This excellent collection brings together nineteen previously published essays that span the full course of Schüssler Fiorenza's career, all following a brief yet fascinatingly informative introduction that traces the history of feminist biblical interpretation, addresses ongoing issues of who has the authority to interpret the Bible, and situates her own work firmly in the context of current liberation struggles around the world. The volume is divided into two parts, the first theoretical and the second with more practical leanings (although even in this section, Schüssler Fiorenza takes the time to make her theoretical assumptions and arguments explicit before discussing a particular biblical text). The individual essays are rich, and even the oldest are still timely; the collection as a whole is a treasure, both for its historical usefulness in tracing the ways in which the horizons of feminist biblical interpretation have in fact shifted over the years, and for Schüssler Fiorenza's particular engagements with various biblical texts.
The first section, “Charting Critical Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics,” is organized chronologically from the 1976 essay “Interpreting Patriarchal Traditions” to a 2008 essay on Scripture and empire. The 1976 essay would be wonderfully appropriate as an introduction to feminist biblical interpretation for undergraduates who have never considered that such a thing might exist or could be at all useful: it matter-of-factly describes some androcentric traditions of the Old Testament, explains how biblical interpretation itself has been androcentric, and then demonstrates how androcentric “traditioning” over the centuries further shapes our understanding of biblical texts. As most of the other essays in this section tend to be quite densely argued, they would be better suited to advanced undergraduates or even master's-level students.
The second section of the book, “Practicing Feminist Biblical Interpretation,” opens with an essay focusing on pedagogy: “To Set the Record Straight: Biblical Women's Studies” not only offers a detailed account of Schüssler Fiorenza's own experiences teaching undergraduates (albeit in the 1980s) but also contains a wealth of practical classroom exercises and student projects. Chapter 15, “Resisting Violence—Engendering Easter,” is an approachable and powerful reflection on conflicting Resurrection traditions. It is also a sermon, making it perhaps more appropriate to a course that explicitly addresses issues of faith and the academic study of the Bible. The section ends with an essay that looks to the future of global feminist biblical studies, arguing that biblical studies is still important as both an academic and a practical endeavor, and outlining current trends and debates in the field.
Changing Horizons is the second in a planned three-volume set of Schüssler Fiorenza's work and is an important addition to any university or seminary library. Fortress is doing a great service in bringing together her widely scattered work into these well-designed, historically organized, and thematically structured volumes. As Schüssler Fiorenza herself points out, feminist scholarship has a tendency to disappear from academic history, leaving the next generation to start again from the beginning. Books like Changing Horizons ensure that this will not easily happen with feminist biblical scholarship, and for that we should be deeply grateful.
