1–2 Thessalonians by Florence M. Gillman, Mary Ann Beavis, and Hyeran Kim-Cragg (review)

The goal of the Wisdom Commentary series is to offer "detailed feminist interpretation of every book of the Bible" (editor's introduction, p. xv). The authors of this volume faced the particular challenge that 1 and 2 Thessalonians say "almost nothing about women" and in fact "some think Paul wrote to an exclusively male congregation" (p. 8; cf. p. 102). They rose admirably to the challenge demonstrating in their work the variety of approaches taken by feminist commentators. After the series foreword by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and editor's introduction by Barbara Reid, the volume contains two extended essays, one by Florence Gillman on 1 Thessalonians, and the other by Mary Ann Beavis and HyeRan Kim-Cragg on 2 Thessalonians. Each essay includes an introduction and a chapter on each chapter of the biblical text. The NRSV is provided at the beginning of each chapter of commentary.

Gillman is a social historian and chooses to investigate various aspects of "the world of the people behind the text," particularly the experiences and concerns of women hoping to make a contribution to a "more detailed and gender-balanced narrative about Paul's texts" (p. 9). So, for example, G. looks at the history of the Greek princess after whom the city of Thessalonica was named and the implications for women of turning from idols (1 Thess 1:9), which would have included abandoning cultic practices associated with childbirth, or declining participation in typical women's religious practices of the ancient world. She unpacks Paul's nurse metaphor (1 Thess 2:7) in an extended discussion that attends to both philological and social issues. She assesses whether Paul's admonition "to control your own body" (1 Thess 4:4) assumes a male audience and includes master-to-slave sexual activity. Thus, in creative and helpful ways, G. brings the ancient world to life to inform her reading of an androcentric text.

Beavis and Kim-Cragg take a different approach in their work on 2 Thessalonians. They bring a hermeneutic of suspicion as an interpretive force that can be "resistant to and disruptive of traditional patriarchal symbolic structures" (p. 103). As might be expected for 2 Thessalonians, this requires first and foremost a consideration of the apocalyptic framework of the epistle. In their assessment, they consider both the destructive expectations and violent descriptions found in such literature, as well as the ways women have contributed to apocalyptic points of view (e.g., Montanist female prophets and the vision of Hildegard of Bingen). The general hermeneutic of resistance adopted by B. and K.-C. is augmented by attention to historical questions (e.g., they argue that the most likely historical context is the events of the First Jewish War in 70 c.e.); by consideration of postcolonial perspectives (e.g., Filipina responses to suffering and Korean perspectives on healing through violence); and by rhetorical analyses (e.g., of the structure of the epistle and in the commentary). This essay is interdisciplinary in character, drawing from various fields and using examples from a variety of contexts to illuminate the meaning and significance of the biblical text. A profound example, in my opinion, is drawing on Jewish women's experience at Auschwitz as an example of resistance in oppressive circumstances. I wonder if this inter-disciplinary character is the good result of a collaboration between a religious studies scholar and a pastoral studies scholar.

Several characteristics of the volume as a whole are worth noting. Both essays attend to other points of view in their discussions of particular issues throughout the commentaries, and in the selection of material for sidebars, some of which were written by people other than the primary authors. The authors were careful to locate their work with respect to previous feminist work and other academic discussions, especially postcolonial perspectives. This gives the volume a strong collaborative character without losing the voices of the primary...