Kat Armas on Mujeres of Exodus; Why a PhD on missional hermeneutics?; and a student's essay superpower

Welcome to my newsletter, ‘Bible, Mission, and More’, where I share what’s on my mind as I teach, research, and write on the Bible and mission, children-at-risk in the Bible and contemporary society, Psalms and Wisdom Literature, and a range of other topics. I teach at All Nations Christian College in the UK, though views are my own.

Each Tuesday I’ll share something I’ve read, something I’ve written or recorded, something on learning and teaching, and a quote to reflect on.

Something read – Kat Armas on Mujeres of Exodus

A book I keep coming back to these days is Kat Armas’ extraordinary volume, Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us about Wisdom, Persistence, and Strength. It brings together attentive readings of biblical texts with questions of gender, power, and the subversive ways God brings about his purposes. She also weaves in her own experiences and those of her family members. It is beautifully written, bold, and really owns the locatedness of the author. It is definitely one of the most impactful books I have read in the last few years.

Recently I re-read the chapter on the book of Exodus in preparation for an Old Testament and Mission class for All Nations undergrads. Setting the chapter in the context of her grandparents’ (at times, traumatic) journeys across the water from Cuba to the States, Armas considers the water theme early in the book of Exodus. Her primary focus is how different women feature in the early chapters of Exodus. This is something I love to explore with students: the courageous subversion of the midwives, the ingenuity of the mother, the defiant compassion of Pharaoh’s daughter. All these women find ways of thwarting the plans of Pharoah. Here’s just one quote:

‘Ironically, while Pharaoh thinks men pose a threat to his power, he overlooks the real threat: God is using the women to set the scene for liberation. Enslaved to patriarchal ideology, Pharaoh disregards the women’s power and character. But Scripture does not. In fact, the narrator of the exodus story shows us how the women begin to act. The story itself reveals with pointed irony the fallacy of the patriarchy, which feeds into the lie that men are more important, more valuable than women. In Pharaoh decreeing twice that the girls shall live (Exod. 1:16, 22), he is intensifying the very power—namely, the women’s power—that eventually leads to his undoing. I’ve found that God often works this way: shaming power by using those least expected, those whom the world might deem weak or insignificant.’

I love this chapter, and the book as a whole, but there is one thing missing – or, rather, one woman missing – in Armas’ treatment: Miriam. Here is a big sister who – maybe at the instruction of her mother, or maybe through her own ingenuity and courage – waits to see what will happen to her brother (Exod. 2:4) and convinces (tricks?!) Pharoah’s daughter into taking care of Moses (v. 7). Would an adult have been able to get that close to the princess, or got away with asking such a presumptuous question? I don’t think so. In this previous post I link to a talk that includes some material on this.

You can find Abuelita Faith in the usual places, including Perlego.

Something written – Why do a PhD on missional hermeneutics?

Every now and then I will share a bit more about my PhD journey that culminated in the 2014 thesis, ‘The Book of Job and the Mission of God: An Application of a Missional Hermeneutic to the Book of Job’. In a previous post I talked about how I ended up in the book of Job. This time I want to tell you how I arrived at the topic of a missional reading of the book, especially as I had started out wanting to look at orphans/fatherless in the Old Testament.

The postgrad journey is often filled with twists and turns and I reached a point in my research where I’d hit a dead end. I vividly remember having a meeting with my supervisor – the ever-gracious, patient, and insightful Gordon McConville – in a kind of moratorium about where I was at with my project.

By that stage I’d done a lot of reading and thinking around the book of Job. We talked about how it would be good to keep that as part of it, but maybe explore a new question. I shared how I had a growing interest in missional readings of the Bible. It was 2008 and Chris Wright’s The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative had been published fairly recently in late 2006). I was doing bits of teaching at Redcliffe College, a mission training college, and I knew that once I’d finished my PhD I would want to work on the emerging conversation on ‘missional hermeneutics’.

So we agreed I’d spend some time thinking about what a PhD exploring a missional reading of Job could look like. Very quickly, I knew this was the direction I wanted to go in and I was able to pick up the pace again.

I think there are some important lessons in there for research students. Make sure you have a supervisor who doesn’t panic, even when you do, and is able to listen and guide you when things aren’t working out. Be honest with your supervisor when you are struggling. It’s so easy for the weeks and months to go by, especially when you’ve lots of other responsibilities. Finally, don’t get so narrowly focused on your topic that you’re not aware of what’s going on in other aspects of your discipline, especially where there are emerging conversations and approaches gathering momentum.

So that’s how I ended up doing a missional reading of the book of Job. I didn’t set out to do it but I’m so glad I found my way to it. Looking back there was definitely an element of being in the right place, at the right time, asking the right questions, and having the right supervisors. It felt messy at the time but I can see God’s hand in it all.

If you want to read the final thesis I have posted links in this previous post.

Learning and teaching – Students: the Scripture index is your essay superpower!

One of the things essay markers love is when, on top of the expected ones, a student integrates different types of books into their essays.

Imagine you are asked to do a study of a particular biblical passage (let’s say, Isaiah 49:1-7) and that you need to include theological and missiological reflection. Commentaries on Isaiah are an obvious and important path to follow but, depending on the series and size of the volume, it may only take you so far.

Of course you might dip into Bible dictionary articles to help with key terms and ideas. You may also look through journal articles as well. But what about when it comes to reflecting theologically or missiologically on the topic? How can you approach the passage from a different angle? This is where the Scripture index comes into its own.

Rather than looking for books that start with the text of Isaiah and see how they reflect theologically, look for books that are focused on biblical theology, OT theology, missional hermeneutics, biblical theologies of mission, and so on. Most of these will have a Scripture index near the back. Look for Isaiah 49 and see what it says that might be useful.

So, for example, I picked a few books off my shelves and within a few minutes found the following potentially useful sources that all include at least some part of Isaiah 49:1-7 in their Scripture index:

• James Chukwuma Okoye’s Israel and the Nations: A Mission Theology of the Old Testament,

• Julie C. Ma, Mission Possible: Biblical Strategies for Reaching the Lost

• Donald Senior and Carroll Stuhlmueller’s The Biblical Foundations for Mission

• Michael W. Goheen’s A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story

• John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology: Volume 1: Israel’s Gospel

• Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative

• Ellen Davis, Opening Israel’s Scriptures

• Marica Bunge (ed) The Child in the Bible

• Brittany Kim and Charlie Trimm, Understanding Old Testament Theology

• Plus over 60 references in the New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis

Now you can look through these and see if there are any interesting new angles on the passage you could bring into your paper. Enjoy your new superpower; and use it well.

Quote – Wilda Gafney on wrestling with hard texts

“I don’t run from a fight or a hard text or a fight with a hard text. I believe in wrestling the bruising words until I squeeze a blessing out of them, no matter how down and dirty it gets or how out of joint I get.” (quoted in Kat Armas, Abuelita Faith, see above)

Thanks for joining the journey and see you next week,

Tim