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qosI am a seminarian, a scholar, and a feminist. I think it's important that we look critically at Biblical texts that condone subordination of women, just as we look critically at those which condone slavery, anti-Semitism, ecological abuse, or other hateful/hurtful acts and beliefs.
However, when the prof spends most of a three-hour class focusing on some of the most objectionable texts (from a feminist perspective) from the Pauline corpus ("Wives, obey your husbands. . . " "I do not permit women to speak or teach in church. . . " and etc.), and makes the class session more about patariarchy than Pauline theology and social context, I get very upset.
It makes no sense to pull these texts out of context and use them to bash patriarchy -- not in an Introduction to the New Testament class in seminary. If you're going to call them out for a closer, critical look, do so after discussing the larger perspective on Paul, so that we can have an intelligent conversation about why he was writing about these issues in the first place, and whether or not the teachings in them are consistent with Pauline theology as a whole.
To make matters worse, she's wasting all our time by preaching to the choir. No one in this class needed to have their eyes opened to the fact that these are problematic texts from a liberal 21st century perspective. We all know that there are people in this world who still take them literally and insist that they be obeyed, but none of them are in this class.
Three hours!!! And not one word about how the letters represent single moments in ongoing conversations, the rest of which is lost to us. Nothing about Paul's christology, or his fundamental contribution to early theology. Nothing about why some letters are no longer considered to be written by Paul, but are believed to have been written in his name. These are some of the most important texts in Christianity, and Prof. B spends three hours telling us that Patriarchy is Bad and that some texts are cultural rather than authentically revelatory.
I hate having my class time wasted like this.
However, when the prof spends most of a three-hour class focusing on some of the most objectionable texts (from a feminist perspective) from the Pauline corpus ("Wives, obey your husbands. . . " "I do not permit women to speak or teach in church. . . " and etc.), and makes the class session more about patariarchy than Pauline theology and social context, I get very upset.
It makes no sense to pull these texts out of context and use them to bash patriarchy -- not in an Introduction to the New Testament class in seminary. If you're going to call them out for a closer, critical look, do so after discussing the larger perspective on Paul, so that we can have an intelligent conversation about why he was writing about these issues in the first place, and whether or not the teachings in them are consistent with Pauline theology as a whole.
To make matters worse, she's wasting all our time by preaching to the choir. No one in this class needed to have their eyes opened to the fact that these are problematic texts from a liberal 21st century perspective. We all know that there are people in this world who still take them literally and insist that they be obeyed, but none of them are in this class.
Three hours!!! And not one word about how the letters represent single moments in ongoing conversations, the rest of which is lost to us. Nothing about Paul's christology, or his fundamental contribution to early theology. Nothing about why some letters are no longer considered to be written by Paul, but are believed to have been written in his name. These are some of the most important texts in Christianity, and Prof. B spends three hours telling us that Patriarchy is Bad and that some texts are cultural rather than authentically revelatory.
I hate having my class time wasted like this.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-23 02:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-24 03:07 am (UTC)I might have done it if I had been in class last week (instead of in Georgia) and was sure that she hadn't actually covered some of the foundational stuff then. It would have been embarrassing to start trying to drag the class into a discussion they already had.