The Bible includes any number of âEURoetyrannical textsâEUR that have proved to be profoundly oppressive in the lives of many people. Among them are Pauline texts that have circumscribed the lives and ministries of women throughout Christian history. What are people who honor Scripture to do with such texts, and what does it mean to speak of biblical authority in their presence? In Encountering God in Tyrannical Texts, Frances Taylor Gench provides strategies for engaging such texts with integritythat is, without dismissing them, whitewashing them, or acquiescing to themand as potential sources of edification for the church. Gench also facilitates reflection on the nature and authority of Scripture.

Encountering God in Tyrannical Texts provides access to feminist scholarship that can inform preaching and teaching of problematic Pauline texts and encourages public engagement with them.

Frances Taylor Gench is the Herbert Worth and Annie H. Jackson Professor of Biblical Interpretation at
Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. She is the author of Back to the Well: WomenâEUR(TM)s Encounters with Jesus in the Gospels, Encounters with Jesus: Studies in the Gospel of John, and Faithful Disagreement: Wrestling with Scripture in the Midst of Church Conflict.