ABSTRACT
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, one of the foremost biblical scholars of the twentieth century and beyond, has had a significant impact on not only the field of scholarship itself, but also on widening the circle of those who are included in the conversation. She has been recognized by the academy as the first female president of the Society of Biblical Literature (1987), recipient of numerous awards and guest professorships and honored by her colleagues in three Festschriften. She is known for her feminist critical analysis bringing women to the center and her deconstructions of what may appear to have been normative, value-free (what she calls “scientistic”) interpretations. Her creative use of neologisms (such as “kyriarchy,” “malestream,” or “wo/men”) and her regular use of “G*d” to express the Divine are evidence of her recognition of the power of language to construct reality. She investigates how biblical texts and scholars use language to construct rather than simply describe a picture of the early Christian community. The task of scholarship, then, is to recognize these dynamics in order to bring to light evidence of other voices and experiences of the early Christians. Schüssler Fiorenza disputes the idea of “pure, disinterested” scholarship. She calls on scholars to recognize how their work supports or contests political, ethical, and ecclesiastical interests. She is deeply committed to do scholarship engaged in the struggle for liberation and justice. She states her own agenda clearly in the Preface of Rhetoric and Ethic: The Politics of Biblical Studies when she writes, “I propose a fundamental change in how we understand and employ the biblical text, based on a critical understanding of language as a form of power. I ask readers to re-envision biblical studies as a theory and practice of justice.” 1
