EP 33: A Woman’s Place — Is in the Story
What if misreading women's stories in Scripture means we've been missing something essential about the heart and character of God himself?
Dr. Sandra Glahn — theologian, professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, and author of the forthcoming A Woman's Place Is in the Story — joins Christine for a conversation that is equal parts scholarship and soul care. Dr. Glahn has spent decades asking the questions most people are afraid to ask: Where are the women in Scripture not coming through in translation? Where have they been vilified, minimized, or missed entirely? And what does it cost us — men and women alike — when we get the story wrong?
Christine and Dr. Glahn dig into the real cost of male-dominant readings of Scripture, revisit specific biblical women's stories with fresh eyes, and explore how reclaiming women's stories doesn't just dignify women — it restores our picture of the Storyteller himself.
In this episode:
Why distorted readings of Scripture affect the spiritual formation of both men and women
Specific biblical women's stories reframed (think: survivor instead of sinner and evangelist instead of assistant)
Nicodemus at night vs. the Samaritan woman at noon — what John's light/dark motif is really doing
What “helper” actually means in Hebrew (hint: it's not hamburger helper)
Why women are leaving the church — and how a more faithful reading of Scripture can remedy that
Practical next steps for anyone ready to dig deeper
This one is for the woman who's wondered why God seems to have more to say to everyone else and for the man who wants to better dignify women and champion their gifts. Because as Christine promises, “The deeper we dig, the gooder God gets.”
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EP 33 Special Guest
Dr. Sandra Glahn
Dr. Sandra Glahn is an author, journalist, seminary professor, and co-founder of the Visual Museum of Women in Christianity. She writes about art and beauty, story, lit, writing, NT backgrounds, and women—especially women’s history and the visual record of women in the church.
NOTE: Featuring a guest, resource, or organization on The Holy Shift does not necessarily constitute a blanket endorsement of their entire body of work.
The Holy Shift Resources
Related Resources & Inspiration
On the Blog
The Woman Jesus Saw | Story + Scholarship by Dr. Sandra Glahn
For centuries, the Samaritan woman at the well has been read as a scandal. But if you take a closer look at the text, something shifts. Historical context and scholarship reveal that she was far more likely a survivor than a sinner — and reading her through a Western lens has distorted the story. The real story is far more compelling — and it tells us everything about the heart of Jesus.
Her Name Was Light | Art + History from The Visual Museum of Women in Christianity
What if art and history know the Samaritan Woman’s name? What if her story is far more complex, more beautiful, and more dignified than the one most of us were taught? And what if we've been reading her wrong all along?
The Three Marys | Art + Scholarship by Dr. Kelley Mathews
Three women. All named Mary. All present at the moments that changed everything. We tend to blur them together, or worse, reduce them to a single supporting role in a story we think belongs to someone else. But their stories are among the most dramatic of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection—and definitely worth revisiting.
Scripture
John 4:1-42The story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well
John 3The story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night
Galatians 3:28There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Genesis 2:18The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.
Re: “helper” (ezer) language, women and men as image-bearers—Other translations include “a helper who is just right for him,” “ helper fit for him,” “a helper as his counterpart,” “a helper comparable to him.”
john 1:1-5In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Quotes
Dr. Sandra Glahn:
If half the church is men and women, and we are only strengthening one side of the body in the gym, then the other side is atrophying.
Jesus is trauma-informed. Jesus cares about the vulnerable.
Jesus seems to go out of His way to the powerless and say, “I see you."
We get a much better view of the kind of God that we worship when we read the stories in a way that are more faithful to the background, the culture, the language in which they're written.
Read the Bible in big chunks. Read it in a couple different versions together. Be tenacious — these are words of life.
Christine Crawford:
If we are kind of just hacking off half of His voice and His goodness in this world just because we think gender is the qualifier for the image of God — we are cheating this world.
The deeper we dig, the gooder God gets.
We're not asking people to read things in or do hermeneutical gymnastics. It's the opposite. We're saying, “Let's pull our Western lens off.”
Music
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