Product Description

Jesus Was a Feminist is the most up-to-date and comprehensive case for the feminist interpretation of Jesus published in recent years. The fruit of decades of research and commitment, this book will be of vital interest to Catholic and Protestant feminists and egalitarians, and to the thousands of readers who value the work of Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Elizabeth Johnson, and Karen Torjesen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #808864 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-17
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .1 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
Leonard Swidler makes the case that Jesus respected, cared for and even advocated for the rights of women, not in the sense of Betty Freidan, but in the highly personal relationships he formed and the subtle societal changes he was able to bring about through them....The church as we know it couldn't have come into being without women leaders at its beginning. A well-researched, illuminating book, it asks, is our feminism today as deep as his? (Linda Benninghoff Reader Views, November 2007 )

One does not have to subscribe to all of Leonard Swidler's theories about the origins of the gospels to be deeply appreciative of this book. Swidler mines the biblical texts with zeal and skill to make his case that Jesus took his stand on the side of the marginalized women of the first century. I found this book powerful, insightful, and challenging. (John Shelby Spong )

Swidler brings together a lifetime of academic research and personal involvement with one of the most pressing concerns for the Church: the rightful place of women. He convincingly shows that Jesus promoted the equality of women with men, looked on them as fully human persons, and expected them to be treated as such. The prejudice against women manifest in later Christian thought and practice cannot legitimately be attributed to anything Jesus said or did. This readable, compelling, passionate, and yet scholarly book is set to become another Swidler classic that Church authorities cannot afford to ignore. (John Wijngaards )

The book Jesus Was a Feminist makes a convincing case for Jesus’ feminism. According to Swidler, the church as we know it couldn’t have come into being without women leaders at its beginning. A well-researched, illuminating book, it asks, is our feminism today as deep as his? (Reader Views )

About the Author
Leonard Swidler is professor of Catholic Thought and Interreligious Dialogue at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he is the Founder/Director of the Institute for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue. He is the author of numerous books, including Making the Church Our Own.