A Third Kind of Feminist Reading: Toward a Feminist Sociology of Biblical Hermeneutics

Abstract

This article proposes that the next step in feminist biblical studies requires, even demands, the development of sociologically framed paradigms. It illustrates this proposal for such a third kind of reading with an examination of the interpretation history of Genesis 2-3 during the past forty years. Five hermeneutical stages emerge. They move from a first stage on feminist interpretations, to a second stage on deconstructive responses, to a third stage of interpretations that reassert androcentric meaning, to a fourth stage on the Christian Right’s insistence on patriarchal gender roles, and finally to a fifth stage on commercialized biblical meanings in the Western media. This analysis shows that a feminist sociology of biblical hermeneutics explains, even to beginning students, the connections between biblical hermeneutics and society, because it conceptualizes biblical texts and interpretation histories as hermeneutically dynamic, politically and religiously charged conversations concerning socio-political practices.