A bonus episode for Holy Week!
Join Kate, Sarah, Liz, and special guest Grace Kelley (actual poet, not the princess) as we dive into the world of biblical poetry and why it might be the most revolutionary part of Scripture that your church Bible study conveniently skips over.
Turns out when you start paying attention to the poetry that makes up a whopping THIRD of the Bible, all those neat theological boxes start looking pretty flimsy.
Topics Covered:
Why poetry makes up 33% of the Bible yet gets treated like the awkward cousin at family gatherings—and how recognizing poetic genres changes EVERYTHING about biblical interpretation (sorry, literal-only folks)
How many of Scripture's most powerful female contributions come through poetry (Miriam, Hannah, Mary's Magnificat)—and why that matters for understanding whose voices patriarchy has systematically silenced
Why Proverbs 31, the acrostic masterpiece about WISDOM, has been weaponized into a spiritually abusive checklist that would require a small army of household staff to accomplish (spoiler: it's an embodiment of wisdom, not a prescription for women)
Reimagining Psalm 22 as Jesus singing a song of comfort passed down from childhood—and why seeing this as abandonment rather than divine connection misses the entire point (Just in time for Holy Week)
How patriarchal readings of scripture have conveniently overlooked the abundance of feminine, maternal, and non-gendered imagery for God tucked away in those poetic passages most churches skim through
Careful, friends! This episode might just leave you feeling liberated to bring your emotions and imagination to Scripture, questioning why we've been afraid of "poetic language" leading us astray, and noticing how tiny they make women's pockets compared to men's.
The patriarchy is EVERYWHERE. 💁♀️📚✨
P.S. Huge thanks to Grace Kelley for sharing her poetic wisdom and reading from her new book Daughter of Breath, which pushes back against church-sponsored patriarchy and reclaims spirituality from those who've weaponized scripture. We're totally buying extra copies for our pastors and friends! 🔥
Timestamps:
04:12 The Role of Poetry in Healing and Expression
08:48 Biblical Poetry and Its Interpretation
23:29 The Intersection of Poetry and Patriarchy
29:32 Proverbs 31 Revisited
33:41 The Importance of Context in Biblical Interpretation
37:07 Psalm 22: Jesus' Cry on the Cross
45:14 The Feminine Imagery of God
51:24 A Poem on Patriarchy (and Pockets)
