Transformed by Spirit-Chi

Embracing the Other is the newest volume in the Prophetic Christian­ity series, in which “authors navigate difference and dialogue constructively about divisive and urgent issues of the early twenty-first century.” For Grace Ji-Sun Kim, the pressing issue is how we might move beyond racism and sexism and toward justice and reconciliation for everyone regardless of race or gender.

To address this issue, Kim brings together a number of strands: an examination of the “foreign women” of the Hebrew Bible; the history and experience of Asian immigrant women in North America as “foreign women”; insights from feminist, postcolonial, and Asian-American studies; and Kim’s own experiences as an Asian-American woman who teaches theology at Earl­ham School of Religion.

Kim examines Ezra 9, where officials among the returned exiles report that some of their men have begun intermarrying with “foreign women” from the neighboring lands, contrary to God’s commands. Distressed by this news, Ezra tears at his hair and clothing, spends time in fasting and prayer, and then insists that such intermarrying must stop. What’s more, the foreign women end up paying the harshest penalty as the men in power decide that the women and their children are to be expelled from the community.