Woman Wisdom Bible studies, Rev Dr Sally Douglas

Early Church Understandings of Jesus as the Female Divine at the VicTas Synod meeting 2016

Rev Dr Sally Douglas continues to explore the theme of Woman Wisdom.

Rev Dr Sally Douglas explores the theme of Woman Wisdom

Rev Dr Sally Douglas explores the imaging and celebration of Jesus as the female divine – Woman Wisdom – in a series of Bible studies delivered at the 2016 Synod meeting. Janet McKenzie’s painting “Jesus of the People” was used with permission and can be seen to symbolise Woman Wisdom incarnate.

Sally’s book “Early Church Understandings of Jesus as the Female Divine, The Scandal of the Scandal of Particularity” (2016) has recently been published by Bloomsbury.

Small group study resources

Videos of the four studies are available for personal learning or group discussion. Handouts for each study include quotes from early Christian sources and Sally suggests watching only one study at a time, and then taking some time to reflect and discuss what you have heard (rather than watching two or more of the studies in one sitting).

You may like to use the following questions after you have watched each study:

  1. What surprised / excited / troubled you most in this study?
  2. What would you like to know more about?
  3. Are there implications for you, and your faith community, in how you follow Jesus in the 21st century?

Study 1:

Study 2:

Study 3:

Study 4:

Crosslight articles on the four studies:

Jesus of the Poeple, Janet McKenzie

Janet McKenzie’s painting “Jesus of the People” was used with permission and can be seen to symbolise Woman Wisdom incarnate.

“First unveiled on NBC’s Today Show in 2000, Janet McKenzie’s painting, Jesus of the People was the first place winner of the National Catholic Reporter’s global competition to identify an image of Jesus for the New Millennium. Janet paints multicultural images which honor gender and race, spotlightighting women and people of color, both of which she notes are under-represented in iconic Christian imagery.” source

Interview with Sally by Liam Miller, Christian Students Uniting:

 

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