This paper will discuss Liberal feminism’s reflection on female characters in the Bible。 Liberal feminism is concerned with the equality of freedom and the political rights of the inpidual, freedom of religion, women's right to choose and the self-determination of women belonging to women themselves。 According to McLeod-Harrison (2014), “All people are made in God’s image。 The Bible views women and men as equals, just as it sees people of all races as equals (McLeod-Harrison, 2014, p。 1)。” which is an interpretation of the book of Galatians in the Bible, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Crossway, 2011, p。 2251)。” Based on these points of view, this paper endeavors to analyze whether women and men are equal in the Bible both physically and spiritually, whether women and men have equal rights on the teaching of the spiritual level, that is, whether the rights of women are allowed to be given spiritually and practicing rights in reality。
1。2 Significance of the Study
The Chinese scholars also hold that, female characters in the Bible have shown a history of the nation of Israel, national and moral values (Hu, 2002)。 It showed that Bible literature created a series of female characters in order to display the female figures under Israeli history; different characters show their different social status and historical influences。 Furthermore, Biblical Literature has always been one of the strains of Western literature; the United Nations acknowledged that the Bible has the greatest impact to human beings。 Its rich historical implication and theme of biblical stories has great educational value and research significance。 It also promoted the birth and development of Western Philosophy。 Thus, Biblical female character analysis is necessary for a complete understanding, comprehending, and appreciating of Liberal feminism。 If Biblical literature Female Character analysis is neglected, we cannot fully understand the Liberal feminism in the Bible。 The analysis of female characters in the Bible will help the study of Liberal feminism from a classical literature perspective。 Not only will it contribute to understanding the meaning of the female characters of Biblical literature, but more importantly will help to comprehend the Liberal feminism itself in the literature area。
2 Literature Review
2。1 Previous Research Abroad
In the U。S。A。, there were three major waves in the articulation of feminist discourses in general, and of Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics discourses in particular since the 1900s。 The first wave of Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics started with a political movement, which lasted the longest, and had tangible effects on social situations。 During this period, the most relevant work with Bible was the book The Woman’s Bible by Stanton (1898)。 What Pilarski mentioned showed the effects to women’s rights at that time, “the beginning of the Women’s Rights movement in 1848, and by 1920 women was finally allowed to vote in national elections (Pilarski, 2011, p。 20)。”
The second wave of Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics caused the feminism study enter into the academic field in the 1960s。 It started with another important political event, the Civil Rights movement。 One of the main changes in this wave was the feminism study focused on the special experience of women as the key point, which means it was focused on women instead of male-centered and women become the creator and subject of the literature。 From this perspective to analyze and study the content of the Bible, initially more attention was paid to the women in the Bible, creating different methods in interpretation, that is, either positively agreeing with the opinion that Bible conveyed, or had doubt in the Biblical literature’s implication, even to the extent of rejecting the Biblical art。 Thus the second wave generated “a spectrum of hermeneutical alternatives that went from the acceptance of the Bible with reservations to its complete rejection (Pilarski, 2011, p。 21)。”