“Joash remained hidden for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.” The Hebrew Bible records an astonishing thing: a woman ruled the southern kingdom of Judah for six years after her husband and son died (2 Kings 11 and 2 Chronicles 22-23). Athaliah is portrayed as something of a villain in these narratives, perhaps a counterfoil to...

Last week we discussed the thinking of a few Western philosophers on the mind/body connection. These men siloed the mind from the physical body, which has influenced our present day fragmentation of the self.

Since the physical body and the mind are NOT meant to live in isolation of one another, what are some practical ways we can integrate the...

At Religion for Her we seek to lift up the full person (body & soul) as we engage with scripture. We desire for women to engage with sacred texts from their own lived experiences. However, many of us have been trained to read scripture intellectually, often without noticing subtle cues from our intuition, our physical bodies, or our...

Trauma is something that touches every human being in one way or another. It can be thought of as an overwhelm of the system in which one’s resourcing is not adequate to one’s need and a part of us or our story becomes dis-integrated. Gabor Maté, in the film The Wisdom of Trauma, describes trauma not as what happens to you,...

Have you ever read the Bible and suddenly felt that an old friend was a perfect stranger? This happens to me all the time. Just when I think I know the Bible, I read something I didn’t know was in there. This is kind of embarrassing to admit because I’m a Bible scholar and an ordained pastor. If anyone should know what’s...

Our culture is built on multi-tasking and productivity. If we have a spare moment, we are often scrolling or looking over our to-do list. In the Old Testament, there are numerous times when we are encouraged to “be still.” There are actually at least 3 different verbs in Hebrew that can be translated as “to be still, to be...

When we pray, do we envision God with exclusively male motifs and characteristics, or is there room in our prayer and spiritual practice for the divine feminine, for the God who blesses breasts and womb?

Depictions of female figures as representations of the divine were commonplace in the ancient Levant, the region of the Bible’s origins....

Stinking Grapes and Unmet Expectations-Part 2

Last week we discussed Isaiah 5 and the Song of the Vineyard. We explored the vintner's response to unmet expectations. The response began with reflection, asking the questions that often accompany unmet expectations. However, a deeper reflection period is skipped over, which is met with unresolved...

Sometimes children help us see anew: wonder in the small things, impartial delight in others, or the beautiful audacity to ask for what we need and receive it wholeheartedly.  

Sitting 30,000 feet in the air, with my 10-month old daughter on my lap, I noticed all of these things. But I wasn’t prepared for what else she...