complete picture of nineteenth-century women as interpreters of scripture to emerge, and indeed for a complete understand- ing of the other fields of study listed. Reading these writings both inspires and humbles us.5 It inspires us to find women who engaged the biblical text, interpreted the text, and wrote and published their thinking for the benefit of others. It humbles us to real- ize that women working in biblical studies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries are not the first women to work in this field; others have interpreted the Bible, working in much more difficult social contexts. These recovered writings reveal the complexity of the history of biblical interpretation. We are only beginning to understand women’s contributions to this history; the selections in the book represent only a small part of women’s writings in the nineteenth century. Many more women interpreters remain to be recovered. As we have listened to the voices of these women writing about the women in Genesis, we have heard many things. These writings show plainly that biblical interpretation is itself a cultural event. Nineteenth-century women interpreters make no claims about being objective and scientific in their inter- pretive work. They read scripture through the distinctive lens of their time. Reading their interpretations of scripture draws us quickly into the complex world of women in the nineteenth century. Further, while the women inter- preters represented here primarily wrote at the popular level, they were influ- enced by the academic world. They employed and sometimes criticized the tools used by biblical scholars. Their experiences as women also shaped how they interpreted and applied the stories of women in Genesis. These women interpreters brought their understanding of the Bible to faith communities and influenced many through their work. We need to listen to these women’s voices and allow them to influence our assessment of their times, and our 4 Carolyn De Swarte Gifford, “American Women and the Bible: The Nature of Woman as a Hermeneutical Issue,” in Feminist Perspectives on Biblical Scholarship, ed. Adela Yarbro Collins (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985): 11–33. Gifford highlights American women’s work on the hermeneutical...