Jul 31The Strange Case of the Transgender Apostle: Sexism and Bible Translation Part OneThe woman’s guide to reading the Bible and staying sane: Part Ten — Meet Junia. At the end of his letter to the Romans, Paul greets a long list of people, among them Andronicus and Junia. …Junia3 min readJunia3 min read
Jul 24The Hidden Women of the New TestamentThe woman’s guide to reading the Bible and staying sane: Part Nine — Jesus’ deep respect for women means that we see quite a few of them in the gospels, receiving ministry from Jesus. He treats them with the same regard he offers everyone. There is no sign at all that Jesus views anybody as less worthy of his love and attention. Anyone…Christianity6 min readChristianity6 min read
Jul 17The amazing Old Testament woman you’ve probably never heard ofThe woman’s guide the reading the Bible and staying sane: Part Eight — One of my favourite women in the Bible, though she appears fairly briefly, is Huldah the prophet. You may well know the story in which she appears, but you might not remember Huldah. Her cameo role is very easy to miss. So here’s the story. When Josiah was king, he…Christianity4 min readChristianity4 min read
Jul 13Martyrs, emotional blackmail and equations that don’t add upAbout twenty years ago, there was a book doing the rounds called ‘Jesus Freaks’. It was the joint work of the Christian band called D C Talk and an organisation called Voice of the Martyrs. It was sort of a modern “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs”, full of the stories of…Deconstruction7 min readDeconstruction7 min read
Jul 12Finding hope in the story of Sarah and HagarThe woman’s guide to reading the Bible and staying sane: Part Seven — After Adam and Eve, we wait a whole eleven chapters in Genesis before we meet a female character. Sarah is Abraham’s wife and she and her husband are promised descendants that take a very very long time to appear. Abraham is regarded as the father of the Israelite nation. …Women In The Bible4 min readWomen In The Bible4 min read
Jun 27Reading between the lines: Rediscovering the women of the BibleThe woman’s guide to reading the Bible and staying sane: Part Six — The Bible does not tell the stories of women nearly as much as we would like. It might be ‘God breathed’ as Paul puts it but it is also a product of the patriarchal societies in which it was written. Its stories are about men and written to be read…Women In The Bible3 min readWomen In The Bible3 min read
Jun 16Understanding Personality through the lens of Myers BriggsThe Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator (or MBTI for short) is one of the world’s best known and most used personality tools. I first came across it at a leadership training course when I was working for the NHS, almost twenty years ago. We spent three days discovering our own…Personality3 min readPersonality3 min read
May 15Reading realistically: embracing the sacredness and humanity of the BibleThe woman’s guide to reading the Bible and staying sane: Part Five — When I come to the Bible these days, I come accompanied by a number of concepts, ideas and perspectives that (usually) help me to experience the texts I read as a blessing and not a kick in the teeth. I’ve been exploring in this series the difficulties that women, in…Bible9 min readBible9 min read
May 8It helps to remember that the Bible was written by men, a very long time agoThe woman’s guide to reading the Bible and staying sane: Part Four — Much of the pain that I experienced in facing the sexism in the Bible and its unrelentingly male focus was because I had been taught to assume that the primary voice speaking in the Bible was God’s voice and that God decided what the Bible would be like. If I…Bible12 min readBible12 min read
May 1The trouble with inerrancy: Why calling the Bible ‘God’s Word’ isn’t always helpfulThe woman’s guide to reading the Bible and staying sane: Part Three — If we’re going to be honest about how the Bible views and portrays women, if we’re not going to ignore the difficult parts or treat them only as metaphors, where does that leave us? The Bible presents us with mixed and contradictory pictures of women. Sometimes, it is radically affirming…Biblical Inerrancy12 min readBiblical Inerrancy12 min read
