Stepping in/stepping out: a conversation between ideological and social scientific feminist approaches to the Bible

Abstract

While feminist ideological critics urge us to "step outside" the ideology of patriarchal texts in order to critique it, social scientific criticism insists that unless we first "step into" the socio-symbolic world refracted through the text, our readings will be compromised by the projections of a modern worldview. This paper explores the tension between these two critical approaches through a focus on current ideological readings of biblical "pornoprophetics," that is, prophetic metaphors of promiscuous women who are stripped and raped as punishment for their transgressions. The conclusion that these images are indicative of misogynic attitudes in ancient Israel is challenged for its failure to account sufficiently for the difference between ancient and modern worldviews.