tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19785125.post6369963765719835908..comments2024-01-03T07:56:32.311-05:00Comments on quaker oats live: women in the bibleAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488876505679035140noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19785125.post-39643509723790931062007-09-17T05:56:00.000-04:002007-09-17T05:56:00.000-04:00What I think these modern "womanist" scholars are ...What I think these modern "womanist" scholars are doing, in re-interpreting the story of Sarah and Hagar, is imposing modern, very individualistic ideas of what "liberation" is, on a text that wasn't concerned about such things at all.<BR/><BR/>Yes, the Old Testament is concerned about "liberation". But the "liberation" it is concerned about is not the liberation of individuals as individuals to do what they please. It is the liberation of the people of Jacob, the people of Israel, as a people, a collective body, to serve and obey God as He commands.<BR/><BR/>Thus the people of Israel were "liberated" from Egypt only to wander, in some suffering, in the wilderness for years and years, basically because God wanted them to learn to turn to Him, and to learn to work as an obedient and unified people, and He wasn't going to let them into the Promised Land until they'd learned those lessons.<BR/><BR/>I think the "womanist" scholars are imposing expectations on the text which have nothing to do with the actual values of the Judæo-Christian religion. This may be painful, even offensive to some people's ears. But I think it's true. Judaism and Christianity are not about the freedom to do what I want, or to get the material happiness that I think I deserve. They are about being willing to obey God, and being willing to suffer in the practice of such obedience, for the love of Him and the joy of union with Him. The only freedom they are really concerned with is the freedom to follow that path.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com