Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and the Quest for the Historical Jesus

The feminist theological and historical work of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza has been met with diverging responses. For feminist biblical scholars, Schüssler Fiorenza is essential reading, with even her works from the 1970s and 1980s still standing as key reference points. For mainstream (“malestrea...

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Main Author: Walters Amy Madeleine
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2020-08-01
Series:Open Theology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2020-0117
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author Walters Amy Madeleine
author_facet Walters Amy Madeleine
author_sort Walters Amy Madeleine
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description The feminist theological and historical work of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza has been met with diverging responses. For feminist biblical scholars, Schüssler Fiorenza is essential reading, with even her works from the 1970s and 1980s still standing as key reference points. For mainstream (“malestream”) biblical scholarship, however, her entire body of writing is typically ignored, including within historical Jesus research (HJR), despite its value in both problematising and advancing the so-called Quests for the Historical Jesus. By evaluating and synthesising Schüssler Fiorenza’s HJR work on fundamentalism, feminism, and anti-Semitism, this article situates the effects of Schüssler Fiorenza’s work and the credibility of her critics within the Quests. While the themes Schüssler Fiorenza addresses, such as feminism and Judaism, are key features of the Third Quest, Schüssler Fiorenza’s proposals with regard to HJR, including the politics of interpretation, the shift to memory and orality studies, and the evaluation of meaning-making itself, are theoretically critical and self-reflexive in a way which the Third Quest has rarely been. Given the emphasis Schüssler Fiorenza places on self-evaluation, and her critical examination of the work of her peers in HJR, one is led to consider the possibility that her work may represent a Third Quest Critical-Stream, or even a Fourth Quest.
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spelling doaj.art-562977aa8f4b41b08c9238061615bef02022-12-21T21:48:51ZengDe GruyterOpen Theology2300-65792020-08-016146847410.1515/opth-2020-0117opth-2020-0117Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and the Quest for the Historical JesusWalters Amy Madeleine0Theology and Religious Studies, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandThe feminist theological and historical work of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza has been met with diverging responses. For feminist biblical scholars, Schüssler Fiorenza is essential reading, with even her works from the 1970s and 1980s still standing as key reference points. For mainstream (“malestream”) biblical scholarship, however, her entire body of writing is typically ignored, including within historical Jesus research (HJR), despite its value in both problematising and advancing the so-called Quests for the Historical Jesus. By evaluating and synthesising Schüssler Fiorenza’s HJR work on fundamentalism, feminism, and anti-Semitism, this article situates the effects of Schüssler Fiorenza’s work and the credibility of her critics within the Quests. While the themes Schüssler Fiorenza addresses, such as feminism and Judaism, are key features of the Third Quest, Schüssler Fiorenza’s proposals with regard to HJR, including the politics of interpretation, the shift to memory and orality studies, and the evaluation of meaning-making itself, are theoretically critical and self-reflexive in a way which the Third Quest has rarely been. Given the emphasis Schüssler Fiorenza places on self-evaluation, and her critical examination of the work of her peers in HJR, one is led to consider the possibility that her work may represent a Third Quest Critical-Stream, or even a Fourth Quest.https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2020-0117quests for the historical jesusfeminist biblical scholarshipelisabeth schüssler fiorenzahistorical jesus researchcritical theoryfeminismanti-semitismfundamentalism
spellingShingle Walters Amy Madeleine
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and the Quest for the Historical Jesus
Open Theology
quests for the historical jesus
feminist biblical scholarship
elisabeth schüssler fiorenza
historical jesus research
critical theory
feminism
anti-semitism
fundamentalism
title Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and the Quest for the Historical Jesus
title_full Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and the Quest for the Historical Jesus
title_fullStr Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and the Quest for the Historical Jesus
title_full_unstemmed Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and the Quest for the Historical Jesus
title_short Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and the Quest for the Historical Jesus
title_sort elisabeth schussler fiorenza and the quest for the historical jesus
topic quests for the historical jesus
feminist biblical scholarship
elisabeth schüssler fiorenza
historical jesus research
critical theory
feminism
anti-semitism
fundamentalism
url https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2020-0117
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