An Introductory Reader’s Guide to Feminist Theology, by Dr. Terance Espinoza.

The term “Feminist Theology” is broadly defined here as Biblical and Theological Studies by or about people who identify as Feminist, Womanist, Latina, Mujerista, or any other related identity markers. The opinions and goals in this body of literature are varied, and there is no single theological representative to rule them all. The purpose of this list is to provide resources that speak from a particular social location and that will contribute to becoming more well-read in this broad area of theological reflection.

Introductions

1. Brenner, Athalya and Caroline Fontaine, eds. A Feminist Companion to Reading the Bible: Approaches, Methods, and Strategies. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1997.
2. Day, Linda and Carolyn Pressler. Engaging the Bible in a Gendered World: An Introduction to Feminist Biblical Interpretation in Honor of Katharine Doob Sakenfield. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006.
3. Fulkerton, Mary McClintock and Sheila Briggs. The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
4. Junior, Nyasha. An Introduction to Womanist Biblical Interpretation. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2015.
5. Lopez, Davina C. and Todd Penner. “Feminist Scholarship on the New Testament.” Oxford Bibliographies. 2016. Online: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com
6. O’Brien, Julia, ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies. Oxford Encyclopedias of the Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
7. Parsons, Susan Franks, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
8. Scherwood, Yvone, ed. The Bible and Feminism: Remapping the Field. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
9. Scholz, Susanne. “Feminist Scholarship on the Old Testament.” Oxford Bibliographies. 2020. Online: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com
10. ———-. Introducing the Women’s Hebrew Bible: Feminism, Gender Justice, and the Study of the Old Testament. 2^nd ed. London; T&T Clark, 2017.
11. Schottroff, Luise and Marie-Theres Wacker, eds. Feminist Biblical Interpretation: A Compendium of Critical Commentary on the Books of the Bible and Related Literature. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. Translation of Kompendium Feministische Bibelauslegung. 2nd corrected edition. Gütersloh: Chr Kaiser Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1999.
12. Schüssler-Fiorenza, Elizabeth. Feminist Biblical Studies in the Twentieth Century: Scholarship and Movement. Atlanta, SBL Press, 2014.
13. Spencer, F. Scott. “Feminist Criticism.” Pages 289-325 in Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation. Edited by Joel B. Green. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010.
14. Tate, Ashley. “A Very Brief Survey of Feminist Approaches to the Bible.” Essay. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. Online: https://global.oup.com/obso/focus/focus_on_feminist_in_biblical_criticism/

Commentaries

1. Eskenazi, Tamara Cohn. The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. New York: Reform Judaism Publishing, 2008.
2. Feminist Companion to the Bible series.
3. Feminist Companion to the Bible (Second) series.
4. Kroeger, Catherine Clark and Mary J. Evans. The IVP Women’s Bible Commentary. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2002.
5. Newsom, Carol, Sharon H. Ringe, and Jacqueline E. Lapsley, eds. The Women’s Bible Commentary. Revised and expanded. London: SPCK, 2014.
6. Wisdom Commentary series.

Studies

1. Armas, Kat. Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us about Wisdom, Persistence, and Strength. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2021.
2. Aquino, María Pilar, Daisy L. Machado, and Jeanetter Rodriguez, eds. A Reader in Latina Feminist Theology: Religion and Justice. Austin: University of Texas, 2002.
3. Barr, Beth Allison. The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Biblical Truth. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2021.
4. Bauckham, Richard. Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
5. Beavis, Mary Ann, Irmtraud Fischer, Mercedes Navarro, and Adriana Valerio, eds. The Bible and Women: An Encyclopaedia of Exegesis and Cultural History. Series. Atlanta: SBL, 2011-.
6. Benckhuysen, Amanda. The Gospel According to Eve: A History of Women’s Interpretation. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2019.
7. Bellis, Alice Ogden. Helpmates, Harlots, and Heroes: Women’s Stories in the Hebrew Bible. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox, 1994.
8. Bendroth, Margaret Lamberts and Virginia Lieson Brereton, eds. Women and Twentieth-Century Protestantism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
9. Calvert-Koyzis, Nancy and Heather E. Weir. Strangely Familiar: Protofeminist Interpretations of Patriarchal Biblical Texts. Atlanta; SBL, 2009.
10. Caron, Gérald. Women Also Journeyed with Him: Feminist Perspectives on the Bible. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2000.
11. Clark-Soles, Jaime. Women in the Bible. Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2020.
12. Cohick, Lynn and Amy Brown Hughes. Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through Fifth Centuries. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2017.
13. Cohick, Lynn. Women in the World of the Earliest Christians: Illuminating Ancient Ways of Life. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009.
14. Conde-Frazier, Elizabeth. A Many Colored Kingdom: Multicultural Dynamics for Spiritual Formation. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.
15. Creegan, Nicola Hoggard and Christine D. Pohl. Living on the Boundaries: Evangelical Women, Feminism, and the Theological Academy. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2005.
16. Day, Keri. Notes of a Native Daughter: Testifying in Theological Education. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2021.
17. Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. Studies in Bible and Feminist Criticism. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2006.
18. ———-. Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories. New York Random House, 2002.
19. Fuchs, Esther. Sexual Politics in the Biblical Narrative: Reading the Hebrew Bible as a Woman. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2000.
20. García Bachmann, Mercedes L. . Women at Work in the Deuteronomistic History Atlanta: SBL, 2013.
21. Grant, Jacquelyn. White Women’s Christ and Black Women’s Jesus: Feminist Christology and Womanist Response. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989.
22. Gruber, Mayer I. The Women of Israel by by Grace Aguilar: Two Volumes in One with a New Introduction and Commentary. Judaism in Context 15. Piscataway, NJ: Georgias, 2013.
23. Gupta, Nijay K. Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. Downers Grove: InterVarsity. (Forthcoming in 2023)
24. Hari, Albert. Découvrir toutes les femmes de la Bible. Ottawa, Canada: Novalis, 2007.
25. Heger, Paul. Women in the Bible, Qumran, and Early Rabbinic Literature: Their Status and Roles. Leiden: Brill, 2014.
26. Hylen, Susan E. Women in the New Testament World. Essentials of Biblical Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
27. Isasi-Díaz, Ada María. En la lucha / In the Struggle: Elaborating a Mujerista Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004.
28. Isasi-Díaz, Ada María. Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996.
29. Junior, Nyasha. Reimagining Hagar: Blackness and Bible. Biblical Refigurations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
30. Karaman, Elif Hilal, Ephesian Women in Greco-Roman and Early Christian Perspective. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament, 2 Reihe. 474. Tübingen:Mohr Siebeck, 2018.
31. Keener, Craig. Paul, Women, and Wives: Marriage and Women’s Ministry in the Letters of Paul. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992.
32. Kelen, Jacqueline. Les femmes de la Bible: Les vierges, les épouses, les rebelles, les séductrices, les prophétesses, les prostituées... Paris: Relié, 2007.
33. Kohn, Natalia, Noemi Vega Quiñones, Kristy Garza Robinson, Hermanas: Deepening Our Identity and Growing our Influence. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019.
34. Koosed, Jennifer L. Reading the Bible as a Feminist. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
35. Kraemer, Ross Shephard and Mary Rose D’Angelo, eds. Women and Christian Origins. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
36. Kwok, Pui Lan, ed. Women and Christianity. 4 vols. London: Routledge, 2000.
37. ———-. Introducing Asian Feminist Theology. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000.
38. Lampley, Jacqueline and Patricia K. Tull, eds. After Exegesis: Feminist Biblical Theology. Essays in Honor of Carol A. Newsom. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2015.
39. Lapsley, Jacqueline E. Whispering the Word: Hearing Women’s Stories in the Old Testament. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005.
40. Lee, Dorothy. The Ministry of Women in the New Testament: Reclaiming the Biblical Vision for Church Leadership. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2021.
41. Legrain, Michel. Dictionnaire des femmes de la Bible: suivi de quelques parcours thématiques. Paris: Cerf, 2015.
42. Martell-Otero, Loida I., Zaida Maldonado Pérez, and Elizabeth Conde-Frazier. Latina Evangélicas: A Theological Survey from the Margins. Eugene: Cascade, 2013.
43. McGrath, James F. What Jesus Learned from Women. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2021.
44. Meyers, Carol, ed. Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
45. Norman, Dawn LaValle, Early Christian Women. Elements on Women in the History of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
46. Nussberger, Danielle. “Catholic Feminist Theology.” The Oxford Handbook of Catholic Theology. Edited by Lewis Ayres and Medi Ann Volpe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
47. Parks, Sara, Shayna Sheinfeld, and Meredith J.C. Warren. Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean. New York: Routledge, 2022.
48. Peppiatt, Lucy. Rediscovering Scriptures Vision for Women: Fresh Perspectives on Disputed Texts. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2019.
49. ———-. Women and Worship at Corinth: Paul’s Rhetorical Arguments in 1 Corinthians. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2015.
50. Ramachandra, Vinoth. The Recovery of Mission: Beyond the Pluralist Paradigm. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997.
51. Scholz, Susanne, ed. Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect. 3 vols. Recent Research in Biblical Studies 8. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2013-2016.
52. Schottroff, Luise, Silvia Schroer, and Marie-Theres Wacker. Feminist Interpretation: The Bible in Women’s Perspective. Translated by Martin Rumscheidt and Barbara Rumscheidt. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998. Feministische Exegese: Forschungserträge zur Bible aus der Perspektive von Frauen. Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1995.
53. Schottroff, Luise. Lydia’s Impatient Sisters: A Feminist Social History of Early Christianity. Translated by Barbara Rumscheidt and Martin Rumscheidt. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995.
54. Schroeder, Joy A., and Marion Ann Taylor. Breaking the Silence: Women Biblical Interpreters through the Centuries. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, forthcoming.
55. Schroeder, Joy, and Marion Ann Taylor, guest eds. “Female Biblical Interpreters in the Middle Ages and the Reformation.” Theologische Zeitschrift 75/1 (2019), themed issue.
56. Schüssler-Fiorenza, Elizabeth. In Memory of Her: A Feminist Critical Reconstruction of Christian Origins. New York: Crossroads, 1982
57. ———. Bread Not Stone: The Challenge of Feminist Biblical Interpretation. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984
58. ———-. Wisdom Ways Introducing Feminist Biblical Interpretation. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2001.
59. ———-. Searching the Scriptures: A Feminist Companion. 2 vols. New York: Crossroad, 1993-1994.
60. Sechrest, Love Lazarus. Race & Rhyme: Rereading the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022.
61. Soskice, Janet. Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels. New York: Vintage Books, 2010.
62. Soupa, Anne. Douze femmes dans la vie de Jésus. Paris: Salvator, 2014.
63. Sorkey, Elaine. Women in a Patriarchal World: Twenty-five Empowering Stories from the Bible. London: SPCK, 2020.
64. Stackhouse, John G., Jr. Partners in Christ: A Conservative Case for Egalitarianism. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2015.
65. Taylor, Marion Ann & Joy A. Schroeder, Voices Long Silenced: Women Biblical Interpreters through the Centuries. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2022.
66. Taylor, Marion Ann, and Christiana de Groot. Women of War Women of Woe: Joshua and Judges through the Eyes of Nineteenth-Century Female Biblical Interpreters. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 2016.
67. Taylor, Marion Ann, and Heather E. Weir, Women in the Story of Jesus: The Gospels through the Eyes of Nineteenth-Century Female Biblical Interpreters. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016.
68. Taylor, Marion Ann, ed. Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters: A Historical and Biographical Guide. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012.
69. ———-. “Bringing Miriam Out of the Shadows: Harriet Beecher Stowe and Phyllis Trible.” Pages 263-272 in Babel to Babylon: Essays on Biblical History and Literature in Honour of Brian Peckham. Edited by Joyce Rilett Wood, et al. New York: T&T Clark, 2006.
70. Taylor, Marion Ann, and Heather E. Weir, Let Her Speak for Herself: Nineteenth-century Women Writing on Women in Genesis. Waco: Baylor, 2006.
71. Tilford, Nicole L., ed. Women and the Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta: SBL, 2019.
72. Trible, Phyllis. “Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation.” JAAR 41 (1973): 30-48.
73. Trible, Phyllis. Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives. Overtures to Biblical Theology 13. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984.
74. ———-. God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978.
75. Tucker, Ruth A. Extraordinary Women of Christian History: What We Can Learn from Their Struggles and Triumphs. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2016.
76. Vander Stichele, Caroline and Todd Penner, eds. Her Master’s Tools? Feminist and Postcolonial Engagements of Historical-Critical Discourse. Global Perspectives on Biblical Scholarship 9. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005.
77. Westfall, Cynthia Long. Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2016.
78. Wilcox, Ashley M. The Women’s Lectionary: Preaching the Women of the Bible throughout the Year. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2021.
79. Williams, Jenni. God Remembered Rachel: Women’s Stories in the Old Testament and Why They Matter. London: SPCK, 2014.
80. Yee, Gale A. Poor Banished Children of Eve: Woman as Evil in the Hebrew Bible. Augsburg Fortress, 2003.
81. Yong, Amos and Estrelda Y. Alexander. Philip’s Daughters: Women in Pentecostal-Charismatic Leadership. Princeton Theological Monographs Series 104. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2009.

The resource listed here are academic and theologically diverse in nature. Feminist scholarship is not defined solely by a focus on the issue of women in ministry, but the issue of women in ministry is one of the topics that is addressed by Feminist Theology, and in some theological circles, it is an ongoing debate. As an Assemblies of God minister myself who fully supports equality for women in ministry and life in general, I made a separate Women in Ministry page to gather resources that speak specifically to this issue.

*This page is a work in progress and will continue to be developed. It is being published now in an effort to collaborate with students and colleagues. If you have suggestions for resources that belong on this page, please leave them in a comment below.

On January 26, 2021, Dr. Nijay Gupta created an excellent academic bibliography on this same topic at his Patheos blog, “Women: Scripture, Antiquity, Ministry (A Bibliography).” That bibliography helpfully differentiates resources by topic (e.g., “Women in the Greco-Roman World”).

Note to Students

As with all research bibliographies, resources are included not because they are endorsed but because they make a contribution to the discipline in a meaningful way. It is not expected that you will agree with everything in these resources or with everything the authors say in other venues. But it is important to read with a generous and open attitude in order to understand what they are saying so that whether you agree or disagree with them, you are able to articulate their views in a fair and clear manner.