Academic Value of Examining New Testament in More Than one Perspective

There is academic value in examining these disparate texts from more than one perspective. This value comes from maintaining an unbiased point of view as the reader, with the end goal being to use this perspective as a tool to further understand the Bible's theological component. The value comes more from the avoidance of misinterpretation, but may also provide insight through different techniques of analysis. These include but are not limited to the contextual, sociological, ideological, historical and psychological factors that contributed to the Bibles creation. Providing examples through feminist, ecumenical, gay and liberationist perspectives, the academic value of examining the New Testament texts, paralleled with the knowledge of the contributing factors mentioned above will make the definitive value of studying the texts using this method clearer.

The interpretation of the 27 canonical texts of the New Testament helps us to understand the text better by avoiding misinterpretations that are potentially harmful and not true to the source material. A feminist would certainly view the profiling of females outlined in 1 Timothy and Titus as opposition to her sex-independent equality message. However, when considering the theological message of equality that Jesus advocated, then feminism would seem to be a beneficiary of such a message. Also, according to modern tradition, this view would certainly be more appropriate and serve to justify this kind of thinking. If one would understand the text strictly through feminism they would have to factor in the sociological and ideological views that were held about women during the time of authorship. A feminist perspective would not hinder our understanding of the theology. Rather, it would actually compliment the theology that everyone is equal in the eyes of God, including women. Contrarily, this theology would not be reinforced with an anti-feminist perspective.

Understanding the New Testament with an ecumenical perspective would have obvious advantages. The thought of uniting a divided Christian church, especially during the period after Jesus'