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A review by seventhswan
A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
“If you want to do violence in this world, you will always find the weapons. If you want to heal, you will always find the balm.”
The premise of this book was not quite what I thought it would be - it feels uncharitable to say, but I'd assumed Held Evans would be going full-send, full Biblical literalism, for a full year. I can now easily see how this wasn't feasible (at least, without being part of a wider community set up to enable this sort of lifestyle, as in some Orthodox Jewish communities, or a convent), and still found it entertaining and eye-opening reading about her various experiences during her experiment. I also appreciated the interviews with women from various other walks of life and religious traditions, including ones I knew very little about such as Quakers.
Biblically, I found this book an excellent educational resource, particularly the devotional sections which provided nuanced, anti-misogynist perspectives on the lives of various women in the Bible. Although written in accessible, non-academic language, I would say this is not an introductory-level book; Held Evans' Biblical literacy is excellent and familiarity with both testaments of the Bible is needed to really get the most out of her analysis.
Politically, I agreed with Held Evans' central theses - that the Bible does not prescribe one way of being a woman, that common arguments for women's subservience to men are unbiblical, and that the Bible is a collection of ancient writings by various authors and needs careful contextualisation before applying it wholesale to our lives. I was less sure about her interactions with the concept of charity and with Jewish festivals, which I'm worried leaned a bit white-savioury and appropriative.
The premise of this book was not quite what I thought it would be - it feels uncharitable to say, but I'd assumed Held Evans would be going full-send, full Biblical literalism, for a full year. I can now easily see how this wasn't feasible (at least, without being part of a wider community set up to enable this sort of lifestyle, as in some Orthodox Jewish communities, or a convent), and still found it entertaining and eye-opening reading about her various experiences during her experiment. I also appreciated the interviews with women from various other walks of life and religious traditions, including ones I knew very little about such as Quakers.
Biblically, I found this book an excellent educational resource, particularly the devotional sections which provided nuanced, anti-misogynist perspectives on the lives of various women in the Bible. Although written in accessible, non-academic language, I would say this is not an introductory-level book; Held Evans' Biblical literacy is excellent and familiarity with both testaments of the Bible is needed to really get the most out of her analysis.
Politically, I agreed with Held Evans' central theses - that the Bible does not prescribe one way of being a woman, that common arguments for women's subservience to men are unbiblical, and that the Bible is a collection of ancient writings by various authors and needs careful contextualisation before applying it wholesale to our lives. I was less sure about her interactions with the concept of charity and with Jewish festivals, which I'm worried leaned a bit white-savioury and appropriative.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy
Minor: Antisemitism