Nyasha Junior | |
---|---|
Citizenship | US |
Occupations |
|
Known for | Womanist biblical interpretation |
Academic background | |
Education | |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Theology |
Institutions | Temple University |
Website | nyashajunior |
Nyasha Junior is an American biblical scholar. Her research focuses on the connections between religion,race,and gender within the Hebrew Bible. She holds a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. She was associate professor at Temple University before moving to the University of Toronto in the department for the Study of Religion. She was a visiting associate professor and research associate at Harvard Divinity School for the 2020–21 academic year.
Nyasha Junior grew up in Florida. [1] Her family was very involved in the church,serving as ushers,pulpit speakers,and choir members. [1]
Junior initially pursued a career in public policy,earning a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Master of Public Administration from Princeton University. [2] [3] In her mid-twenties she made a career switch to Bible Studies. [2] She earned a Master of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion and completed her PhD in Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. [2] [3] [4]
Junior is associate professor at the University of Toronto. She was previously associate professor of religion (Hebrew Bible) at Temple University. Her research examines intersections of gender,religion and race,including study of the life of evangelist Jarena Lee. [5] She is also Visiting associate professor of Women's Studies and African-American Religions at Harvard University. [6] She previously taught at Howard University. [2] During her classes at Howard in 2014,she introduced preferred pronouns to the student roster. [7] Elsewhere she has observed that:"Inclusion is not oppression,and student demands for greater inclusion are not bullying" with reference to university course alterations. [8] She is described by Mitzi J Smith as being part of the third generation of womanist biblical scholars [9] - although she personally does not identify as a womanist scholar. [2] Her work on the life of Moses has been viewed as a starting point for how he can be seen as "the subject of feminist inquiry,not just the object of feminist critique". [10]
In her first book,An Introduction to Womanist Biblical Interpretation,Junior compares feminist and womanist interpretations of the Bible and argues that "womanist biblical interpretation [was] a natural development of African American women engaging in activism instead of simply [as] a response to second-wave feminism". [11] The book offers readers an understanding of how the lived experience of black women influences their interpretations of Christianity. [12] It was one of the first texts to introduce womanist biblical interpretation. [13]
Junior has co-authored a book on Samson with Temple University colleague Jeremy Schipper. [14]
The project and subsequent book,Reimagining Hagar, was inspired by the insistence of some of her students that of all the female biblical characters,Hagar was the most strongly associated with blackness. [2]
As of 2020,Junior is involved in a research project with Harvard Divinity School titled "The Resurrection of Jarena Lee". Jarena Lee was a Black Christian preacher denied ordination in the 1800s and who,in 2016,was posthumously ordained by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. [3]
Nyasha Junior's book,Reimagining Hagar:Blackness and Bible was published in 2019. In this book,Junior provides a reception history of the Biblical character Hagar,whose story is found in Genesis 16 and 21. Reimagining Hagar focuses on interpretations of Hagar as a black woman and particularly those interpretations of Hagar that are made by African Americans. [5] Junior examines interpretations of Hagar and how markers of difference like gender,ethnicity,and status intersect in various portrayals of Hagar. [5] In Reimagining Hagar, Junior:"argues that there is an African presence in Biblical texts,identifies and responds to White supremacist interpretations,provides a cultural-historical interpretation that attends to the history of biblical interpretation within Black communities,and provides ideological criticism that uses the African-American context as a reading strategy." [5] Junior has received much praise for this book,with critic Andrew S. Jacobs writing,"In chasing down the 'mystery of Black Hagar,' Nyasha Junior uncovers a deeper story:about cultural resistance to the "White default" of the Bible and its continued Orientalist,anti-Black,anti-Jewish,and anti-woman uses." [15]
A collaboration between Nyasha Junior and Jeremy Schipper,Black Samson:The Untold Story of an American Icon was published July 1,2020. The book details how the Biblical character Samson was a figure used to represent individuals who would fight for racial equality in America. Detailing how Samson from Judges 13-16 became a central figure for Black Americans and was used in literature and other means of social revolution to discuss racial inequality in the United States. [16] The book also discusses various other Biblical figures as well as their connections to historical figures such as Frederick Douglas,Ida B. Wells,James Baldwin,Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. [16] Junior and Schipper explore the connection between Biblical narratives and their importance in Black American history in an attempt to bridge the gap between the two subjects. English New Testament Scholar Candida Moss has said in a Daily Beast review that the book by "researching previously ignored first-person narratives of enslaved and formerly enslaved people,newspaper articles,modern media,and poetry,they argue that the ambiguities in the Samson story make him an interesting and complicated figure with which to think about race and modes of resisting injustice." [17]
Junior has published articles with a variety of media outlets, including:
According to the Book of Genesis, Hagar was an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah, whom Sarah gave to her own husband Abram as a wife to bear him a child. Abraham's firstborn son, through Hagar, Ishmael, became the progenitor of the Ishmaelites, generally taken to be the Arabs. Various commentators have connected her to the Hagrites, perhaps claiming her as their eponymous ancestor. Hagar is alluded to, although not named, in the Quran, and Islam considers her Abraham's second wife.
Keturah was a wife and a concubine of the Biblical patriarch Abraham. According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham married Keturah after the death of his first wife, Sarah. Abraham and Keturah had six sons.
Womanism is a social theory based on the history and everyday experiences of black women. It seeks, according to womanist scholar Layli Maparyan (Phillips), to "restore the balance between people and the environment/nature and reconcil[e] human life with the spiritual dimension". Writer Alice Walker coined the term "womanist" in a short story, Coming Apart, in 1979. Since Walker's initial use, the term has evolved to envelop a spectrum of varied perspectives on the issues facing black women.
Jezebel was the daughter of Ithobaal I of Tyre and the wife of Ahab, King of Israel, according to the Book of Kings of the Hebrew Bible.
Womanist theology is a methodological approach to theology which centers the experience and perspectives of Black women, particularly African-American women. The first generation of womanist theologians and ethicists began writing in the mid to late 1980s, and the field has since expanded significantly. The term has its roots in Alice Walker's writings on womanism. "Womanist theology" was first used in an article in 1987 by Delores S. Williams. Within Christian theological discourse, Womanist theology emerged as a corrective to early feminist theology written by white feminists that did not address the impact of race on women's lives, or take into account the realities faced by Black women within the United States. Similarly, womanist theologians highlighted the ways in which Black theology, written predominantly by male theologians, failed to consider the perspectives and insights of Black women. Scholars who espouse womanist theology are not monolithic nor do they adopt each aspect of Walker's definition. Yet, these scholars often find kinship in their anti-sexist, antiracist and anti-classist commitments to feminist and liberation theologies.
Women as theological figures have played a significant role in the development of various religions and religious hierarchies.
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza is a Romanian-born German, Roman Catholic feminist theologian, who is currently the Krister Stendahl Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School.
Katie Geneva Cannon was an American Christian theologian and ethicist associated with womanist theology and black theology. In 1974 she became the first African-American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (USA).
Jarena Lee was the first woman preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). Born into a free Black family, in New Jersey, Lee asked the founder of the AME church, Richard Allen, to be a preacher. Although Allen initially refused, after hearing her preach in 1819, Allen approved her preaching ministry. A leader in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, Lee preached the doctrine of entire sanctification as an itinerant pastor throughout the pulpits of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination. In 1836, Lee became the first African American woman to publish her autobiography.
Letty Mandeville Russell was a feminist theologian, professor, and prolific author. She was a member of the first class of women admitted to Harvard Divinity School, and one of the first women ordained in the United Presbyterian Church. After earning a doctorate in theology at Union Theological Seminary, she joined the faculty at Yale Divinity School, where she taught for 28 years.
Phyllis Trible is a feminist biblical scholar from Richmond, Virginia, United States. Trible's scholarship focuses on the Hebrew Bible and she is noted for her prominent influence on feminist biblical interpretation. Trible has written a multitude of books on interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, and has lectured around the world, including the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Canada, and a number of countries in Europe.
Delores Seneva Williams was an American Presbyterian theologian and professor notable for her formative role in the development of womanist theology and best known for her book Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk. Her writings use black women's experiences as epistemological sources, and she is known for her womanist critique of atonement theories. As opposed to feminist theology, predominantly practiced by white women, and black theology, predominantly practiced by black men, Williams argued that black women's experiences generate critical theological insights and questions.
Jo Ann Hackett is an American scholar of the Hebrew Bible and of Biblical Hebrew and other ancient Northwest Semitic languages such as Phoenician, Punic, and Aramaic.
Renita J. Weems is an ordained minister, a Hebrew Bible scholar, and an author. in 1989 she received a Ph.D. in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible studies from Princeton Theological Seminary making her the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the field. Her work in womanist biblical interpretation is frequently cited in feminist theology and womanist theology. She is credited with developing theology and ethics as a field.
Elsa Támez is a Mexican liberation theologian and biblical scholar. Her writings on feminist theology and contextual biblical criticisms brought new perspectives to these fields of study, laying the foundation for later scholars. Her books include Bible of the Oppressed, The Amnesty of Grace, and Struggles for Power in Early Christianity: A Study of the First Letter of Timothy (2007). She is Professor Emerita at the Universidad Biblica Latinamericana in Costa Rica. She was appointed president of Universidad Biblica Latinamericana in 1995, becoming their first woman president.
Mitzi J. Smith is an American biblical scholar who is J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. She is the first African-American woman to earn a PhD in New Testament from Harvard. She has written extensively in the field of womanist biblical hermeneutics, particularly on the intersection between race, gender, class, and biblical studies. She considers her work a form of social justice activism that brings attention to unequal treatment of marginalized groups.
Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan is an African-American womanist theologian, professor, author, poet, and an elder in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. She is Professor-Emerita of Religion and Women's Studies and Director of Women's Studies at Shaw University Divinity School. She is the author or editor of numerous books, including the volume Women and Christianity in a series on Women and Religion in the World, published by Praeger.
Wilda C. Gafney, also known as Wil Gafney, is an American biblical scholar and Episcopal priest who is the Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. She is specialist in womanist biblical interpretation, and topics including gender and race.
Sarojini Nadar is a South African theologian and biblical scholar who is the Desmond Tutu Research Chair in Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape.
African American biblical hermeneutics or African American biblical interpretation is the study of the interpretation of the Christian Bible, informed by African American history and experiences.