Ruth and Esther (Belief)

Ruth and Esther

Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible

Marcia Y. Riggs
Westminster John Knox Press, 2025
ISBN 9780664232504

Hardcover, 158 pp.
9.0 X 6.0 X 0.6 inches | 0.9 pounds

Ruth and Esther theologically examines Ruth and Esther as moral agents who overcome gendered violence with moral courage and imagination.

In this volume of the Belief commentary series, Marcia Y. Riggs brings a womanist, social-ethical reading of the books of Ruth and Esther to reveal the intersection of various forms of gendered violence-social, political, ethnic, economic. Riggs insightfully invites readers to examine how Ruth and Esther are social actors and moral agents responding constructively to gendered violence in their contexts, and she offers historical and contemporary examples of gendered violence to juxtapose with the experiences of Ruth and Esther. In the process, readers are inspired to ask who are the Ruths and Esthers in our society. How is the church responding to the marginalization of these women? How are people of faith doing ministry in solidarity with the struggles of these women?

In all, this resource for preaching and teaching provides insights about faithful ethical responses to violence, encouraging readers to be in dialogue with biblical texts as they ask questions about their complicity with violence in our environments today.

Marcia Y. Riggs is J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics, Emerita, Columbia Theological Seminary. She has published articles and books on womanist ethics, sexual-gender justice, moral education, public discourse, and public policy. Her publications include: Awake, Arise, and Act! A Womanist Call for Black Liberation; Can I Get a Witness? Prophetic Religious Voices of African American Women, an Anthology; Plenty Good Room: Black Women versus Male Power in the Black Church, and she is a co-editor of Ethics That Matters: African, Caribbean, and African American Sources. Dr. Riggs was awarded a 2017-2018 Henry Luce III Fellowship from the Luce Foundation and the Association of Theological Schools.