Phyllis Trible is Baldwin Professor Emerita of Sacred Literature at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. The author of influential works such as God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality and Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives, Trible specializes in literary and rhetorical analysis of biblical texts from a feminist perspective. B. Diane Lipsett is Assistant Professor of Religion at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Specializing in literary analysis of early Christian texts, Lipsett is the author of Desiring Conversion: Hermas, Thecla, Aseneth.

"This volume, edited by two scholars known for their close reading and graceful writing about religious texts, comes at an important time: when people of faith committed to the full humanity of all wo/men, but separated both by different religious traditions and by the distance between our countries and continents, need resources for igniting conversations with each other. Though it includes important work by senior scholars in Christian feminist and womanist theological circles, the contributions of the emerging scholars in these pages will do at least as much to move these conversations forward. Feminists who situate themselves within Christian communities will do well to study long and hard the contributions from Muslim feminist scholars featured here. North American readers will learn much from those who offer their contributions from the other continents. Let the conversations, contentions and disclosure go forward." -Shelly Matthews, Professor of New Testament, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University "This book offers a stunning new horizon for insights, through feminist lenses, into the meanings of religious faith and the liberating appeal of genuine moral imperatives. Scholarly and practical doors are opened by the interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, ecumenical, and interfaith conversations that are advanced by these essays. The volume as a whole is elegant and reader-friendly. It will transform the minds and hearts of those, both women and men, who enter into its riches." -Margaret A. Farley, Gilbert L. Stark Professor Emerita of Christian Ethics, Yale University Divinity School

• PrefaceContributorsChapter 1 Testimonies in TonguesB. Diane Lipsett and Phyllis TriblePart One Biblical StudiesChapter 2 The Dilemma of DominionPhyllis TribleChapter 3 From Pawn to Selfhood: The Character LeahWilma Ann BaileyChapter 4 Folklore, Feminism, and the Ambiguity of PowerWomen's Voice in Genesis?Susan NiditchChapter 5 The Journey of a Girl Who Talks Back: Mark's Syropheonician WomanHisako KinukawaChapter 6 Sacraments of Friendship: Embodied Love in the Gospel of JohnGail R. O'DayPart Two Inter-religious VenturesChapter 7 Learning in the Presence of the Other:Feminisms and the Interreligious EncounterMary C. BoysChapter 8 Speaking from Behind the Veil: Does Islamic Feminism Exist?Hibba AbugideiriChapter 9 The Emergence of Muslim American FeminismYvonne Yazbeck HaddadChapter 10 Sarah and Hagar: A Feminist European Perspective on Actual ControversiesUlrike BechmannChapter 11 The Women of Jericho: Dramatization as Feminist HermeneuticsUlrike BechmannPart Three Theology and EthicsChapter 12 Ecological Theology in Women's VoicesElizabeth A. JohnsonChapter 13 Daily Life Challenges as the Criterion for Biblical and Feminist Theological HermeneuticsIvone GebaraChapter 14 Do You Understand What You Are Reading? African Women's Reading of the Bible and the Ethos of Contemporary Christianity in AfricaMercy Amba OduyoyeChapter 15 With Running Mouth and Hands on Hips: Saphire and the Moral ImaginationEmilie M. TownesChapter 16 Why Do Men Need the Goddess? Male Creation of Female Religious SymbolsRosemary Radford RuetherSelected BibliographyIndex of Scripture ReferencesIndex of Authors and EditorsIndex of Subjects