Must Reads Classics - Phyllis Trible (with Lisa Davison)

by Perkins Center for Preaching Excellence on Tuesday, January 27, 2026

In October of this year, the world lost a true trailblazer in biblical interpretation with the death of Phyllis Trible. Known for her groundbreaking feminist exegesis of women characters in the Bible, Trible is the author of Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives. In this seminal work, Trible combines literary criticism with feminist hermeneutics as she explores four biblical narratives in which women characters experience horrific gender-based violence. As Trible states in her introduction, her task is to tell sad stories as she hears them, and she asks her reader to sit with these stories as they are told.

Dr. McKenzie spoke with Dr. Lisa Davison, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean and the Johnnie Earge Cadieux Professor of Hebrew Bible at Phillips Theological Seminary about Trible's work Texts of Terror.  They discussed the importance of examining these texts from a different perspective, the responsibility of preachers to address these stories from the pulpit, and how to maintain hope despite the violence detailed in these stories.