Bread Not Stone
Smith, Karen Sue
31 May 1985: 345 A compass & a milepost BREAD HOT STONE THE CHALLENGE OF FEMINIST BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION Elisabeth Schiissler Fiorenza Beacon Press, $17.95, 182 pp. Karen Sue Smith As you...
...She is consistently engaged in the process of theological discourse both in the classroom and outside it...
...The book functions as a compass and milepost for an emerging movement unsupported by the status quo, and needing to be reminded of its goals and its direction lest it get sidetracked, slowed down, or defeated altogether...
...Judging by the quotes from students and by references to the work of other scholars, Schussler Fiorenza is listening...
...She acknowledges that while biblical texts have indeed been used as a weapon against women, they have also been the resource for women's own struggle for emancipation and for women and men who work on behalf of the liberation of others (the anti-slavery movement is one obvious example...
...Her agenda is to hold both realities in creative tension while developing a feminist mode of interpretation where the experiences of women, as well as men, are subjects of theological investigation...
...It is the biblical version of the modern song, "I'll Never Forget What's Her Name...
...Patriarchy, then becomes an object for critique as women-church (the obverse of patriarchy) reflects upon what a liberating, non-patriarchal structure might be, and commences to lay its foundation...
...misconstruing the Bible as the locus rather than the root model of feminist hermeneutics...
...Finally, Schussler Fiorenza sounds a pastoral note resembling Jesus' response to those who criticized his healing on the sabbath day: the sabbath is made for people not the other way round...
...Bread Not Stone offers a similar irony...
...Women's experience includes both these relationships to Scripture: adversarial and inspirational...
...overlooking the destructive power exerted by patriarchal hermeneutics on women of today...
...Hierarchy itself is a construction of a patriarchal system, by definition antithetical to the equality and hence, well-being, of women...
...it is patriarchy which needs to be examined and dismantled...
...Karen Sue Smith As you have seen, I am a writer who came of a sheltered life...
...Schussler Fiorenza's exegetical work, In Memory of Her [Reviewed Commonweal, October 7, 1983] unearths and reclaims the biblical stories of firstcentury Christians as they struggled with the discipleship of equals...
...This proposal takes both academic and community standards seriously...
...Schussler Fiorenza says yes...
...These include: forgetting that neutral "scientific" observation is impossible for the interpreter of the Bible...
...Can these texts be appropriated for women today...
...The theological and political implications of a discipleship of equals supersedes what is usually called parity or equal access to positions of authority and decisionmaking within church hierarchy...
...Bread Not Stone illustrates what it advocates by citing the place of modern feminist interpretation within the tradition and by alluding to a score of women scholars, economists, artists and poets...
...The six essays in Bread Not Stone are compiled for a different purpose, less exegetical and more strategic...
...To emphasize the second is to suggest a less critical acceptance of these books than Schussler Fiorenza proposes...
...Commonweal: 346...
...And what feminist theologian after years of dedicated work to shape a more inclusive church does not feel like the child who asked for bread but received a stone...
...collapsing essential differences among persons and groups into a universalist rhetoric of one generic interpretation for all...
...No proponent of dialogue, whether Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza or David Tracy to name two, can circumscribe the very dialogue she or he advocates...
...What about the biblical texts themselves which are also historical products of patriarchy...
...abdicating the rigors of intellectual scholarship in lieu of feminist apologetics or popularized interpretations of Scripture...
...Preserving these memories is an immediate feminist task...
...Chapter Four exemplifies the feminist hermeneutical approach by arguing the case for a feminist reading of the household codes found in several Pauline letters...
...While each essay in this collection is self-contained, making it an ideal teaching resource, the book suffers from repetition if read in one sitting...
...she presents lucid definitions of terms like "women-church" and "pastoral paradigm" when necessary, and decries slippery notions like "women's experience" when used as though it were gender-determined...
...In Memory of Her is named for the disciple who poured costly ointment over Jesus — an example of how patriarchy lost this woman disciple's name though her story survived...
...This compact volume provides the student of the Bible a rationale for the feminist critique of patriarchy: the destructive impact on women and on biblical religion that results when the male person is considered normative...
...Or at least since the concept of inerrancy was conceived...
...Isn't it precisely tablets of stone that we associate with Scripture ever since Moses came down from Sinai...
...Although Schussler Fiorenza's style cannot be counted on for humor, it does contain a healthy dose of irony...
...Yet Schussler Fiorenza uses bread as a metaphor for the Bible: bread "that nurtures, sustains, and energizes women as people of God...
...It is patriarchy, not men as a gender group, which represents the institutionalization of this viewpoint...
...This is just one feminist task...
...One of her stated future hopes is to see more pastoral-theological biblical centers where people from different professions, races, classes, sexes, and cultures can explore the meaning of biblical texts along with open discussion about the presuppositions of the academy and ecclesiastical institutions as well...
...For all serious daring starts from within...
...Furthermore, Schussler Fiorenza states the inclusive goals of feminist interpretation (the solidarity of all oppressed persons), and points to the pot holes along the road ahead...
...Schussler Fiorenza says, "The authority of the Bible is not that of control, but of enabling power.'' Her dare is that we take the Bible seriously, interpreting it in light of oppressed communities in our world today...
...Schussler Fiorenza speaks in terms of heuristic models...
...Eudora Welty One Writer's Beginnings IT may be understatement to describe as "serious daring" Elisabeth Schiissler Fiorenza's efforts to construct a critical feminist interpretation of the Bible...
...To emphasize the first is to find Scripture injurious to women and therefore to reject it...
...For in Schiissler Fiorenza's thought the stakes are high: what stands to be gained (or lost) is nothing less than the "discipleship of equals" written about in Scripture and practiced, at least in part, by some groups of early Christians...
...Yet this book must be taken as only one part of an ongoing conversation...
...A sheltered life can be a daring life as well...
Vol. 112 • May 1985 • No. 11
