After establishing a feminist-historicist perspective on the tradition of biblical commentary, Tinkle develops in-depth case studies that situate scholars reading the bible in three distinct historical moments, and in so doing she exposes the cultural pressures that medieval scholars felt as they interpreted the bible.

Women on Top in Medieval Exegesis Subversive Feminine Voices: The Reception of 1 Timothy 2 from Jerome to Chaucer Gender Trouble in Augustine's Confessions Affective Exegesis in the Fleury Slaughter of Innocents The Wife of Bath's Marginal Authority Afterword