I’ve discovered that scholarship is not static, it converses with each age. I went to seminary from 1993-1996 and received an M.Div. degree. It was worth the mental stretching and broadening. However, most of the theologians I studied were white Anglo-Saxon and Southern Baptist or some other white denomination. The few black theologians, I could find, were not considered “academic” sources for our references. My faculty seemed to link them with Wikipedia in terms of credibility. Oh, less I forget there have been some great articles written that were not peer-reviewed until much later.
I recently sat at the feet of various womanist theologians and same-gender loving theologians and have been astounded at the imaginative, creative, scientific, and just downright commoned sense approach they took. They boldly engaged the original text languages, opening new vistas of understanding and challenging paradigms long since debunked.
Not only that, but my theology was limited. My understanding was binary and absolute. But again I say I’ve taken advantage of updating my backward, white supremacist understandings of the scripture. Paul is not the authority on women preaches or pastors. Women funded, followed, and evangelized his message just as they do in our churches today. And Mary learned directly from Jesus right along with the men.
So let me invite you to if you got your education over five years ago, do a retool and take a year and do some academic research being inclusive of all the scholars, let them debate each other, and when it’s done be open to having fresh understandings. Remember Paul’s view was not the only view being promulgated through the early church.
BARRIER BREAKING ENTERPRISES 