Baptist News Global introduces a new podcast series this week called “Bible Divas.” This podcast brings together four female biblical scholars: Angela N. Parker, Anna Sieges Beal, Jennifer Garcia Bashaw and Cynthia Shafer-Elliott.
“While the Southern Baptist Convention seeks to silence women from interpreting and teaching the Bible, we want to fling the doors wide open to women,” said Mark Wingfield, BNG executive director. “God still speaks to us through women as well as men.”
These veteran educators share a conviction that careful, honest biblical scholarship belongs in public conversation and should be available to everyday people, not confined to classrooms or academic journals.
Each episode will feature the hosts in dialogue with one another and with other female Bible scholars, reading Scripture with curiosity, expertise and a strong sense of humor. The conversations will be grounded in scholarly rigor while remaining approachable, candid and relational.
The cohosts said they hope to resist oversimplification and gatekeeping, inviting listeners into the interpretive process rather than talking over them or around them.
“At the heart of the podcast is a commitment to community,” Bashaw said. “The Bible continues to shape real lives, often in powerful, complicated and deeply personal ways, and this podcast takes that impact seriously. By centering women’s voices and perspectives, the show creates space for interpretations that have too often been overlooked or dismissed, while remaining open and welcoming to a broad audience.
“This is biblical scholarship out loud, where women are holding the mic,” Sieges Beal added. “Listeners are invited into conversations that will challenge assumptions, spark curiosity, provoke laughter and encourage deeper engagement with Scripture. The goal is not to tell people what to think about the Bible, but to model what it looks like to read carefully, honestly and together — because the Bible still matters, and how we talk about it and who we listen to talking about it matters too.”
Angela N. Parker serves as associate professor of New Testament and womanist thought at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in religion and philosophy from Shaw University, the master of theological studies from Duke Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Bible, culture and hermeneutics from Chicago Theological Seminary.
Anna Sieges Beal serves as associate professor of religion at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, N.C. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from Gardner-Webb, a master of arts degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Baylor University.
Jennifer Garcia Bashaw serves as associate professor of New Testament and Christian ministry at Campbell University in North Carolina. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and a master of divinity degree from Baylor’s Truett Seminary, followed by a Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary.
Cynthia Shafer-Elliott serves as associate professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in the Religion Department at Baylor. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in social science and biblical archaeology from Simpson University, a master of arts degree in biblical studies from Ashland Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in biblical studies from the University of Sheffield, England.