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Eight years ago, before she was the academic dean at Catholic Theological Union, Dominican Sr. Barbara Reid had an idea. She wanted to create a work of feminist biblical interpretation that would delve into every book of the Bible — something that had never been done before.
Reid pitched her idea to editors at Liturgical Press, who were excited and gave her the green light. Reid assembled an eight-woman board of feminist scholars to help her coordinate the project, and in November, the first three of what will ultimately be a 58-volume series of feminist biblical commentary were published: Hebrews, Haggai and Malachi, and Micah.
Titled the Wisdom Commentary — a nod to both the figure of Woman Wisdom as portrayed in the Bible and to the oft-ignored wisdom of female biblical interpreters — the series features authors from a diverse array of religious, racial and cultural backgrounds, including Korean United Church minister HyeRan Kim-Cragg and International Council of Christians and Jews past-president Deborah Weissman.
