Wisdom had distinct cultural value in the ancient world. In Hebrew traditions and in the Old Testament, the personification of wisdom was always that of a woman, known as Sophia. This carried to early Christian texts in which Jesus was held as female divine — before this image was suppressed.
Rev. Dr Sally Douglas is a Uniting Church minister. Her doctoral research led to a book titled Early Church Understandings of Jesus as the Female Divine: The Scandal of the Scandal of Particularity. In this episode, she talks about the qualities that made Jesus compatible with Woman Wisdom, and what made this image so potent for both believers and detractors. What are the implications of reviving the idea of a feminine Jesus?
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Fatima Measham is a Eureka Street consulting editor. She co-hosts the ChatterSquare podcast, tweets as @foomeister and blogs on Medium.