As the debate between egalitarians and complementarians continues, many evangelical churches are adopting the egalitarian stance. Considering the growing number of female pastors and women preachers in evangelical churches, Jon Woodyard comments that, “we live in an egalitarian moment.” In an article published in The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible in 2020, Karen Strand Winslow, an egalitarian biblical scholar, summarizes five principles of the egalitarian biblical hermeneutics, one of which is the principle of liberation. Winslow uses Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1–10 as an example to argue that the liberation of the oppressed as advocated by the egalitarian hermeneutics is the “primary, consistent, and most important theme in the Bible,” and that such a central theme of liberation in the Bible would support egalitarians in objecting any biblical hermeneutics that enforce hierarchies.
This paper aims to evaluate such an argument on egalitarian hermeneutical principle of liberation and argues that the liberation as advocated by egalitarian hermeneutics is absent in Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1–10, and it is invalid to apply such a hermeneutics of liberation to reject any biblical hermeneutics that affirms distinct gender roles.
I. Is Egalitarian Liberation in Hannah’s Song?
From the outlook, certain themes in Hannah’s song seem agree with egalitarian’s advocated theme of liberation. But the current paper will demonstrate that the egalitarian liberation and the liberation in Hannah’s song are not the same. Firstly, they have different goals. Egalitarian liberation aims at establishing an ideology of gender equality that is an inheritance of radical feminist theology lacking biblical support. The theme of liberation in Hannah’s song, however, centers on the biblical teaching of YHWH’s lordship. Secondly, they have different means. Egalitarians view gender roles and patriarchy as oppression. Accordingly, they reject any biblical teaching of gender roles and male leadership. The liberation in Hannah’s song, on the contrary, affirms the Lordship of YHWH and promotes the faithfulness of His people.
II. The Problem of Hermeneutics of Liberation
It is problematic to apply an egalitarian hermeneutics of liberation to reject any biblical hermeneutics that affirms distinct gender roles. It distorts the biblical view of gender roles as power imbalance and oppression in hierarchies. It ignores the biblical teaching that liberation is always under the lordship of God. The consequence of adopting egalitarian hermeneutics of liberation is to reject God’s good ordinance in home and church according to the Bible. It will also open the door for letting any humanism goal of equality override the biblical ordinance. It goes astray from the biblical teaching and eventually compromises the authority of the Bible.