Yale University Library Research Guides: African American Religious History: Womanist Interpretation

Womanist Interpretation

I Found God in Me: A Womanist Biblical Hermeneutics Reader (Online) by Mitzi J. Smith (Editor) A womanist biblical hermeneutics reader. This book is an excellent resource for women of color, pastors, and seminarians interested in relevant readings of the biblical text, as well as scholars and teachers teaching courses in womanist biblical hermeneutics, feminist interpretation, African American hermeneutics, and biblical courses that value diversity and dialogue as crucial to excellent pedagogy.
An Introduction to Womanist Biblical Interpretation by Nyasha Junior Argues that womanist biblical interpretation is not simply a byproduct of feminist biblical interpretation but part of a distinctive tradition of African American women's engagement with biblical texts.
Womanist Midrash by Wilda C. Gafney Offers a midrashic interpretation of the biblical text that is rooted in the African American preaching tradition to tell the stories of a variety of female characters. Includes content on each book of the Pentateuch and Deuteoronomistic History.

Just a Sister Away: A Womanist Vision of Women's Relationships in the Bible by Renita J. Weems; Nashormeh Wilkie (Illustrator)
Transforming Scriptures: African American Women Writers and the Bible by Katherine Clay Bassard Explores African American women’s literary theology. Divided into two parts. Part 1 analyzes both the hermeneutics of Black women’s biblical autobiographical writing and the biblical apologetics of slavery. Part 2 offers close readings of three 19th-century Black women’s texts and two 20th-century texts. Includes excellent index and matrix of scriptural references.
Womanist Interpretations of the Bible: Expanding the Discourse by Gay L. Byron (Editor); Vanessa Lovelace (Editor) Collection of seventeen essays on womanist approaches to biblical hermeneutics, with an introduction by the volume’s editors. Provides a useful history of womanist theological discourse on the early individuals who formed the contours of the field and its tasks. Divided into five parts, the book’s essays illuminate areas of biblical text where women are often overlooked, including Numbers 30, Acts 12, Job, and Isaiah. Includes an index of ancient sources.