The Samaritan Woman’s Well of Interpretation with Caryn Reeder (S3:E2)

Welcome to In Search Of, a podcast where we go in search of voices and perspectives that inform and expand a life of faith. We continue rediscovering lost Biblical women in this episode with Caryn Reeder about the Samaritan woman. Caryn offers us an interpretation that goes beyond scholarship’s tendency to hypersexualize and denigrate the Samaritan woman by offering critical, often lost context about marriage and the role of women in the world behind the story. What if this is an example not of a fallen woman, but of an early female leader in the church? All this and more on this episode of In Search Of. A transcript of this episode can be found here.

For further searching, check out these links:

• Get Caryn’s book The Samaritan Woman’s Story: Reconsidering John 4 After #ChurchToo
• Check out Ruth Everhart’s The #MeToo Reckoning: Facing the Church’s Complicity in Sexual Abuse and Misconduct
• Explore Photine in the Orthodox Church
• Learn more about Marie Dentiere and Virginia Broughton

And check out this related content from the Christian Century:

• “When women speak more than truth” by Kathryn Reklis (May 2023)
• “The Samaritan woman vs. our assumptions” by Lisa M. Wolfe (March 2023)
• “What MeToo hasn’t yet accomplished” from the editors (Dec 2022)
• “Seven things I learned by teaching a Me Too Bible class” by Mary Beth McSwain (June 2021)
• “A prophetic ministry of relationship” by Ian McFarland (Sep 2019)
• “Women of the Bible say #MeToo” by Ruth Everhart (August 2018)

Is there something that you are in search of? Email us.