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A review by lilyevangeline
Slaves, Women Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis by William J. Webb
Problematic and dated title aside, this was an interesting read for me. Hermeneutics (and biblical interpretation in general) is not a regular area of study for me, nor one that comes particularly naturally to me, but I've been beginning to feel my deficiencies in this area when having discussions with family and friends in an overwhelming evangelical conservative environment.
So while I would never have read this book on my own, when offered the chance to do so in company of a book club, I could hardly pass it up. Trying to maintain relationships with more conservative friends and family (while also rejecting particular interpretations of scripture that I grew up with) demands that I have at least some baseline proficiency in explaining my convictions.
I appreciate that this book seems to have that conservative demographic primarily in mind as it painstakingly develops criteria for cultural analysis while arguing for a "redemptive spirit" interpretation of scripture. I don't feel that his dealings with homosexuality to be particularly thorough or overall convincing, and would need further personal research on that issue, but I really appreciate his thoughts and interpretations on women in the church. Coming from a patriarchal conservative background, with all the (more literal) methods of interpretation that comes with that, it was something of a relief to read a convincing egalitarian interpretation of 1 Tim 2. Personally, I feel that the complementarian perspective was absolutely detrimental to my faith and a barrier to real knowledge of God. in light of that, it's important to me that I have an interpretation that I feel would at least warrant respect (if not conversion) for my theology from complementarian evangelicals, instead of the vague, "Ah, so you're a liberal christian who doesn't care for the Bible" vibes I get now.
Church division aside, I also think this book has a nice message for "living in theological greyness" that everyone could learn from. An interpretation is, after all, at the end of the day only that--an interpretation.
So while I would never have read this book on my own, when offered the chance to do so in company of a book club, I could hardly pass it up. Trying to maintain relationships with more conservative friends and family (while also rejecting particular interpretations of scripture that I grew up with) demands that I have at least some baseline proficiency in explaining my convictions.
I appreciate that this book seems to have that conservative demographic primarily in mind as it painstakingly develops criteria for cultural analysis while arguing for a "redemptive spirit" interpretation of scripture. I don't feel that his dealings with homosexuality to be particularly thorough or overall convincing, and would need further personal research on that issue, but I really appreciate his thoughts and interpretations on women in the church. Coming from a patriarchal conservative background, with all the (more literal) methods of interpretation that comes with that, it was something of a relief to read a convincing egalitarian interpretation of 1 Tim 2. Personally, I feel that the complementarian perspective was absolutely detrimental to my faith and a barrier to real knowledge of God. in light of that, it's important to me that I have an interpretation that I feel would at least warrant respect (if not conversion) for my theology from complementarian evangelicals, instead of the vague, "Ah, so you're a liberal christian who doesn't care for the Bible" vibes I get now.
Church division aside, I also think this book has a nice message for "living in theological greyness" that everyone could learn from. An interpretation is, after all, at the end of the day only that--an interpretation.