This collection of essays explores the way individuals and communities navigate complicated spaces which have been dominated by econo-heteropatriarchal powers to find their voice and claim their space.

Using concepts of space from development studies, the volume explores the power of biblical narratives for communities to navigate the complex and multifaceted intersections between gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and economics in the biblical text as well as within the diverse interpretive communities the chapter authors represent. In particular, these contributions are interested in the role of art as a way for individuals and communities to exhibit their agency and so transform hostile spaces in which they inadvertently find themselves.

The work is divided into three sections: Claiming Space in the Community, Claiming Space in the Text, Claiming Space in/through Art. The contemporary contexts engaged with include South Africa, India, Brazil, Aotearoa New Zealand, the margins of the United States of America, and Australia. Within these contexts a diverse range of communities struggle “to claim space,” including unemployed young people, LGBTIQA+ communities, women migrant workers, survivors of sexual violence, women struggling to survive economically, ethnic others, women at home and at work, women lamenting and resisting imperialisms, colonial settlers, aboriginal people, LGBTQIA+ Christians, black women and children.

Author Biography

L. Juliana Claassens is Professor in Old Testament and Head of the Gender Unit at the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University.

Gerald O. West is Professor Emeritus in the School of Religion, Philosophy, and Classics in the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Sithembiso Zwane is a lecturer in theology and development and Director of the Ujamaa Centre for Biblical and Theological Community Development and Research in the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics (SPRC) in the College of Humanities at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

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