When Naomi heard about it, she encouraged Ruth to adorn herself and approach Boaz at night while he was sleeping to see what would happen. The owner of the fields, a relative of Naomi named Boaz, saw Ruth and was pleased by her. Ruth took to gleaning in the fields to find food for herself and Naomi. According to the Book of Ruth, when the recently widowed Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi were faced with a famine in Ruth’s homeland Moab, they returned to Israel impoverished and with little hope of survival. Perhaps the most striking example is in the story of Ruth, though there are other examples as well.
Really? Where does the Bible give a green light to premarital sex? Some Biblical writers argue against premarital or extramarital sex, especially for women, but other Biblical writers present premarital sex as a source of God’s blessing. The Bible does not comment on abortion and gay marriage. Unprotected Texts seeks to offer a comprehensive, accessible discussion of the Bible in its entirety, demonstrating the contradictory nature of the Biblical witness and encouraging readers to take responsibility for their interpretations of it.īut everybody knows the Bible is against abortion and gay marriage and premarital sex. The only way the Bible can be a sexual rulebook is if no one reads it. Knust: Because the Bible continues to be invoked in today’s public debates as if it should have the last word on contemporary American sexual morals. Prothero: Why another book on the Bible and sex? What does your book have to tell us that we don’t already know? We sat down a few days ago, as people increasingly sit down nowadays (in front of our respective computers), to discuss her new book. Knust, who is an ordained American Baptist pastor, thinks that this confidence is not only preposterous, but perhaps idolatrous as well. Today many supposedly conservative Christians have no trouble pontificating on what Jesus would do about the deficit or what the Bible says about war and peace or sex and the solar system. “He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts,” wrote the Protestant reformer John Calvin, “he should go elsewhere” than the Biblical text. So they were exceedingly careful about presuming what God had to say about almost anything. They saw a yawning gap between their limited intelligence and the mind of God. Long ago and in a place far away, Christians used to actually fear God.
But in one respect at least, Knust, a School of Theology assistant professor, is a throwback. And she does say the sorts of things in this book-about premarital sex and abortion and gay marriage-that make conservatives shudder. It is easy to label Jennifer Knust, the author of Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions About Sex and Desire, a theological renegade.
Twitter Facebook Jennifer Knust, an ordained American Baptist pastor and an STH assistant professor, discusses her new book with CAS Religion Professor Stephen Prothero.