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Gender Studies

New Book by Sarojini Nadar in the Routledge Series “Rape Culture, Religion and the Bible”

by Johanna Stiebert on

Sarojini Nadar is a long-time supporter of the Shiloh Project. Her important new book is available from this Wednesday and ready for pre-order right now (see here). The book’s title, Gender, Genocide, Gaza and the Book of Esther: Engaging Texts of Terrorism (Routledge 2025) already points to its acute timeliness.

Tell us about yourself, Sarojini.

I’m a feminist scholar of religion based in South Africa, working at the intersections of gender, race, and religion. I hold the Desmond Tutu South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Religion and Social Justice, at the University of the Western Cape. My work is shaped by the historical legacies of apartheid and Indian colonial indentured labour. It is grounded in a decolonial feminist approach that interrogates how systems of power—colonial, patriarchal, racial, and religious—intersect. Much of my scholarship focuses on how religious beliefs and sacred texts are implicated in both the legitimation of systemic violence, and in movements of resistance.

How did this book come about, and how does it relate to your broader work?

The initial research intention for the book was to conduct an intersectional feminist analysis of sexual violence in the Book of Esther—particularly in relation to the harem as a space of imperial power and sexual exploitation. I was interested in how beauty, silence, and submission function as survival strategies for women within oppressive contexts.

But while I was contemplating the book proposal, in October 2023, everything shifted. A full-scale genocidal assault on Gaza was underway. Then, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked a chilling biblical command in a public speech justifying the invasion of Gaza: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you—and we remember.” Suddenly, the book of Esther took on an urgent, horrifying resonance. Amalek is not only a figure in Deuteronomy or 1 Samuel; he is also in Esther. Haman—the book’s primary antagonist—is a descendant of Agag, the Amalekite king. The ancient enemy of Israel, whose complete annihilation is divinely commanded when the Israelites enter the so-called Promised Land, is embedded in the book of Esther!

When South Africa brought its genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice in January 2024, it cited several biblical references used by Israeli officials, arguing that they revealed genocidal intent—framing Palestinians as Amalekites to be wiped out. Since then, the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other global organisations have echoed this analysis. This was not just retaliation. These were acts of genocide.

And so the focus of the book began to shift. Or perhaps more accurately, it began to expand. From the harem to the herem. What had started as a feminist reading of sexual violence in the harem could no longer ignore the parallel structure of ethnic violence in the herem. Herem, refers to a form of sacred ban or divine command that designates certain enemies for destruction, effectively setting them apart as sacred, and as “devoted to destruction.”

My earlier readings of Esther were profoundly shaped by the pioneering work of Phyllis Trible, whose book, ‘Texts of Terror’ invited us to read the Bible with feminist suspicion—to notice the sexual violence hidden in plain sight, and to lament what the text will not, and did not. Trible taught us to attend to the silences, to read against the grain, and to grieve the unnamed and the unremembered. But as a decolonial feminist scholar shaped by intersectional ethics, I read for more than gendered violence. I read for empire. I read for ethnic terror. I read for how sacred texts encode and sacralise violence—across registers of gender, race, and power. The subjugation of women’s bodies and the annihilation of ethnic others are entangled in what I call “sacred economies of violence.”

Sacred economies of violence is a conceptual framework I developed for the book, by drawing on Patricia Hill Collins’ matrices of domination, Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of the political economy of religion, and David Chidester’s expansion of Bourdieu’s idea into the political economy of the sacred. It describes an interlocking system in which violence functions as a currency—authorised through sacred sanction—to uphold patriarchal, racialised, and religious hierarchies. Within this economy, religion does not merely reflect existing structures of power; it actively legitimises and perpetuates them, embedding violence into the symbolic and material fabric of society. In the book, I trace how the book of Esther participates in these sacred economies of violence.

What are the key arguments of your book?

This book contends that in the book of Esther the two sites of violence—harem and herem—are not mutually exclusive. They are co-constitutive. I argue that the book of Esther is a politically and theologically charged narrative that legitimises violence by those who deem themselves “divinely chosen.”  Building on Achille Mbembe’s theory of necropolitics, I propose the framework of gendered theological necropolitics to analyse how the narrative constructs hierarchies of life and death. The text signals whose lives are valued and whose deaths are acceptable, all through the intersecting lenses of gender and ethnicity.

Crucially, I argue that these dynamics are not frozen in the past but are reactivated in our present moment—particularly in how the text is interpreted and mobilised in political discourse today. Hence, the book also focuses on how this ancient text is read and used far beyond the academy—in sermons, speeches, blogposts, and everyday religious practice. These “afterlives” of scripture are central to how texts function in the world.

What do you hope readers will take from this book?

I hope readers develop a sharper critical awareness of how sacred texts and their receptions can participate in the legitimation of violence—sometimes through overt endorsement, other times through subtle theological or narrative cues. The assumption that biblical texts are neutral or benign must be challenged. My goal is to expose how these texts continue to shape moral and political imaginaries in deeply consequential ways.

I also hope to prompt a broader conversation among biblical scholars about the political and pastoral uses of scripture in our time. Esther is a living text with potent—and often dangerous—afterlives. The widely quoted phrase “for such a time as this” is frequently used to inspire women’s empowerment, but in contexts like Gaza, it has also been weaponised to justify ethnic violence. What does “such a time” mean when it becomes a rallying cry for war?

Ultimately, I hope the book models a method of reading that is both ethically accountable and politically alert—one that refuses the comforts of simplicity, and instead embraces complexity in the service of justice.

What insight does the book provide into the relationship between religion and public life?

One of the central claims of this book—and indeed, of my broader scholarly work—is that religion does not reside neatly within private belief or institutional ritual. It is deeply entangled with public life, shaping social norms and popular moral discourse. This entanglement becomes particularly visible when we examine how sacred texts are interpreted and mobilised in everyday and political contexts.

The book of Esther offers a compelling case study for how normalisation of violence and theological instrumentalisation are perpetuated through popular Christian interpretations, where the text is often read through redemptive lenses that obscure its imperial and ethnic violence. This is why I take seriously both scholarly and popular religious interpretations. Non-academic readings from general public life, are central to understanding how sacred texts structure lived realities and legitimise or contest power. Popular media and discourse are therefore, legitimate and necessary sites of scholarly inquiry for those of us committed to tracing the effects of sacred texts in the world.

It is no accident, for example, that in 2024 a Donald Trump-aligned initiative emerged in the United States under the name Project Esther. This campaign—promoted by the Heritage Foundation as a “National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism”—appropriates the figure of Esther for Christian nationalist ends. As the Jewish Voice for Peace Academic Advisory Council has revealed, Project Esther in fact weaponises antisemitic conspiracy theories under the guise of Jewish protection, while disproportionately targeting Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and immigrants. It seeks to dismantle the broader Palestine solidarity movement, casting dissenting voices as threats to divine or national order. In this context, the figure of Esther becomes a rhetorical shield for repression—her story is invoked to sanctify silencing and justify surveillance.

This is precisely why intersectional feminist biblical scholars must interrogate both academic and popular uses of scripture. The question is not only what a text says, but what it is made to do in the world. When religious stories are used to authorise violence or shut down critique, our task is to expose and challenge those uses, while offering more just and accountable ways of reading.

Give us one quotation from the book that you think will make a reader go and read the rest.

This is an excerpt from Chapter 5:

“Initially portrayed as vulnerable, Esther strategically leverages her gendered position to gain access to power. Once she achieves that power, the narrative shifts towards an aggressive assertion of ethnic dominance. The extermination of Haman and his supporters, along with the deaths of 75,000 “others,” is rationalised through Esther’s Jewish identity, reflecting the historical violence inflicted upon Israel’s enemies within the framework of herem. Thus, the narrative complicates the portrayal of Esther as solely a victim; she operates within a structure of divine chosen-ness that legitimises her violent actions. Her body becomes a battleground for both imperial desire and divine selection, as she is first chosen for the king’s harem and later for God’s herem.”

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New Book! Behold the Men

by Johanna Stiebert on

We are thrilled to tell you more about a new book, Behold the Men (SCM, 2025), co-edited by Robert Beckford and Rachel Starr,

Tell us a bit about you.

We are both contextual theologians, shaped by distinct traditions and experiences. Robert is a black liberation theologian and Rachel a (critical) white feminist theologian. Beginning work on the book, we had different questions we wanted to explore in relation to theologies of masculinities. More than a dialogue, Behold the Men brings together a wide range of voices, styles, perspectives from over a dozen contributors (including the Shiloh Project’s Chris Greenough), all offering something from their own lived experience and reflections.

What motivated you to carry out the research for this book?

Our students! When teaching on gender and theology, male students repeatedly asked what theological resources there were for exploring masculinities. There seemed to be a need for an introductory resource which would help direct students to existing material as well as identify further work to be done.

We were aware of so much insightful work within biblical studies around masculinities. In biblical studies, the conversations seem more developed than in theology. Of course, there has been work on masculinities within practical theology, particularly in pastoral theology by Mark Pryce and Delroy Hall. In spirituality also, Joseph Gelfer and others have asked critical questions about men’s spirituality movements and how they often serve to reinforce dominant, violent models of masculinity. We’ve tried to map some of these existing conversations as well as identify gaps.

The book has been out a month now, and we’ve had lots of conversations about how timely it is in relation to global political developments. But to be honest, it’s long overdue. The questions and connections we invite people to explore in the book are vital ones. We recognise the negative impact of dominant violent models of masculinity on people, politics and planet. And we recognise how significant religion is in shaping people’s identity, beliefs and behaviours. In the church and beyond, we’re aware of how gender, alongside race and other identity markers, is used to limit who people are and how they relate to others. To fix relationships of power and inequality.

Unlike many books on men and Christianity, the primary focus is not on how to get more men to attend church. Rather, it’s concerned with the type of masculinity that churches often promote, especially those churches which are keen to attract more men. So, another aim of the book is to encourage churches to explore what models of masculinity they are encouraging and whether those models are healthy, inclusive ones.

What impact do you hope it will have?

We have big hopes for this book! Already it seems to be generating conversations and helping identify further work needed. In March 2025, Queen’s is hosting an event to both launch the book and provide a space for conversation amongst people from a range of contexts who are exploring models of masculinity within Christian traditions and beyond.

Behold the Men is, of course, a play on Pilate’s words (John 19.5), mocking words that form part of the violence of the crucifixion story. They invite others to look at Jesus and see his vulnerability and failure. In some translations, a similar phrase appears in Judges 19.22, ‘behold, the men of the city’, once again serving as a preface to violence, this time carried out by the men being observed.

By naming the book, Behold the Men, we are asking readers to look at, to pay attention to men and models of masculinity. There is something to see here, something to assess and analyse. Violence, pain and loss, yes – but perhaps also possibilities for new ways of being, possibilities which emerge from paying careful attention to ourselves and others. We hope the title further invites reflection on holding, embracing, connection. What does it mean to be held or embraced as a man? How are men helped to pay attention to their own and others’ power and vulnerability in such embraces? The book, we hope, is an invitation to embrace both who we are and the potential for connection and change.

What else are you working on?

Robert: I am currently developing a multi-media project in response to the Christian based reparations projects in Britain.

Rachel: I’m delighted to be involved in the Bible and Violence project with colleagues from the Shiloh Project, especially in helping bring in Latin American biblical scholars and perspectives. With Elizabeth Gareca and Larry José Madrigal, I co-edited a recent issue of Revista de Interpretación Bíblica Latinoamericana focused on resistant and resilient readings of the Bible in contexts of violence. Coming up also is the re-publication of a journal article exploring reading Mark 7 as a white woman, first published in Practical Theology. And finally, I’m delighted to have contributed to God’s Stories As Told By God’s Children, produced by The Bible for Normal People and out March 2025.

Where can we find out more about you?

You can visit our Queen’s staff pages: Robert and Rachel. Robert can often be found on BBC Radio 4 and occasionally writes for The Guardian. Rachel kept a blog while living and studying in Argentina and, in recent years, has revived it in a low-key way.

Give us one quote to whet our appetites!

‘What might an embodied, earthed theological model of masculinity look like? …

Such a model of masculinity would begin by recognizing that men are bodies and souls – bodysouls – and must find ways of accepting and valuing their whole self (Louw 2012). It would encourage men to engage with the complexity of their bodies, lives and stories: to listen to their bodies that speak of trauma and grief, violence and pain, joy and hope. It would make space for fluid notions of sex and gender identity, roles and relationships. Queer theologies have much to offer here (Gelfer 2009). An embodied earthed model would support men in discovering and expressing their emotions, to understand that to be human is to be finite and vulnerable (World Council of Churches 2005, Louw 2012). It would bear witness to the relational nature of humanity, that all humans, men included, can only exist in relationship (World Council of Churches 2005, Anderson 2020). As Phyllis Trible (1978) observed on reading Genesis 2, the first human is not gendered, only becoming so through the creation of a second person, a partner. Gender is relational, and thus to be a man can only be understood in relation to other men, women and non-binary people; in relation to the wider world; and, for people of faith, in relation to God. Finally, such a model would challenge men to work for justice, equality and inclusion (Baker-Fletcher 1996; Anderson 2020).’ (Beckford and Starr 2025, pp. 10–20)

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Meet Seán Henry and his new book: Queer Thriving in Religious Schools

by Chris Greenough on
Book cover: Queer Thriving in Religious Schools

The Shiloh Project caught up with Dr Seán Henry @seandhenry, Senior Lecturer at Edge Hill University, to find out more about his new book, Queer Thriving in Religious Schools. Seán’s book will be launched next week, Wednesday 24th July, 6:30-8:30pm at Edge Hill University – the event can also be accessed online via this registration link: Queer Thriving in Religious Schools | Book launch event | Edge Hill

1. Tell us a bit about you.

My name is Seán Henry and I currently work at Edge Hill University, where I research and teach modules in religious studies, theology, and education studies. Before moving to the UK, I lived in Dublin (where I’m from), where I studied to be an RE and English teacher before moving into higher education. It was in Ireland where I conducted most of the research informing “Queer Thriving in Religious Schools“. 

2. What motivated you to carry out the research for this book?

I studied to be an RE teacher in Ireland, where the vast majority of public schools are privately managed by the Catholic Church. As a gay man studying to be an RE teacher in mainly religious schools, I started my teaching career sensitive to some of the tensions that can play out when schooling, religion, gender, and sexuality meet. After all, it is often assumed that religion and progressive education on sexuality and gender are opposed to one another. At the time, I wondered how it could be possible to be openly gay as an RE teacher in a religious school if you were also expected to align your teaching with the faith tradition of your employer. I was asking these questions at a time of great cultural change in Ireland too: the influence of the Catholic Church was waning, evidenced in Ireland becoming the first country in the world to legislate for marriage equality as a result of a popular vote. So, my research for the book was initially motivated by a desire to respond productively to these questions, in a way that would move beyond setting religion, gender, sexuality, and schooling in opposition to one another. 

3. What impact do you hope it will have?

I hope the book goes some way in challenging the view that Jewish, Christian, and Muslim schooling are always necessarily homophobic, biphobic, or transphobic. Indeed, throughout the book I draw from queer theologies across each of these traditions to show that there are ways of navigating Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions that can allow LGBTQ+ staff and student to thrive (and not just survive) in religious school settings. This is not to say that homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia don’t exist in these traditions. Rather, what I hope my book can show is that Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faith traditions are not only homophobic, biphobic, or transphobic, and that religious school communities can draw from alternative kinds of theologies and stories in building inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ staff and students. In this sense, I hope the book can broaden educators’ theological and religious imaginations in ways that move beyond religious homophobia and transphobia as starting points for exploring sexuality and gender in religious schools.  

4. What else are you working on?

Often religious, theological, and educational discourses assume children are lacking in agency or autonomy (a lack that religion or education can then “fill” or compensate for). In light of this, I’ve started researching children and young people’s lived experiences of religion, and how these experiences can point to more empowering ways of imagining children’s agency and autonomy in religious and educational spaces. So that’s something I’ve begun to read a lot more around lately. As well as this, I’m currently working on a project with my colleague, Dr Francis Farrell, exploring how religions and worldviews education can help young people engage in civic and political issues. 

5. Where can we find out more about you?

You can find out more about me on my Edge Hill staff profile, here: https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/person/sean-henry/staff/

6. Give us one quote to whet our appetites! 

“The book aims to navigate the relationship between diverse genders, sexualities, and religious schooling in ways that are focused less on whether such antagonisms can be ‘reconciled’ or not, and more on what is made possible for us when such antagonisms rub up against their limits. Put differently, this book does not aim to neatly resolve or erase the tensions that exist between religious schooling and diverse genders and sexualities. Nor does it seek to position religious schooling within a sentimental register that downplays or trivialises the ongoing hetero-and cisnormative violences of religious communities and institutions. Rather, it seeks to showcase what can happen when such tensions are exposed to the ‘condoms and lube’ that often characterise encounters with religions.” (p. 6) 

Dr Seán Henry
Dr Seán Henry
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Spotlight! Ericka S. Dunbar

by Johanna Stiebert on

Routledge Focus Series: Rape Culture, Religion and the Bible

Ericka S. Dunbar’s book in the series is Trafficking Hadassah: Collective Trauma, Cultural Memory, and Identity in the Book of Esther and in the African Diaspora. It was first published in 2022 and is one of our best sellers. The book expounds how Africana female bodies have been and continue to be colonized and sexualized, as well as exploited for profit and pleasure. It shows how this contributes to adverse physical, mental, sexual, socio-cultural, and spiritual consequences for girls and women, and links present-day systemic violence to the canonised template in the book of Esther. 

How do you reflect back on writing your book? 

Writing my book was a process that I deeply value and appreciate. Publishing this book felt like a full circle moment. The topic is one that I started researching and writing about in seminary. I didn’t imagine then that I’d go on to do PhD work and that my senior project would inspire my dissertation, but that’s my story. The process allowed me to explore questions that had been with me since I was a little girl and to amplify the voices of women who taught me about sexual exploitation, rape culture, and intersectionality from their lived experiences. They transformed how I understood and interacted with the biblical text, so I was honored to share the impact of my engagement with these brave and resilient women with the world.

What has been the response to your book?

Extremely positive. I am pleasantly surprised that it was as well received in church settings as it has been in the academy. One of the most meaningful experiences I have had was people disclosing that the book gave them the courage to tell their own stories and inspired them to do more to transform rape cultures. 

How and where are you now and what are you doing or working on at present?

I am well. I am an Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Baylor University (Waco, Texas, USA). I am currently working on a book on migration in the Bible. I recently offered a keynote at a Migration and Food Needs Symposium where I assessed a few stories in the Hebrew Bible that depict a nexus between food insecurity and migration. These stories illuminate that there are benefits and negative consequences of migration. Moreover, an intersectional lens exposes that not everyone experiences migration and food insecurity in the same way, or to the same extent, and that women often experience disproportionately negative physiological and psychological consequences because of migration. Again, these consequences intersect with food insecurity and with rape culture (such as when they result from being trafficked and sexually exploited in order to resolve food insecurity). 

Do you have any advice for authors of future publications in this series?

The world needs to encounter your voice and unique engagement with religion and the Bible. Do the work! It’s a rewarding experience to publish a book that works towards transforming toxic cultures. 

What topics in the area of rape culture, religion and/or the Bible would you like to see a book on?

Perhaps a book on eunuchs and sexual exploitation.

Do you have a shout-out to anyone working in this general area? Please shout about them!

Rhiannon Graybill. I appreciate her latest monograph, Texts After Terror: Rape, Sexual Violence, and the Hebrew Bible. 

Ericka’s book is available from Routledge. It is out in paperback. Like the eBook version, this costs just under £16. 

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Conference: Gender and Religious Exit, Moving Away from Faith

by Chris Greenough on

Tuesday, 28 November 2023 at 9:00–17:30 

Please use this form to register to attend the online symposium: Registration – Gender and Religious Exit (onlinesurveys.ac.uk)

Organisers:
Dr Nella van den Brandt, Coventry University, UK 
Dr Teija Rantala, Turku University, Finland 
Dr Sarah-Jane Page, University of Nottingham, UK 

From the conference organisers:

There have always been reasons for people to move away from a religious tradition, community or movement. Religious traditions are instrumental in providing individual members with a perspective on the world, a community and a relationship with the divine. Religious communities socialize their adherents regarding behaviour, embodiment and emotions. When people move away from their religion, their experiences may pertain to all or some of these aspects and dimensions. Leaving religion is thus a varied and diverse experience.

The one-day online symposium Gender and Religious Exit starts from the premise that motivations for moving away from religion range from experiencing cognitive or emotional dissonance to social marginalisation to a critique of power relations. The notions of ‘moving away’ or ‘religious exit’ should be considered in a layered and nuanced manner: they raise questions about what exactly individuals consider to leave, and what elements of behaviour, embodiment and emotions remain part of their environments, lives and futures. 

Moving away from religion can thus involve complex processes and negotiations of all areas of life and understandings of the self. An intersectional perspective and analysis of leaving religious is long overdue, since notions and experiences of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race and dis/ability are central in shaping identity and the self. The multidisciplinary symposium invites scholars to investigate the variety of contemporary dynamics of leaving religion in the lives of individuals and communities.

During the opening plenary session, research findings will be presented that emerged from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie funded two-year qualitative research by Dr Nella van den Brandt (Coventry University, UK) on women leaving religion in the UK and the Netherlands. Keynote lectures on gender, feminism, apostasy and non-religion / leaving religion in various national and cultural contexts will be provided by Dr Julia Martínez-Ariño (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands) and  Prof. Dr Karin van Nieuwkerk (Radboud University, the Netherlands). During parallel sessions, we will further look into current international and intersectional perspectives on moving away from religion.

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The Bible and Violence Project: Meet Joseph N. Goh

by Chris Greenough on
Picture of Joseph N. Goh credited to Puah Sze Ning

Joseph N. Goh (he/they/any) hails from Sarawak, Malaysia, and joined the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia in January 2016.  Currently a Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies, Goh’s first single-authored monograph entitled Living Out Sexuality and Faith: Body Admissions of Malaysian Gay and Bisexual Men (Routledge 2018) was based on his doctoral project. It analyses and theorises the self-understandings of gay and bisexual men of various ethnicities, classes, ages and faiths on their gender and sexual identities and practices, and their performances of religiosity and spirituality. His second book, Becoming a Malaysian Trans Man: Gender, Society, Body and Faith (Palgrave Macmillan 2020), was the first dedicated academic volume on Malaysian transgender men, and won the ‘Ground-Breaking Subject Matter Accolade’ in the IBP 2021 Accolades in the Social Sciences category of the ICAS Book Prize 2021 competition. His third sole-authored volume, Doing Church at the Amplify Open and Affirming Conferences: Queer Ecclesiologies in Asia (Palgrave Macmillan 2021), was the first in-depth theological study of a series of Christian conferences in Asia by and for LGBTIQ-affirming churches, communities, organisations and individuals. Goh has also co-edited several anthologies with Robert E. Shore-Goss, Hugo Córdova Quero, Michael Sepidoza Campos, Sharon A. Bong and Thaatchaayini Kananatu. He is a member of the Emerging Queer Asian Pacific Islander Religion Scholars international group (EQARS), and sits on the advisory board of the Queer Asia Book Series (Hong Kong University Press), as well as the editorial boards of the Queer and Trans Intersections Series (University of Wales Press) and QTR: A Journal of Queer and Transgender Studies in Religion (Duke University Press).

Goh, along with his collaborators, was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Diversity and Inclusion Award (2018) and Pro-Vice Chancellor’s Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion Award (2022) for the development of the Understanding Gender Inclusivity in Malaysia training module at Monash University Malaysia, which serves to create greater awareness of the issues, needs and concerns of LGBTIQ people in the interest of equity, diversity and inclusion. With research interests in LGBTIQ studies, human rights, sexual health, theology, spirituality, religion, and qualitative research, Goh’s two present projects focus on the complex and controversial operations of SEED Malaysia, the first transgender-led community-based organisation in Malaysia, and the manifold spiritualities of Malaysian Christian transgender women.

Goh’s contribution to The Bible and Violence Project is a book chapter entitled ‘A Triptych of Biblical Violence Towards Gay and Transgender Christians: The Case of Malaysia’. Cognisant of the multifarious ways in which the Bible continues to be weaponised against people of diverse genders and sexualities in his home country, Goh argues that there are three parallel and mutually interactive dynamics in the production of Christian violence against LGBTQ Malaysians: (i) official Bible-based ecclesiastical pronouncements against gender and sexual diversities; (ii) scriptural de-legitimisations of gay and transgender people as personally experienced in churches and faith communities; and (iii) insidious practices of conversion therapy. He demonstrates how non-affirming Malaysian Christianity galvanises and preserves the vulnerability of LGBTQ Malaysians, branded as ‘sexually broken’, with far-reaching consequences beyond the immediate use of the Bible as ‘sacred’ arsenal.

Goh owns a personal website at https://www.josephgoh.org/

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Q&A with Joachim Kügler about his new book

by Johanna Stiebert on

There is a new volume in the Routledge Focus series ‘Rape Culture, Religion and the Bible’! The title is Zeus Syndrome: A Very Short History of Religion-Based Masculine Domination, and the author is Joachim Kügler, who has featured earlier on the blog as one of our 2019 activists (see here).

Tell us about yourself. How does this book fit into your work more widely and how did you come to write this book?

I am a professor of New Testament studies with particular interest in religious history and topics of gender. Alongside this, I am also an ordained priest of the Catholic Church, and I am upset and outraged about the many scandals of clerical sexual abuse. This book has grown out of a decision to use my academic skills to find some answers to how such abuse happens – not only in the Church but in multiple social spheres. My first step was to go to the Egyptian and biblical source materials that I knew and to investigate the intersections of masculine domination, sexuality, and religion. I try to inform readers beyond the inner circle of academia to better understand what is going on and why. 

What is the key argument of your book?

The key argument is that we have to overcome masculine supremacy if we want to create a new kind of sexuality that serves as a language of love. As long as sexual activities and symbolisms primarily reflect and promote dominant masculine power and the submissiveness and subordination of women and of men who are symbolically feminized, we will continue to see rape culture phenomena at the core of our social interactions.

Please give us a quotation from the book that will make readers want to go and read the rest.

My quotation is on the perils associated with sexuality: “Penetration in particular is often deployed as a body-sacrament of masculine domination, and as a means to subjugate women (and men). But the generalized demonization of sexuality cultivated by Christianity under Platonist influence is no solution; it is even part of the problem.”

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New Book: ‘Boys Will Be Boys, and Other Myths: Unravelling Biblical Masculinities’ by Will Moore

by Will Moore on
Book cover of 'Boys will be Boys and other myths' by Will Moore

The Shiloh Project caught up with Will Moore, to discuss his new book Boys Will Be Boys, and Other Myths: Unravelling Biblical Masculinities, with SCM Press.

Hi Will, tell us a bit about you. 

Hello! My name is Will Moore. I’m an ordinand (training to be a priest!) in the Church of England at Westcott House in Cambridge, and will be beginning a PhD in September with the Cambridge Theological Federation and Anglia Ruskin University, focussing on constructing a trauma theology of masculinities under the supervision of the fantastic Dr Karen O’Donnell. I’ve also studied for previous degrees with Cardiff University. And, of course, I should say that I’m the author of Boys Will Be Boys, and Other Myths: Unravelling Biblical Masculinities, published by SCM Press.

How did this book come about and how does it relate to your work and interests and passions more widely? 

During the final months of my MTh degree, I completed my dissertation which focussed on using queer theory and theology to resolve a seeming tension of divine masculinities, particularly looking at God and Jesus, in the Bible. (A much-reduced version was later published with the Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies.) During this time, the coronavirus pandemic began and I was stuck inside my university home for more than I had planned. Having been captivated by masculinity studies, and with my final dissertation completed earlier than expected, I let my brain keep on thinking and I continued to write. I knew the insights of masculinity studies needed to break into the popular and accessible Christian imagination, as feminist theology had done in recent decades, and I thought this might be the perfect opportunity for where such a process could begin. 

My previous work has been mostly focussed on gender, sexuality, and violence, and how they intersect with the Bible and Christianity. Some of this has taken a particularly academic shape, but as someone working in and with the Church, I have always valued theological work being accessible and meaningful for Christian communities. This book, then, combines my commitment for academic rigour as well as theological accessibility with my research interests.

Can you tell us more about the title, and about “unravelling biblical masculinities”?

The title ‘Boys Will Be Boys, and Other Myths’ sets the structure and main argument of the book. Each chapter uses a biblical man (from Adam and Moses to Jesus and his disciples) as a springboard for conversation around masculinities, in the biblical worlds as well as for modern readers. It tackles myths of masculinity such as men’s presumed entitlement to power and authority, the necessity to endure without any sign of vulnerability, their inability to express emotion or talk about mental health difficulties, and a reluctance to show intimacy towards other men. Such myths of masculinity seem to persist through so many times and cultures.

What is clear throughout this book is that masculinity, or more accurately masculinities in their plurality, are not and cannot be clear cut. They are slippery, messy, and tangled up in so many other wider conversations. As such, the subtitle ‘unravelling biblical masculinities’ acknowledges that there are no definitive answers to understanding masculinities in the Bible and modern world for Christians. This book is simply an attempt to begin to ‘unravel’ and untangle some of the key characters, themes, issues, and interpretations that are on offer – this unravelling is certainly not exhaustive. Instead, I hope my contribution is the beginning of a wider conversation on men and masculinities at a grass-roots level for Christians and church communities. 

What are the key arguments of your book? 

As well as tackling myths of masculinity outlined above, the central claim I make is that masculinities are just that: a plurality of gender performativities (as Judith Butler would have it). Within that plurality, there is so much breadth and diversity. We can see that in the societies around us, as well as even in the biblical texts. There is no singular way to be a man that is coherently proposed in the Bible; rather, we find that God takes, uses, and adores men just as they are. Therefore, the claim that we should enact a ‘biblical’ or ‘Christian’ masculinity or manhood is a tricky and dangerous one to make, for masculinities in the Bible and Christian living are too complex and intricate to be pinned down to one particular way of being. If we acknowledge this, we are invited to read scripture again and see the flawed, troubled, and trying men in our Bibles staring back at us and reflecting much of what it means to be men today too.

Image of Will Moore
Will Moore, author of ‘Boys Will Be Boys and Other Myths’

Who is the book for and what would you like your readers to take away from reading your book? 

My book aims to be as useful to undergraduate and postgraduate university students looking into the application of gender studies in theology and biblical studies as it should be for Christians, church leaders, and intrigued spiritual wanderers. It’s a broad readership to try to cater for, but I hope my book contains as much scholarly insight as it does personal stories, popular culture, and humour!

I have always said that not everything in this book will please everyone, but I hope that each reader has something that they can take away. In honesty, I expect that this book might shake up at least one myth or misconception about masculinity or the Bible that the reader might hold – it might not give them the solution that they are looking for but will perhaps provoke them enough to search further.

What activities do you have to promote the book? 

I’m excited to say I have lots of speaking and media appearances coming up to talk about the book which you can find on my website or Twitter, but I’m most looking forward to the two wings of my book launch. One will be held in St John the Baptist church in Cardiff on Fri 9th Sept at 7pm and another in Cambridge (and on Zoom) on the 5th Oct at 7pm. I will be in conversation with a different set of scholars and practitioners at each event and I can’t wait to meet others intrigued in the book. Copies will also be available to buy on the nights. Free tickets for both events can be reserved on Eventbrite (see links here and here). 

Give us a short excerpt from the book that will make us want to go read more! 

This is from my introduction:

 “Phrases like ‘boys will be boys’ have reverberated around the walls of school halls, family homes, locker rooms, and courts of law for far too many years in British society, with their justification wearing a little thin. In a country where seven times more men are arrested for crimes than women, unhealthy traits found in modern masculinities have caused men to inflict violence on those close to them as well as their surrounding communities. Yet, simultaneously, an inward bound violence to manhood and men themselves is being perpetrated, where three times as many men are committing suicide than women. Toxic masculinity in modern Western society is a poison which, whilst infecting those who encounter it, is crippling the very hosts that keep it in circulation. Men truly have become their ‘own worst enemies’.”

What’s next for you?

I’m excited to begin my PhD in September, as well as continue my ordination training for two more years before beginning ordained ministry. I hope to keep following my two-fold calling of ministry and theological education – who knows in what form! This book coming about was such a surprise to me, that I can honestly never guess what’s in store next.

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Bye Bye Binary: God as Mother-Bear

by Sara Stone on

Sara Stone is a first-year PhD student at the University of Glasgow looking at blame-shifting in the Hebrew Bible. Her MLitt dissertation, also looking at blame-shifting in the Hebrew Bible, has recently been published as a book chapter in: Zanne Domoney-Lyttle and Sarah Nicholson (eds.), Women and Gender in the Bible: Texts, Intersections and Intertexts (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2021, see here). 

Sara can be found on Twitter: @wordsfromastone. Her earlier Shiloh post (on shifting blame in Genesis 3:12) can be found here.

Images of God as a maternal deity are sprinkled throughout Jewish and Christian writings, such as God as birth-giver (Isa. 42:14), God as a comforting mother (Isa. 66:13) and God as nursing (Hos. 11:4).[1] However, Hosea 13:8a depicts God as mother-bear – ‘I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs and will tear open the covering of their heart…’.[2] Hosea 13:8a portraying God as a ferocious mother-bear is a verse that contrasts with the usual depictions of a calm and compassionate mother. 

The purpose of this post is to explore what the description of divine ‘mother-bear’ entails, its significance, and to consider some of the ramifications of overlooking Hosea 13:8a. Ultimately, I argue that Hosea 13:8a is a verse that takes the traditional images of ‘feminine’ (i.e., soft, nurturing and gentle) and adds them to (‘masculine’?) images of violence, strength and power – an all-loving, fierce and ferocious mother-bear. 

‘God as Mother-Bear’ is a striking image that breaks down the typical ‘mother’ stereotype which culture-bound preconceptions dictate, and the imagery used further blurs the gender binary that society has established, particularly regarding parental roles.

Hosea 13:8a is not the only place where the description of a mother-bear appears in the biblical text; it occurs three other times: at 2 Samuel 17:8, 2 Kings 2:24 and Proverbs 17:12. Notably, in all instances where the depiction of a mother-bear appears, it is a portrait of rampaging fury – including in Hosea 13:8a. 

Initially, when the idea to examine Hosea 13:8a first came about, I intended to explore how commentators had previously interpreted the verse. However, I was surprised to discover that little has been mentioned about the arguable significance of ‘God as Mother-Bear’. There were a couple of comments regarding the idea that Hosea 13:8a is a portrayal of God’s rage (see Stuart, 1987: 204; Davies, 1992: 291), but nothing substantial; and in a lot of other commentaries, the image has been overlooked altogether.[3] The silence surrounding God’s illustration as mother-bear raises the question of why interpreters find the imagery so insignificant, and what are the benefits of highlighting the significance of the imagery now?

So, what does the depiction of a mother-bear entail? In pre-modern times, the Syrian bear was fairly common (see King, 1988). We can also assume that the ancient Israelites were aware that the bear was a dangerous animal, due to references to it in the biblical text.[4] Notably, one may see that Amos 5:19a – ‘as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear’ – is equivalent to the idiomatic expression ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’. When bear imagery is utilised in the biblical text it points to violence and power and is usually in conjunction with a lion. Hosea 13:8a is no exception to this as Hosea 13:8b depicts God as a lion – ‘…there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild animal would mangle them’. Allegedly, the lion is less of a threat than the bear, because the behaviour of a lion is more predictable (see King, 1988: 127). 

Indeed, Hosea 13:8a depicts the mother-bear (God) as profoundly attached to her bear cubs (the people). But because God is bereaved of human gratitude, he turns in rage on those who have ‘robbed [her] of her cubs’ and withheld thankfulness. Virginia R. Mollenkott (2014: 50) states that the image in Hosea 13:8a projects internal ripping and tearing, and captures the bitter sensations associated with fragmentation and alienation from the ‘Source of our being’. In other words, when one allows oneself to become ungrateful for the gift of life and liberty (as Hosea 13 describes), one proverbially feels torn to pieces. 

Mollenkott (2014: 51) also notes that the bear is associated with the constellation Ursa Major – a constellation that never sets. Therefore, the imagery used in Hosea 13:8a could also be associated with the constant watchfulness of God-the-Mother-Bear. So, ‘God as Mother-Bear’ can depict his/her/their omnipotence and be understood to connote God’s omniscience, alongside being proverbial for his/her/their rage. 

While there is not a wealth of scholarship about what it means to be described as a mother-bear in the Bible, I argue that the significance of the imagery used in Hosea 13:8a is compelling. The Bible is hugely patriarchal and has been used time and time again to reinforce gender role stereotypes, historically and currently. The image of God as Mother-Bear is an image which breaks down the stereotypes that are usually associated with how a woman, particularly a mother, should behave. 

Tikva Frymer-Kensky (1992: 164) notes that the concept of parental roles tends to assign attributes and behaviours according to ‘gender lines’ and gender binaries. For example, culture-bound preconceptions encourage a person to think of ‘the father’ as authoritarian and punitive and ‘the mother’ as compassionate and/or nurturing. So, it is unsurprising to see that interpreters have the tendency to label the passages in which God expresses compassion and nurture as ‘mother passages’, and passages where God expresses judgement or pronounces punishments as ‘father passages’ (Frymer-Kensky, 1992: 164). 

But it is not the biblical text that assigns these rigid categories: it is the gendered thinking of the reader, or the set of assumptions determining parental roles that does so. However, Hosea 13:8a does not fit neatly into the stereotypical boxes of what is considered a ‘mother’ passage or a ‘father’ passage; it does not fit neatly into traditional gendered thinking. 

Maybe this is one factor contributing to the oversight of Hosea 13:8a. Does the verse sit uncomfortably for interpreters, so it is easier to bypass the verse than to engage with it? It is worth remembering when questioning the oversight of Hosea 13:8a that the biblical text has been subject to centuries worth of patriarchal interpretation.

Where feminized metaphor is concerned, the depiction of an infuriated female God has never achieved the same popularity as the gentler, more sentimental imagery of God as a ‘loving and self-sacrificial’ Mother (Mollenkott, 2014: 51-52). Centuries worth of patriarchal interpretation of the biblical text continuously associate female God images with the stereotypical feminine image of nurture and supportiveness – imagery which better fits the culture-bound preconceptions of gender norms. 

However, Frymer-Kensky (1992: 164) notes that God-as-parent transcends gendered thinking, because the same parent is ‘both judgmental and compassionate, punitive and emotional’. In other words, God is beyond the culture-bound preconceptions that we have created for ourselves. Yet, we are insistent in making passages regarding God-as-parent ‘black and white’ so that they can fit into a neat little binary box. God-as-parent transcends the gendered thinking behind parental roles, and Hosea 13:8a blurs the gender binary which culture-bound preconceptions have assigned. 

Indeed, our culture-bound preconceptions have assigned the father as punitive and the mother as nurturing. In Hosea 13:8a, however, both these parental qualities are exhibited together. The ‘mother-like’ nurturing quality is expressed through the image of a female-bear protecting her young, and the ‘father-like’ punitive quality is expressed through the gruesome image of God the Bear ‘tear[ing] open the covering of their heart’. 

Caroline W. Bynum (1982: 225-226) states that, ‘fathers feed and console, as do mothers: mothers teach, as do fathers; the full range of such images applies both to God and to self’. This reiterates the idea that God is capable of being both mother and father, he/she/they can possess multiple parental qualities. 

Ultimately, Hosea 13: 8a portrays an image illustrating the fury of God. However, by looking at the verse in more depth, we can see that the verse can show us more than simply describing the rage of God. It is a verse that can break down stereotypes, blur gender binaries, and illustrate that God can be both mother and father simultaneously. Hosea 13:8a takes the traditional images of ‘feminine’ (i.e., soft, nurturing, and gentle) and adds them to imagery of violence, strength, and power – portraying God as an all-loving, fierce, and ferocious mother-bear.

References

Bynum, Caroline W. (1982). Jesus as Mother. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Davies, G. I. (1982). The New Century Bible Commentary: Hosea. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdsmans Publishing Company/London: Marshall Pickering.

Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. (1992). In the Wake of Goddesses: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth. New York: Fawcett Columbine.

King, Philip J. (1988). Amos, Hosea, Micah – An Archaeological Commentary. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 

Mollenkott, Virginia R. (2014) [1984]. The Divine Feminine: The Biblical Imagery of God as Female. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers.

Stuart, Douglas. (1987). World Biblical Commentary: Volume 31, Hosea – Jonah. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[1] The title of this post took inspiration from an episode of Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness (2022) on Netflix, titled ‘Can we say Bye-Bye to the Binary?’.

[2] Biblical quotations follow the NRSV.

[3] This post is based on an essay I wrote as part of my MLitt degree. Due to various factors, I have been unable to go back and recall which commentaries overlooked the image of God as mother-bear at Hosea 13:8a. On reflection, noting which of the commentaries overlook the bear would have been helpful as part of my research and for this post.

[4] For example, 1 Sam. 17:34, 36-37; 2 Sam. 17:8; Amos 5:19; Is. 11:7; Prov. 28:15; Lam. 3:10; Rev. 13:2.

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Terror in the Bible: Rhetoric, Gender, and Violence

by Robyn Whitacker on

Dr Robyn Whitaker is Coordinator of Studies – New Testament at Pilgrim Theological College and Senior Lecturer within the University of Divinity. She specialises in the Book of Revelation with particular attention to the visual culture in which the text emerged and the visual rhetoric of biblical literature. Robyn frequently writes on issues relating to gender, sexuality, politics, and the Bible in popular and mainstream media outlets. Here she discusses her new book, which she has co-edited with Dr Monica Melanchthon.

We are thrilled to have Terror in the Bible: Rhetoric, Gender, and Violence out in print with SBL press. This volume of essays builds upon the iconic world of Phyllis Trible, whose Texts of Terror was ground-breaking for naming the terror of gendered violence in the biblical text and reclaiming women’s voices and perspectives in the text.

Our volume emerged from a conference organised by the Australian Collaborators in Feminist Theologies in 2018. We asked speakers to reflect on the state of biblical scholarship and what has changed in the almost 40 years since Texts of Terror was published. Some presented readings of texts not covered in Trible’s book including passages from the New Testament. Others re-examined some of the passages she addressed but with new perspectives. To those conference papers we added further essays from those unable to be present that day.

What has emerged is a wonderfully diverse collection of essays that engages intersectionally with the issues of gendered violence in the biblical text. These intersectional lenses bring economic concerns, caste, ethnicity, domestic violence, and queer perspectives, to name a few, into conversation with more traditional feminist hermeneutics. For example, Jione Havea writes letters that explore Pasifika perspectives when it comes to daughters’ land rights;  Karen Eller reads Numbers as a queer Australian; Gerald West draws upon African women’s experiences; and Monica Melanchthon reads Judges from the perspective of the Indian caste system. Others take more historical approaches. Adela Yarbro Collins traces the evidence for women’s leadership in early Christianity and describes the silencing of such women and evidence for them as a kind of terror.  Several essays also give attention to the roles men play in these stories as either perpetrators, bystanders, or allies with implications for contemporary men to consider.

As the volume took shape, we asked Phyllis Trible if she would consider writing a foreword. I will be forever grateful she said yes as her work informs so much of the book and many of us feel indebted to her.

As one of the editors, it was a rewarding experience to work with both well-established scholars and to incorporate the work of emerging scholars.  Not only do these essays demonstrate the kind of insights that can emerge from being intersectional, they also break down the divide between biblical scholarship and justice-making by reading the text with an eye to contemporary issues that plague society, such as domestic violence or economic slavery.

My hope is that those who often find themselves on the margins of “traditional” biblical scholarship or the church may find something of their experience reflected in these essays. No volume is ever perfect though. I’m conscious that we do not have the voices of indigenous Australians nor those who work in the area of disability. Both would add enormous value.

I end with a quote from the introduction to the book:

“This book challenges readers to recognize how the Bible and its interpretations can reinforce the structures that underlie and renew systems of violence – systems that marginalize, dehumanize, and subjugate. While it seeks to raise awareness and engender resistance among those who are victims of violence, it also, on normative grounds, questions those who perpetrate  and perpetuate violence. In doing so, this book is a modest but critical endeavor that seeks to assign political participation and agency to biblical studies and interpretation, rarely recognized or allowed an interventionalist role in everyday life.”

Please note, you can order paperback and hardcopies of the book from SBL press (there is currently a discount for SBL members).  The ebook is available for free download to make it as accessible as possible.

Terror in the Bible: Rhetoric, Gender, and Violence, ed. M. Melanchthon and R. Whitaker  (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2021)

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