Smith, W. (1993). What is scripture? : a comparative approach / Wilfred Cantwell Smith. Minneapolis : Fortress Press, c1993.

When I search for books, I type a very broad search term. It has always been easier for me to do that because I get a range of books. that might interest me. Something I may not have been looking for might pop up in my search. If I know exactly what I’m looking for, I am more specific. However, in this case, I just wanted to know the different books that were there that had the potential to contribute to our discussion. So I typed in “religion” in the Lafayette Library online catalog just so I knew where all the related books were located. As I searched through, the book, What is Scripture, (maybe because I’ve always wondered myself) jumped out at me.

From reading the preface and a little bit of the introduction, it seems like this book uses a comparative approach to explain what scripture is and what it means to different religions. It also seems that the book may intend to examine the use of scripture in human life for these major religions. In the preface, the author explains that even though academia has studied these texts, rarely have they considered human involvement or why religious communities have scriptures. There is a chapter that discusses scripture and the Jewish/Christian religion.

While I was looking, I saw another book, Women, gender, religion : A Reader. Being a women’s and gender studies major and having a major interest in religion, I was particularly excited to see what this book was about. It seemed as though it examined and analyzed  the intersectionality of gender and religion.

Castelli, E. A., & Rodman, R. C. (2001). Women, gender, religion : a reader / edited by Elizabeth A. Castelli with the assistance of Rosamond C. Rodman. New York : Palgrave, 2001.