Dancing Girls, Loose Ladies, and Women of the Cloth

F. Scott Spencer is Professor of New Testament at Baptist Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, and is the author of The Portrait of Philip in Acts: A Study of Roles and Relations and Acts. He is the New Testament Chair for the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion.

• Preface; 1. Getting in Focus: Reading with Feminist Lenses; 2. Those Riotous-Yet Righteous-Foremothers of Jesus: Exploring; Matthew's Comic Genealogy; 3. Shall We Dance?: Women Leading Men in Mark 5-7; 4. "You Just Don't Understand!" (or Do You?): Jesus, Women, and; Conversation in the Fourth Gospel; 5. Passions and Passion: The 'Loose' Woman, Lady Wisdom, and the; Lukan Jesus; 6. Out of Mind, Out of Voice: Slave-Girls and Prophetic Daughters in; Luke-Acts; 7. Women of 'the Cloth' in Acts: Sewing the Word of God; Index

'although this book is easy reading, it is certainly not superficial frivolous theology. On the contrary. Spencer substantiates his arguments by means of thorough scholarly research...Of particular interest is the fact that this book is written by a male scholar who takes on a feminist perspective..Thus one may expect a certain degree of reading against the grain, and this is indeed what happens for most of the part....Dancing Girls, Loose Ladies and Women of the Cloth is an uncommonly exciting perspective on some women in the NT. They take the read for an unexpected dance; they manage to pick up several loose threads that they weave together in an  interesting even provocative -cloth. A trendy party gown? No, this garment is designed for la party haute...' ~ Gerda de Villiers, Neotestamentica, Journal of the New Testament Society of South Africa, July 2006