'Just because I am a woman, must I therefore believe that I must not tell you about the goodness of God...?' asked the Englishwoman Julian of Norwich in the early 15th century. She marvelled that 'he who was her Maker chose to be born of the creature that is made.'
“仅仅因为我是女人，我就得相信我无法告诉你神的美德…？”15世纪初期英格兰妇女诺里奇的朱利安这样问道。她很咤异“她的创造者竟然选择降生于那个被创造物”。引自第7页
（宗教改革；亚当与夏娃）
Reformation enabled more women to receive an education. In 1589, in what one historian has called the earliest piece of English feminist polemic, Jane Anger took up a challenging position by insisting that Eve was superior to Adam: a second, and hence improved, model. Whereas Adam was fashioned from'dross and filthy clay', God made Eve from Adam's flesh, ‘that she might be purer than he’, which 'doth evidently show how far we women are more excellent than men...From woman sprang man's salvation. A woman was the first that believed, and a woman likewise the first that repented of sin.'
宗教改革使更多的女性得以接受教育。1589年，在被一位历史学家称为“英格兰最早的女权主义檄文”中，简·安杰挺身而出，强调夏娃优于亚当：夏娃是第二个成形之人，因此也更加完善。亚当由“废物和肮脏的泥土”塑造而成，神又从亚当的肉中造出夏娃，故而“她定比他纯净”，这“显然说明我们女人比男人要优秀不少…有了女人，才有男人的救赎。女人是第一个信神的，同样也是第一个悔罪的”。
1 宗教改革：16世纪西方基督教会中所发生的宗教革命，其主要领导人是路德和加尔文，由此产生基督教三大分支之一的基督教新教。
2 简·安杰（Jane Anger）：16世纪后期英国女作家，生平不详。她唯一的存世作品为《简·安杰论保护女性》（Jane Anger：Her Protection for Women，1589）这本小册子，批评了当时的大男子主义。引自第9页
（圣经中女性的负面形象；圣保罗的态度）
But any woman wanting to defend her sex had to tackle powerfully negative scriptural images of women: Delilah was treacherous, Jezebel murderous, while Eve was directly responsible for the Fall ofthe human race: ‘the woman tempted him and he did eat’. Saint Paul was regularly invoked against any woman who spoke out, or asked awkward questions about the Church's attitude to women: ‘Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted to them to speak’, he instructed the Corinthians. And again, in the epistle to Timothy, ‘if they will learn anything let them ask their husbands at home: for it is shame for women to speak in the church'.
但是任何女人想要捍卫自己的性别，都不得不有力地处理《圣经》中女性的负面形象：大利拉背叛，耶洗别杀人，而夏娃则对人类的堕落负有直接责任：“女人诱惑他，他吃了。”女人一旦大胆讲话，或就教会对女性的态度提出难以应付的问题，经常就会有人拿圣保罗的话来进行压制。“让你们的女人在会中闭口不言，因为不准她们说话，”圣保罗向哥林多人训示道。他在给提摩太的书信中还说道：“她们若要学什么，可以在家里问自己的丈夫，因为妇女在会中说话原是可耻的。”
3 大利拉（Delilah）：《圣经·旧约》所载以色列人领袖参孙的最后一位情人，曾哄骗参孙说出力大无穷的秘密在于长发，然后出卖了他，并因此成为不忠的性感女人的代名词。
4 耶洗别（Jezebel）：《圣经·旧约》所载以色列国王亚哈之妻，阻挠希伯来人信仰神，迫害并杀害先知，挑拨希伯来人互相残杀，后被处死，尸首被群狗分吃。引自第9页
（对圣经中女性负面形象的反击）
Gradually, a few women found the confidence to defy these scriptural prohibitions. Some offered dissenting interpretations of Genesis, arguing that Adam was, after all, as much to blame for the Fall as Eve. So, in 1611, Aemilia Lanyer reminded her readers that Christ
was begotten of a woman, born of a woman, nourished of a woman, obedient to a woman...he healed women, pardoned women, comforted women...after his resurrection, appeared first to a woman.
渐渐地，一些女性找到了反抗这些《圣经》禁锢的信心。一些女性对《创世记》作出了不同的解释，认为归根到底，亚当对于人类的堕落和夏娃负有同等的责任。于是，1611年埃米利亚·兰耶提醒自己的读者，基督
由女人怀上，由女人诞下，由女人哺育，对女人顺从……他治愈女人，宽恕女人，安抚女人……他复活后，首先显身给一个女人。
1 埃米利亚·兰耶（Aemilia Lanyer，1569-1645）：据认为是英国第一位职业女诗人。引自第9页
（17世纪教派及小团体；贵格会）
In the course of the troubled 17th century, particularly among the sects, the many and various small groups that rejected the established Church in favour of purer forms of worship, women found more freedom.
在动荡不安的17世纪，尤其是在抵制国教、尊崇简化宗教仪式的教派和众多不同的小团体中，女性获得了更多的自由。引自第10页by the 1640s some, particularly among the Quakers, were going further. In 1659, the Quaker Fox argued that 'Christ is in the male as in the female, who redeems from under the Law... Christ in the male and female, who are in the spirit of God, are not under the Law.'
到了17世纪40年代，一些教会，尤其是贵格会则更进了一步。1659年，贵格会教徒福克斯认为“基督在男人中，也在女人中，他解救那些世俗律法之下的人……男女中的基督，在神的灵中，不在世俗律法之下。”
8 贵格会：基督教公谊会的别称，强调圣灵的指引，废除外在礼仪和神职人员，积极维护和平、反对战争。引自第11页
表示其中内容是对原文的摘抄