Trauma and Survival in the Hebrew Bible: A Womanist Reading of Esther [Hardcover]

This book integrates womanist biblical interpretation with trauma theory while closely examining survival and the language of survival in the Hebrew Bible.

While survival is often a theme lifted when exploring Esther, the focus is typically on Jewish survival. This books centers the experiences of non-Jewish women and girls, specifically the virgin girls taken with Esther and Zeresh, the wife of Haman, amplifying their presence and reading their narratives alongside the autobiographies of Maya Angelou and Lezley McFadden to create a survival narrative that allows the reader to reimagine these often-overlooked girls and women.

This book integrates womanist biblical interpretation with trauma theory while closely examining survival and the language of survival in the Hebrew Bible.Kamilah Hall Sharpis Director of the Doctor of Ministry in Public Ministry Program and Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible and Public Ministry at Chicago Theological Seminary.

Kamilah Hall Sharp's treatment of the book of Esther exemplifies next-generation womanist biblical interpretation at its best. Building on the foundational work of Renita Weems and Delores Williams, Sharp employs a trauma-informed womanist hermeneutic of survival to explore the interpersonal trauma experienced by Esther and other women and girls in the text. In true womanist hermeneutical practice, Sharp draws from Black women's autobiographies-particularly those of Maya Angelou and Lezley McSpadden-to powerfully connect biblical narratives of sexual exploitation and violence with contemporary Black women's stories of survival, offering readers both critical insight and strategies for healing. Vanessa Lovelace, Executive Director Louisville Institute, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

I am excited about the work Kamilah Hall Sharp has done inTrauma and Survival in the Hebrew Bible: A Womanist Reading of Esther. Hall Sharp's unique approach to a popular bibló1