Laura J. Hunt

Unhelpfully Male-Centric

Revisado: 02-14-25

I bought this as a biblical scholar, curious about what theologians might have to say to me. I am not sure if these five things came from a broad survey of theologians, or whether this is Boersma's own list. In any case, I was disappointed although not surprised. The book could be summed up as: Don't stop listening to (mostly white) men.

In each of the five chapters, Boersma promoted a certain lens needed for approaching scripture: christology, neo-platonism, providence, church dogma and traditions, and contemplation. These are not bad caveats in and of themselves, and I mostly enjoyed listening, especially to chapter 2. But he recognizes throughout that all of these lenses can be misused, and his ultimate standard against which he measures right and wrong uses seems to be the church fathers and church leaders, in other words mostly white men.

This problem can be encapsulated by his overall use of male-centered language and his lack of reference to any women (at least that I noticed in the audiobook) except for one imagined 19th century black women who would interpret the Exodus differently than he does. However, he fails to ever value her contribution to the task of interpretation, or to propose any way in which she might be able to participate. In fact he asserts the primacy of our identity in Christ so vehemently over the acknowledged different interpretations that stem from social location that it seemed likely to me that all interpretations would be seen as special and marginalized except for a historical white male interpretation equated to one's identity in Christ.

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Fascinating

Revisado: 06-30-24

I had thought somehow that this was going to be historical fiction. Instead, I found something different…a fascinating retelling of a true story, told with sensitivity and related clearly to today.

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Mixture of the real and the imagined, but all true

Revisado: 02-12-24

Not a light read but profoundly beautiful and true. The horror and seduction of colonialism and empire. The painful choices of liberators amidst the beauties and sorrows of life. All of this wrapped in a profound understanding of translation and multilingualism, cultural code-switching and xenophobia.

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Clever and Funny

Revisado: 06-06-23

A book so different from any I’ve ever read, but delightful, charming and … well … wonderful!

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Great content; poor exegesis

Revisado: 08-26-21

Overall, the book strengthened my resolve to be a dissenter in a system that so frequently supports the powerful rather than the victims. However the excellent content is cloaked in poor exegesis including the etymological fallacy, illegitimate totality transfer, outdated interpretations such as the supposed sinfulness of the woman in John 4, occasional anti-semitism, and an impossible dichotomy between Christ and culture. Still, I will likely assign chapters 2 & 5 to my students, with appropriate warnings, and perhaps chapters 9-10 to be read devotionally, after which they could be required to create plans for healing, self care, and spiritual growth while pastoring.

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Light and funny

Revisado: 06-22-21

As someone who grew up in a culture foreign to my parents, who like Firoozeh had to do her share of translating, I thoroughly enjoyed these stories. Plus, now I know the proper pronunciation of Iran!

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Great overall

Revisado: 10-21-20

I really appreciated the way this book covered LGBT and the church in such a broad way. Some details struck me as odd (lesbians feel more comfortable wearing pants?) and the audiobook had 3-4 places where it repeated or skipped, but overall it helped me to understand the topic in new and helpful ways.

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Fabulous

Revisado: 01-10-19

Wow. This was an absolutely fabulous book. I kept thinking, “Oh, now it is going to get boring because I know what happened,” but it never was. Her insights and honesty are wise and touching and funny. Be sure and follow along by looking up some of the events on YouTube, if you don’t remember them from when they happened. Highly recommended!

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Important view of power

Revisado: 06-28-18

This important view of power ought to be required reading for every pastor. I didn’t care for the way the narrator tried to do accents for the Bible readings and various quotes in the book, though.

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Heartbreaking but important

Revisado: 05-19-18

Although slightly technical, the author helps us to understand the extent of the damage done to African-Americans over the course of the 20th century. The final chapter proposes some well thought out remedies.

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