Sandra Hack Polaski introduces readers to the letters and world of Paul, encouraging a critical appreciation of Paul and his writings that does not require a choice between commitment to the scriptures and integrity as a modern feminist. In conversation with the leading interpreters of Paul and considering possible responses to Paul-conformist, resistant, rejectionist, and transformational-Polaski forges her own theory of how to interpret Paul. She reads, emphasizes, and reinterprets overlooked, neglected, misintegrated, or differently interpreted Pauline texts, making visible the invisible and challenging the accepted readings. Polaski uncovers both the ideologies behind the text and the ideologies the text seeks to suppress. She traces the trajectories toward which the texts point even if Paul did not fully follow the trajectories to their logical end. Such a program leads Polaski to find God's New Creation as the operative center of Pauline thought.
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"True to its title, this very readable and well-informed book is ideal for introducing students to Paul, his world, and his churches, and to the diversity of interpretations of Paul's letters through the centuries and in recent scholarship. Because of its explicit concerns for an ethics of biblical interpretation, this book puts before the readers of Paul the many interpretive choices that they have by showing the diversity of views of scripture, of feminist perspectives and strategies, and of scholarly readings of key Pauline texts. Because of this most remarkable feature of the book, the readers of Paul are in a position to recognize the choices they have implicitly made and to assume responsibility for their interpretations, hopefully by adopting a liberating interpretation." -Daniel Patte, Vanderbilt University "This is a wonderful, thoughtful, balanced yet provocative book. It sparkles with insight and brims over with passion-not for Paul's letters as they have often been read, not even for those letters as Paul may have wanted them to be read, but for the possibilities they open if we are attentive to the 'growing edges' of Paul's theology and explore where those trajectories can take us and the church today." -Jouette Bassler, Perkins School of Theology
About the Author
Sandra Hack Polaski is associate professor of New Testament at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and an ordained Baptist minister. She holds the M.Div. degree from Vanderbilt Divinity School and the Ph.D. degree from Duke University.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting read,
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This review is from: A Feminist Introduction to Paul (Paperback)
I had to read this for seminary, and it is a much better academic take on Paul than the title might suggest. I was initially skeptical, thinking this work was going to be another feminist rant against Paul the apostle. What I found unique about it was that the work was largely in favor and sympathetic of Paul and his Theology, while still coming from a feminist lens.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Uncovering Paul in a feminist perspective,
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This review is from: A Feminist Introduction to Paul (Paperback)
Paul's letters and the letters in the Pauline tradition are hard for feminists to read. How are modern women supposed to take injunctions for women to not speak in church, to not teach or have authority over men, and to be subject to their husbands, while at the same time, and sometimes in the same letters, figure out what Paul means when he discusses how women should pray and prophesy, acknowledges without comment female workers in Christ (including a deacon and at least one apostle), and states in the Galations baptismal formula that we are neither male and female, but all are one in Christ Jesus?Often, the solutions either are to privilege the verses that demean women, and "put them in their place," or to read them so much in their context that we fail to see any use for them in today's society. In truth, if all scripture is "inspired," then we have to wrestle with these texts, reading them both in context and in what they might mean today. Sandra Polaski manages to balance that line. For example, while she suggests Paul was a creature of his day, she points out that Paul the man was more complicated than many scholars are willing to recognize--he was both Jewish and at home with Greek rhetoric. Further, the roles of women in Jewish and Roman societies were more complicated than often given credit, that women did indeed sometimes have at least limited leadership roles. Overall, Polawski makes two points that I was able to take away from this work, and for which I can recommend the book. First, througout Paul's rhetoric is the idea of "new creation." Whatever that looks like, we are all part of it, and as we are one in Christ, we are one body, with many diverse parts. And "birthing" this new creation requires an understanding of the feminine as well as the masculine of God, and of us. Second, we can extrapolate that, if Paul's main concernw was equality between Jew and Greet, that both can be equally saved in God's new kin-dom, we too can work to bring about equality in our spheres of concern and calling: racial equality, gender equality, sexual orientation equality, etc. Polawski comes out and says not everyone will agree with her conclusions, and that's okay. I like that she says her way of reading Paul is not the only way. But, particularly for those who struggle with where Paul stands on female equality, this is a good place to start to draw one's own conclusions.
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