Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Introduction: Mother Goose, Mother Jones, Mommy Dearest : biblical mothers and their children / Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan and Tina Pippin -- For God's sake, mommie, help! : the mother-daughter dyad in Leviticus 18 and the biblical directive for equity in the family / Madeline McClenney-Sadler -- Mother knows best : messianic surrogacy and sexploitation in Ruth / Wil Gafney -- Sacrifice and the displacement of mothers in the book of Ruth and Coetzee's Disgrace / Brian Britt -- Of virtue and of eating shorts : breaking down the configuration of faithful mother and wayward son in Judges and The Simpsons / Frank M. Yamada -- Mothering a leader : Bathsheba's relational and functional identities / Mignon R. Jacobs -- Parturition (childbirth), pain, and piety : physicians and Genesis 3:16a / Linda S. Shearing -- Rethinking the "virtuous" woman (Proverbs 31) : a mother in need of holiday / Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan -- Reading the religious romance : sexuality, spirituality, and motherhood in the Bible and today / Mark Roncace and Deborah Whitehead -- Jesus and his mother : an analysis of their public relationship as a paradigm for African women (widows) who must circumvent traditional authority in order to thrive in society / Andrew M. Mbuvi -- Jesus as fantasy mother / Tina Pippin -- BMW : biblical mother working/wrecking, Black mother working/wrecking / Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder -- Motherhood archetype : mothers of justice / Brenda Wallace -- "Mother knows best" : the story of mother Paul revisited / Margaret Aymer -- Responses. -- Learning to know about mothers who "know best" / Tat-siong Benny Liew -- Reading mothers and motherhood by the godly standards of Scripture / Alison Jasper.