The Female Ancestors of Christ

The spiritual power of the Feminine shines forth in this psychological study of four Old Testament heroines from Jesus' family tree. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba are the only women mentioned by name in the Gospels' genealogies and, for Ann Belford Ulanov, this indicates that they impart something essential to the lineage of Christ. By exploring their brave and unconventional lives, she demonstrates how salvation enters the world in the feminine mode of being human, through these women's embodiment of such powerful and deeply feminine qualities as ingenuity, audacity, determination, compassion, seduction, and devotion.

Ann Belford Ulanov is Christiane Brooks Johnson Professor of Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York City