The Female Ancestors of Christ »

The spiritual power of the Feminine shines forth in this psychological study of four Old Testament heroines from Jesus' family tree. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba are the only women mentioned by name in the Gospels' genealogies and, for Ann Belford Ulanov, this indicates that they impart something essential to the lineage of Christ. By exploring their brave and unconventional lives, she demonstrates how salvation enters the world in the feminine mode of being human, through these women's embodiment of such powerful and deeply feminine qualities as ingenuity, audacity, determination, compassion, seduction, and devotion.

About the Author:
Ann Belford Ulanov is Christiane Brooks Johnson Professor of Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York City

Publishers Weekly

Ulanov ( The Feminine in Jungian Psychology and Christian Theology ) seeks in this slim volume to aid in the rediscovery of the female voice in the Christian religious tradition. Her vehicle is a reexamination of the four women listed in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel according to Matthew. Ruth is the Moabite widow who with the help of her mother-in-law secures a new marriage. Tamar, also a widow, disguises herself as a prostitute and seduces her own father-in-law to produce a child. Rahab is a Canaanite prostitute who, in order to save her family, betrays her own people to aid the Israelite invaders. Bathsheba, whose affair with and marriage to King David were the source of many problems, rounds out the list. Why would such people be included in the lineage of Jesus? According to the author, they embody and closely link sexuality and spirituality, symbolizing Jesus' feminine side. Ulanov's style, however, is difficult and her writing frequently seems deliberately obtuse. Her psychological analyses must often be taken on faith. These flaws obscure the vitality of her argument and risk leaving these women as voiceless as Ulanov shows Bathsheda to be in the biblical text. (Sept.)