‘Prophets, Warriors, Harlots & Healers: Wild and Holy Women of the Bible’, a new book by Rev. Sherry Cothran, M.Div., will be released June 1st, 2021. In this book, Cothran, a former rock star turned United Methodist minister, explores lost stories of unconventional women of the Bible that transform traditional ideas about women, God and the Bible.
Illuminating women’s stories that have only in recent years been made known by female Bible scholars, Cothran focuses on the stories of 10 lesser-known female characters and includes 10 original songs written from the perspective of the characters she explores. The book explores the stories of powerful women of the Bible that have often been missing from traditional biblical interpretation alongside stories of violence against women, often perpetrated at the hands of God’s people.
Helping women to emerge from a so called “biblical” story that has taught them they are inferior, Cothran provides a healing pathway rooted in the very biblical narrative that has so often been used to justify oppression for women.
Each chapter on women’s stories like Jael, Athaliah, Huldah and others, includes reflections on biblical woman, the spiritual journey as well as the wounds and burdens women carry in body and spirit. Cothran illustrates the ways in which the presence of these lesser known biblical women’s stories create possibilities of healing and awakening for women today.
