All posts by Edoukou Aka-Ezoua

Shelfie: The Red Tent

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Diamant, A. (1997). The red tent / Anita Diamant. New York : A Wyatt Book for St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

A few weeks ago, Prof. Carr mentioned in class about a book called the Red Tent, in regards to the story of Dinah we were discussing in class.  Based on the summary and a little of what Prof. Carr said on the book, The Red Tent attempts to re-imagine the narrative of Dinah, in efforts to give her a voice on the occurrence of events that describe her presence in the Bible.

By reading a few pages, I feel as though this could go for a cool paper topic because the book serves as another interpretation of a story that doesn’t include much explicit details. By adding the missing details, the author attempts to look at the story from the female perspective, which I feel would be something worth looking at and because the interpretation itself generates it’s own set of questions worth answering as well.  Dinah is only give one line but the author creates a whole novel about her, so I’m pretty excited to read how she writes Dinah’s story.

To find this book. I went on the online library category and searched for the name of the book. It took me upstairs where most of the other books centered on the topic of religion were located. Eager to find more information surrounding the book, I did a brief search online. I found out that Lifetime is actually doing a TV mini series on the book, scheduled to air December 7 & 8. It’ll be interesting to see how this story is portrayed on the screen. Best believe I’ll be watching!

Photo courtesy of http://loadtv.biz/
Photo courtesy of http://loadtv.biz/

Internet Issue: Women’s Ordination

There have been many arguments surrounding the issue of women’s ordination across many Christian denominations. Although there has been opposition towards women being ordained as pastors, priests, and ministers, it wasn’t until recently that women are now being considered for these roles. Many have cited the New Testament as a way to argue for and against this issue and the Old Testament has been cited a well.

Seventh – day Adventists Church 

1. “So God created man [humankind] in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen 1:27).  Many members of this church have used this verse to argue that the Bible supports the ordination of women.  Because this verse doesn’t portray a divine human order, men and women are considered equals. Their argument was that the individuals who are against the ordination of women usually use Genesis 1-3 to create the argument that  creation headship over women is the reason why they cannot be ordained.

Judges 4 and 5, Exod 15:20-21,  2 Kgs 22:13-14; 2 Chr 34:22-28)  Exod 38:8; 1 Sam 2:22; 2 Kings 8:1-6; Ps 68:11; Jer 31:22) All of these verses describe the variety of women who held leadership roles over men as a way of supporting their view on women’s ordination as well. Miriam, Esther, Huldah, Deborah, and other Israelite women are used as examples of women who had high priestly positions.

http://spectrummagazine.org/node/2305

The Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC)

This is a group of Catholic women who believe that women should be ordained  as priests, deacons and bishops into the Roman Catholic Church.

Humankind was created as God’s reflection: in the divine image God created them, female and male, God made them.” — Genesis 1:27

They also used Genesis 1:27 as a way to argue how the Bible supports their view. Because God created man and woman in His image, both genders can be priests.

http://www.womensordination.org/resources/top-ten-reasons-to-ordain-women/

The Catholic Church 

When it comes to the ordination of women, they haven’t always been supportive of the issue. They use biblical verses in the New Testament to back up their arguments.

1 Tim. 2:11–14: 11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man;she must be quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

1 Cor. 14:34–38: Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.36 Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?37 If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. 38 But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored.[c]

Because the two verses forbade women to engage in two important functions of clergy, teaching or having authority over man and questioning or challenging clergy in public , it was concluded that this prohibited them from being clergy members.

http://www.catholic.com/tracts/women-and-the-priesthood

Edoukou’s Shelfie

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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.