Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 37:4 (Autumn 2023)
Article: Book Review: "Voices Long Silenced: Women Biblical Interpreters Through The Centuries" By Joy A. Schroeder & Marion Ann Taylor (Westminster John Knox Press, 2022)
Author: Kimberly Dickson

Book Review:
Voices Long Silenced: Women Biblical Interpreters Through The Centuries By Joy A. Schroeder & Marion Ann Taylor (Westminster John Knox Press, 2022)

Kimberly Dickson

Kimberly Dickson has worked in the Middle East, East Africa, India, and in her home state of California, working with communities and families to bring the marginalized, especially women, into the center of decision making. She is studying an MA in Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary to better understand the Judeo-Christian faith’s perspectives on women. Kimberly is co-host of CBE International’s Mutuality Matters podcast segment, “Global Impact: Egalitarian Activism and Human Flourishing

Though my bookcase is lined with collections highlighting women leaders, interpreters, and scholars from ancient Israel through to the 21st century, I had yet to come upon such a well-researched, dense-yet-readable volume as Voices Long Silenced: Women Biblical Interpreters Through the Centuries. Joy Schroeder and Marion Ann Taylor have meticulously researched each woman, mining primary sources to allow the women, when possible, to make their own interpretive arguments in their own voice. And not only do Schroeder and Taylor cover the Western church, but they also cover Latin American interpreters, Native Americans, slaves and freed-women. These unique voices deepen and expand scriptural understanding. Predictably, the reception of each woman’s work depended on her historical context, of which Schroeder and Taylor provide detailed descriptions. These ranged from enthusiasm, to male allies promoting the women’s work, to resistance, to confiscation of libraries and all written works, to persecution, to burning at the stake.

As a reader, I could not help but be impressed by the many accounts of women’s courage as they defied traditional male interpretations to defend the inherent value of women, women’s intellect, and their contributions to theology. Schroeder and Taylor trace many women who saw the link between biblical patriarchy and slavery, and who thus became outspoken abolitionists. That said, hypocritical racism and unanalyzed cultural biases remained in many of these same women interpreters, and Taylor and Schroeder do not hide it. They comment on the hypocrisy in Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s racism. They show how Spanish nuns in Latin America opposed slavery, not because they rejected the idea of treating slaves as property, but because they rejected the idea of owning property at all. They point out the outright antisemitism embraced by European women interpreters even while they themselves were being persecuted. Schroeder and Taylor’s inclusion of the interpretive voices of Black women who had been enslaved in America provide welcome voices and corrections to the western church’s racism and antisemitism—Sojourner Truth...