Godding: Human Responsibility and the Bible - Hardcover

Mollenkott, Virginia Ramey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0824508246 ISBN 13: 9780824508241

Publisher: Crossroad Pub Co, 1987

Synopsis

IN GODDING MOLLENKOTT CONTINUES HER CONCERN WITH FEMINIST THEOLOGY AND BROADENS IT CONSIDERABLY.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"A calm, well-balanced, carefully prepared book....  Excellent for adult Bible discussion groups, for occasional sermons, for suggesting ways of inclusive language.  This book teaches and directs without antagonizing."
-The Bible Today

A persuasive book, useful for personal reflection and group discussion, and ideal for gift-giving."
- Daughters of Sarah

This is no dry erudite volume.  It rubs salve in personal wounds inflicted by centuries of biblical misreading."
- Sojourners

The book reflects careful research; it is written in a style that will appeal to those interested in the implications of biblical research but without the time or inclination to follow the involved discussions of biblical scholarship."
- National Catholic Reporter

Mollenkott cites a wide range of historical sources, refusing to be limited to biblical materials alone.  By thus tapping tradition as well as scripture she strengthens her thesis and offers her readers a rich display of theological and spiritual materials as well as biblical texts."
- Journal of the American Academy of Religion

An important book for the church of today and tomorrow.  At issue is the health of our relationship to others, to ourselves and to our god."
- Presbyterian Survey

Christian therapists who appreciate the power of imagery to transform and heal the subconscious mind, which directs so much of human behavior, will immediately recognize applications of this book for their work....  A valuable resource for restoration of the full richness of divine-human encounter."
- Journal of Christian Healing

From the Inside Flap

In her previous books the author showed how the theme of male-female equality and mutuality informs the Bible from beginning to end, and how the many female metaphors for God in the Bible demand an all inclusive, all-encompassing view of God.

In Godding, Mollenkott continues her concern with feminist theology and broadens it considerably.  There is a family resemblance that develops, she says, from at-one-ment with God.  God's behavior, as revealed in the Bible, and in other religious traditions as well, is the model for human behavior.  This process Mollenkott calls "godding" and means by it that human responsibility in its fullest sense entails embodying God's all-inclusive love in human flesh.  We are, or should be, the embodiment of God's universal concern.  Godding means discovering and acknowledging God's presence within ourselves.

In Godding Mollenkott summons us to a lifestyle of godding, tracing its development in the Bible (in Job, in Isiah's righteous servant, in Jesus), but also exploring the theme in sources outside the Bible, in the accumulated wisdom of humankind as distilled particularly in poetry - in the work of Milton and Marianne Moore, Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde, and in the novels of Alice Walker.  But the work of godding is particularly related throughout the book to the three principal human concerns of our time:  sexism, racism, and the arms race.  Godding means taking responsibility even, or especially, there.

Edition details

• Publisher: Crossroad Pub Co
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0824508246
• ISBN 13: 9780824508241
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 164