Feminist Interpretation of Revelation
This chapter highlights the shape of feminist conversations about the book of Revelation that have taken place in recent decades. For a number of years Tina Pippin, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, and other scholars debated whether women could read Revelation as liberating. In reading the image of the whore of Babylon in Revelation 17–18, for example, Schüssler Fiorenza asserted that the imagery functioned as a critique of the Roman Empire’s power. Pippin argued that the violence created a hostile environment for women. These scholars made different choices about the use of ancient historical research. More recent feminist interpreters embrace the possibility of multiple meanings of Revelation. Drawing on metaphor, postcolonial, and queer theories, they emphasize rather than resolve tensions in Revelation’s language and imagery, and they point to the varied choices made by women readers of the book.