Fairer Sex—fair enough?
The latest Grove Biblical booklet is by Dr Richard Briggs, Lecturer in Old Testament at the Academy of Durham and Director of Biblical Studies at Cranmer Hall. The title is Fairer Sex activityand the blurb runs equally follows:
The church building is often defendant of being obsessed with sex—and contemporary discussion is frequently contentious and has a very narrow focus. But Scripture has a lot more to say nigh sexual practice, beloved and gender relations. In this fascinating and engaging study, nosotros encounter a spiritual reading of some well-known episodes in the Old Attestation which have surprising and hitting relevance to the wider questions we confront today.
This review of the booklet is past John Grayston, former Managing director of Theology and Hermeneutics at Scripture Union. The chief virtue of the review is that it makes no mention of tribunals, clergy bailiwick or bishops' guidelines. I think it has another merits as well…
Discussions about the Bible and sex take arguably reached an impasse; all too often what purport to exist new insights are merely the old arguments repeated, and not always in new ways. So does Fairer Sexual activity have anything new to offering? I think it does. Richard Briggs' thesis that a wider range of texts needs to inform the give-and-take may open fresh possibilities.
Who, for example, would start a discussion on the Bible and sex activity with Samson and Delilah? But if, as he suggests, the (ab)use of sexual activity either as domination or manipulation leads to the decision that 'sex makes a rubbish god', much contemporary thinking on sexuality is subverted. Our debates are besides often predicated on the assumption that sex is a right rather than a souvenir. When a word of Ruth focuses not on Ruth and Boaz (and at that place was I wanting a definitive answer as to what was, or was not, going on at the threshing floor) but on the notoriously difficult to translate Hebrew chesed and the human relationship betwixt Ruth and Naomi, we are encouraged to think nearly loyalty and commitment – to the other and to God – before we ever commencement to think about sexual practice.
And so there is at least the possibility of another way. But at that place is something of equal interest here – the way in which the texts are handled.
They … deserve attention in a way that does not lock them up in the technical world of Old Testament specialists. So I have tried to write what might be thought of equally a series of spiritual readings.
Now, it may but be because I take spent so much of my life involved in i capacity or another in the production of daily Bible reading notes that I find this so congenial. But is information technology non what those of the states who handle Scripture calendar week past week are about—bringing an ancient text to life in our world in ways that are life giving and life changing? Here we have four models that in their freshness and creativy are in ways that are challenging and suggestive. The text and its world and the readers and their world are taken seriously. The technical stuff is not neglected. Only there is added extra and I suspect that what makes the difference is that Richard as well has in his hermeneutical tool bag two tools that are sometimes in short supply – imagination and sense of humor.
I shall never view Jephthah in the aforementioned way again. Nosotros travel with him in his stagecoach (?), as he exults in his Spirit-empowered victory over the Ammonites and envisages all the future possibilities it opens up, but with a vow 'weighing heavy on his eye'. Nosotros are invited to enter the story and relive the emotions and the questions and to experience the darkness of the narrative. We are reassured that 'when we discover ourselves in those darkest places', 'holy Scripture is there ahead of us'. By the way, when did you last hear a sermon on Jephthah? When did yous last preach a sermon on Jephthah? Of class, nosotros believe all Scripture is inspired and useful, but… Users of the lectionary are excused this implied criticism equally, surprise, surprise, Judges 11 does not announced (actually from what I tin can run into there is only one reading from Judges in the three years).
Imagination enables us to see the bloodied-canvas-as-proof-of virginity, as 'some kind of protection for the woman' on the grounds that it could be easily faked – at least in a world which knew goose egg of DNA tests. This is not to take the text of Deuteronomy lightly just to view it from a different identify. We are encouraged to interrogate the text from different angles and are permitted to come up with some unexpected answers. Nosotros are reminded that we are in the world of legal judgment rather than romantic love. While we expect to become into an examination of the fabric on sex, we are entertained with a discussion on weights and measures.
Humour abounds throughout; Richard expresses a business organization that discussion of sex in our world is also oftentimes left to the stand-up comedians, and he seems adamant to play them at their ain game. While we have seen a resurgence of involvement in Christians and humor – only last calendar week LICC ran an interview with Milton Jones and the BBC had a prune of a Christian comic – probably almost of us notwithstanding find sermons humourless. This seems something of a shame given that Jesus was pretty expert at it, and 1 of the all-time ways of dethroning simulated gods is laughter. Not everyone will enjoy the humour of Fairer Sex activity – some may even detect it as well brassy – but information technology has to exist better than some of the bland fare that is regularly dished up.
To earth the text in a different world requires immersion in a range of cultures, and I am in awe of the breadth of cultural references. Ally McBeal ('Samson is a man who thinks with his dumbstick') and John Milton are reference within the space of vii lines, with sleeping accommodation farce, Tom Jones and Sweeney Todd sandwiched in betwixt. Try that in next Sunday'due south sermon!
Now a confession; I feel something of a fraud. This being a review I feel the need to provide something critical, just can't. At that place is merely as well much to similar. It opens upwards new possibilities in our thinking almost the Bible's wisdom on sex and relationships. It provides four models of imaginative, creative, earthed (and sometimes earthy) explorations of the text. But allow Richard Briggs have the last word himself, 'A loving reader takes time to heed, reflect, and engage respectfully. A hermeneutic of love may be an altogether worthwhile Christian goal.' Yes!
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