Old Testament theology of human sexuality according to Athalya Brenner

Abstract

Being a gymnast, a woman, and, studying theology, I wondered what the Bible teaches on the human body and on human sexuality. I knew that the Hebrew Bible was particularly male oriented, I was quite interested to find our how these men could picture such a theology. Eventually there came the though of analyzing this human dimension from a feminist perspective. Ultimately I chose Athalya Brenner, a Jewish woman, feminist, professor of the Hebrew Bible, and a woman's study reader, who presumably would provide a better picture than any other feminist researcher, since she had experienced it throughout her own life and thought. My thought was to examine how this theology came out through several books found in the Hebrew Bible which are still influencing our society today after so many years. How this human sexuality although perceives equality between both sexes, is on the other hand, quite differentiated in every culture and society. Thus how come this Hebrew Bible, while depicting equality and harmony between both sexes in several books, while in others one finds women 'sexed' (that is defined as a biological orifice), rather than 'gendered' (defined by social and functional means), and a s subordinate rather than enjoying all rights as men.