A woman called blessed for killing a Canaanite general; another called "Mother in Israel" for leading troops into war; several other mothers absent when their children need them; a judge, Deborah, with a proper name and a recognized place for public counseling; a single woman, Delilah, who seduces and conquers Samson. The book of Judges features an outstanding number of women, named and unnamed, in family roles and also active in society, mostly objects of violent dealings between men. This volume looks not only at women in their traditional roles (daughter, wife, mother) but also at how society at large deals with women (and with men) in war, in strife, and sometimes in peace.

To be human means to resist dehumanization. In the darkest periods of human history, men and women have risen up and in many different voices said this one thing: "Do not treat me like this. Treat me like the human being that I am." Claiming Her Dignity explores a number of stories from the Old Testament in which women in a variety of creative ways resist the violence of war, rape, heterarchy, and poverty. Amid the life-denying circumstances that seek to attack, violate, and destroy the bodies and psyches of women, men, and children, the women featured in this book absolutely refuse to succumb to the explicit, and at times subtle but no less harmful, manifestations of violence that they face.

Traditional understandings of God as deliverer depict God as a mighty liberator-warrior and wrathful avenger. Juliana Claassens explores alternative Old Testament metaphors that portray God as mourner, mother, and midwife--images that resist the violence and bloodshed associated with the dominant warrior imagery.

Claassens discusses how metaphors of God as life giver began to develop in the aftermath of the trauma of Israelite exile. She offers compelling examples of how this feminine imagery still has the power to inspire hope amidst violence in today's world. She demonstrates that God's delivering presence helps people of faith cope with trauma and suffering on many levels--individual, community, national, and global--while bringing forth new life out of death and destruction.