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How might women in the Bible tell their stories if they were prompted to do so by Eve Ensler's controversial play, The Vagina Monologues? This collection imagines some answers to that question. The monologues herein are written by a variety of authors, including scholars, undergraduates, clergy, and laywomen; the content of the narratives reflects this variety, being at times faithful or irreverent, tragic or even funny. All seek to give twenty-first-century voices to women in canonical texts--including the Hebrew Bible, Deuterocanonical books, and New Testament--who are often speechless, nameless, or otherwise marginalized. Not for the faint of heart, these monologues not only end the silences but also add flesh and bone to characters whose experiences have too easily been justified, metaphorized, or altogether ignored. By naming the torn places in these women's stories, this volume invites readers to encounter both the biblical characters and their contemporary interpreters with an attitude of compassionate listening. Our hope is that such compassionate listening may contribute not only to more just readings of sacred texts, but also to the mission of Eve Ensler and V-Day to end global violence against women and girls.

Since the publication of Max Weber's classic, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, it has long been assumed that a distinctly Protestant ethos has shaped the current global economic order. Against this common consensus, Kathryn D. Blanchard argues that the theological thought of John Calvin and the Protestant movement as a whole has much to say that challenges the current incarnation of the capitalist order. This book develops an approach to Christian economic ethics that celebrates God's gift of human freedom, while at the same time acknowledging necessary, and indeed vital, limitations in the context of material and social life. Through sustained interaction with such unlikely dialogue partners as Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, Deirdre McCloskey, and Muhammad Yunus, this book shows that the virtues of self-denial, neighbor love, and sympathy have been quite at home in the capitalism of the past, and can be again. Though self-interest has enjoyed several decades as the unquestioned ruling principle of American economics, other-interest is steadily coming back into view, not only among Christian ethicists, but among economists as well. This book explores the important implications of this shift in economic thinking from a theological perspective.