Philippians lends itself to a political-ideological reading. To take into account that the document is a writing from prison, and to read it from a political-religious and feminist perspective using new language, helps to re-create the letter as if it were a new document. In this analysis Elsa Tamez endeavors to utilize non-patriarchal, inclusive language, which helps us to see the contents of the letter with different eyes. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge and Claire Miller Colombo argue that Colossians's contradictions and complications provide opportunities for entering imaginatively into the world of first-century Christian women and men. Rather than try to resolve the controversial portions-including the household code-they read the letter's tensions as evidence of lively conversation around key theological, spiritual, and social issues of the time. Taking into account historical, structural, and rhetorical dimensions of Philemon, Alicia J. Batten argues against the "runaway slave" hypothesis that has so dominated the interpretation of this letter. Paul asks that Onesimus be treated well, but the commentary takes seriously the fact that we never hear what Onesimus's wishes may have been. Slaves throughout history have had similar experiences, as have many women. Like Onesimus, their lives and futures remain in the hands of others, whether those others seek good or ill. From the Wisdom Commentary series Feminist biblical interpretation has reached a level of maturity that now makes possible a commentary series on every book of the Bible. It is our hope that Wisdom Commentary, by making the best of current feminist biblical scholarship available in an accessible format to ministers, preachers, teachers, scholars, and students, will aid all readers in their advancement toward God's vision of dignity, equality, and justice for all. The aim of this commentary is to provide feminist interpretation of Scripture in serious, scholarly engagement with the whole text, not only those texts that explicitly mention women. A central concern is the world in front of the text, that is, how the text is heard and appropriated by women. At the same time, this commentary aims to be faithful to the ancient text, to explicate the world behind the text, where appropriate, and not impose contemporary questions onto the ancient texts. The commentary addresses not only issues of gender (which are primary in this project) but also those of power, authority, ethnicity, racism, and classism, which all intersect. Each volume incorporates diverse voices and differing interpretations from different parts of the world, showing the importance of social location in the process of interpretation and that there is no single definitive feminist interpretation of a text.

To the many people in hopeless situations today, especially in Central America, Tamez brings a message of hope and affirmation through the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Introduction : The body and religion : Regina Ammicht-Quinn and Elsa Tamez -- The perfect body : biomedical utopias : Hille Haker -- The superfluous body : utopias of information and communication technology : Klaus Wiegerling -- The cultural coding of the male and female body : Christina Von Braun -- Re-evaluating the body in eco-feminism : Rosemary Radford Reuther -- The world as God's body : Sally McFague -- Dichotomy or union of soul and body? The origins of the ambivalence of Christianity to the body : Jean-Guy Nadeau -- Corporeality and mysticism : Tina Beattie -- The immobile dance : the body and the Bible in Latin America : Nancy Cardoso Pereira -- Cosmos - church - body : observations on the notion of 'healing pastoral work : Rainer Bucher -- The western understanding of the body as a global perspective : Farideh Akashe-Bo?hme -- Bodies and gender in Mesoamerican religions : Silvia Marcos -- Embodiment and connexity : an African purview : Gosbert T.M. Byamungu -- Suffering, resisting, healing : an Asian view of the body : Sharon A. Bong -- Mixed-race body, cosmic race : Carmin?a Navia Velasco

Embedded in the New Testament is a five-chapter uprising known as the Epistle of James. This provocative, and often overlooked letter is the founding document of liberation theology--the theology that seeks to preserve Jesus' "preferential option for the poor." Now with a detailed study guide, this book can be used by Christians everywhere to study the radical message of James and reflect on what it means to be a true Christian.

"This study explores the meaning of justification in the framework of Latin American theology of liberation, which is a particular way of doing theology welcomed by both Catholics and Protestants. In this theology, the poor, 'oppressed and believing, ' constitute the privileged locus of theology. That is to say, theology is done from their reality of oppression-liberation and their experience of God. Every great theological theme, every biblical reading, must be reexamined from that angle of vision." (from the Introduction, by Elsa Tamez)