Tania Oldenhage

Home institution

University of Basel

Research project

Blessed Are the Barren: Birth and Catastrophe in the Passion Narratives

This project offers a critical reading of resonances between New Testament passion narratives and women's birth stories. The figure of Jesus as a birthing mother has a long tradition in women's religious writing. How can feminists today draw on this trope without silencing birth stories of catastrophe? The 'blessing of the barren' in the Gospel of Luke is used to show how images of birthing highlight the devastating effects of violence.

WSRP lecture

Blessed Are the Barren: Birth and Catastrophe in the Passion Narratives

Course

HDS 1548: Pregnancy, Birth, and the Bible (Spring 2010)