Grenholm, Cristina

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Grenholm, Cristina

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Karlstad University, Universitetsgatan 2, 651 88 Karlstad, Sweden. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden, arts and education faculty member.

WRITINGS:

Romans Interpreted: A Comparative Analysis of the Commentaries of Barth, Nygren, Cranfield, and Wilckens on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, [Uppsala, Sweden], 1990.

The Old Testament, Christianity, and Pluralism, J.C.B. Mohr (Tübingen, Germany), 1996.

(Editor, with Daniel Patte) Reading Israel in Romans: Legitimacy and Plausibility of Divergent Interpretations, Trinity Press International (Harrisburg, PA), 2000.

(Editor, with Daniel Patte) Gender, Tradition, and Romans: Shared Ground, Uncertain Borders, T&T Clark (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Cristina Grenholm serves on the arts and education faculty at Karlstad University in Sweden. A writer, feminist, and expert on the Old Testament and Christianity, she has written and/or edited several books that deal with gender in religious tradition and with biblical texts. Her works include Romans Interpreted: A Comparative Analysis of the Commentaries of Barth, Nygren, Cranfield, and Wilckens on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, The Old Testament, Christianity, and Pluralism, Reading Israel in Romans: Legitimacy and Plausibility of Divergent Interpretations, which she edited with Daniel Patte, and Gender, Tradition, and Romans: Shared Ground, Uncertain Borders, again edited with Patte.

In The Old Testament, Christianity, and Pluralism, Grenholm attempts to provide readers with a logical and fair reading of the Old Testament that can still remain in harmony with pluralism. She sets out to divide her task by providing different categories under which observations can by identified, both critical and creative. She addresses various readings of the text and different theories pertaining to the literary traditions of the bible as well as rhetoric pertaining to sexuality, the roles of ancient Hebrew texts, and more comparative biblical theology. She is somewhat hampered by the wealth of material that has been written in conjunction with and to analyze the Old Testament, many of which serve as a justification of the narrative that eases it into the parameters of modern Christianity. Zev Garber, in a review for the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, commented that "the contribution of Grenholm to contextual theology is a welcome addition to the field of biblical interpretation in this age of multiculturalism."

Gender, Tradition, and Romans, which Grenholm and Patte edited, attempts to locate a connection on an historical level between the text of Romans and specific faith communities, with the purpose of analyzing the dialogue of the book in terms of gender roles and consciousness. The idea is not to discern the absolute meaning of the book, but rather to leave it open to various interpretations based on different viewpoints, and indeed based on gender. This is particularly appealing to feminists, and can be noted in specific word choice, much of which is deliberately gender neutral. Different schools of thought are also compared to Romans, seeking to determine how broadly it can be interpreted. Platonic and Confucian theories are two such examples. Atsuhiro Asano, in a review for the Expository Times, found the Asian influences limited, but overall concluded that "the book accomplishes its goal of introducing a wide variety of feminist sensitivities to the text."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Expository Times, March, 2007, Atsuhiro Asano, "A Gender-Conscious Dialogue on Romans," pp. 305-306.

Interpretation, October 1, 2006, review of Gender, Tradition, and Romans: Shared Ground, Uncertain Borders, p. 493.

Journal of Ecumenical Studies, June 22, 1998, Zev Garber, review of The Old Testament, Christianity, and Pluralism, p. 520.

Journal of Theological Studies, April 1, 1991, R. Morgan, review of Romans Interpreted: A Comparative Analysis of the Commentaries of Barth, Nygren, Cranfield, and Wilckens on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, p. 470.

Reference & Research Book News, February 1, 2006, review of Gender, Tradition, and Romans.

Theology Today, January 1, 2003, J. Ross Wagner, review of Reading Israel in Romans: Legitimacy and Plausibility of Divergent Interpretations, p. 660.