Journals serve to advance academic and professional disciplines. Typically, the field of inquiry that a journal is seeking to advance is evident from its title. Colleagues of mine have, for example, recently published articles in the Journal of Physiology and the American Journal of Occupational Therapy.
Priscilla Papers, however, does not promote a clearly-demarcated discipline, such as experimental psychology or mechanical engineering, or a focused profession such as music education or pediatric nursing. Instead, what we are advancing is egalitarianism—more specifically, evangelical gender egalitarianism. And this field of inquiry, by its nature, is interdisciplinary. Or, put differently, egalitarianism is in fact not a field of inquiry. Instead, we might think of it as a trajectory within various disciplines and professions.
We frequently publish articles from biblical studies, theology, and church history. Doing so is an initial step toward interdisciplinarity, for these are three disciplines rather than one. However, it is more complicated than that.
First, it is more complicated because each of these areas can be subdivided. Biblical studies, for example, is typically divided by corpus, Old Testament or New Testament. From here we can specify the ancient language under consideration (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, etc.), the method being employed (rhetorical criticism, narrative criticism, ethnography, etc.), and so forth.
Moving in the other direction—broadening out rather than narrowing into subdivisions—it is more complicated because numerous disciplines beyond the obvious ones (that is, the ones obvious to me—biblical studies, theology, and church history) contribute to the advancement of egalitarianism. While this has frequently been the case in the thirty-four years of Priscilla Papers, it is particularly true of this issue. Not only do the items in the following pages arise from different primary disciplines, but each of them is also, within itself, interdisciplinary.
Making no claim to be comprehensive, I will here list the authors and then note disciplines represented in their contributions to this issue.
- Timothy Paul Erdel: genre studies, hermeneutics, literary criticism, Old Testament exegesis
- Janet Galante and Molly Kate Hance: homiletics, hermeneutics, New Testament exegesis
- Ally Kateusz: archaeology, art history, church history, iconography
- Karen Strand Winslow: ecclesiology, church history, theology (Not only is this article interdisciplinary, but it has to take into account the disciplines of the person whom it investigates—namely, C. S. Lewis, who was a literary critic, medievalist, Christian apologist, and fiction writer.)
What is true of our authors is also true of our Peer Review Team, of the CBE staff, and, moreover, of our readership. Indeed, Priscilla Papers is created by and for people with a broad range of gifts, professions, callings, and interests. Together, we are advancing evangelical gender egalitarianism.
