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A review by lalatut
A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans
3.0
I've tried writing this review multiple times and find this book hard to rate.
The premise of Rachel's project initially struck me as a ridiculous attention-getting scheme, and maybe it was. But her commitment was real. She mapped out the whole year and stuck to it. How and why she included certain things is anybody's guess, but she found aspects of the project incredibly challenging and she changed a lot through the process.
Rachel asks good questions. She is brave enough to struggle and to do it in public. That takes a lot of vulnerability. I do not think it would be a stretch to say the project was born out of baggage from her evangelical upbringing. I did not get the impression that she is a Bible scholar and she doesn't seem familiar with Biblical Theology (understanding the Bible as one complete story culminating in Christ & his kingdom) and I doubt she studied hermeneutics, catechisms, or creeds prior to writing this book. But she wants to know why the word "biblical" is so frequently tacked on as an adjective and used to justify many random ideas & practices (within and without evangelical/orthodox Christianity) specifically oppressive, unjust, or objectifying ones in relation to women. Over the course of the project, she observes many of these: she stops wearing pants, stops cutting her hair, dons a head covering, makes bread from scratch, interviews Amish, practices monasticism, and befriends an Israeli woman to better understand how modern orthodox Jews interpret the Old Testament and compares/contrasts it to modern cultural-christian norms. I found her discussion on Proverbs 31 based on traditional Jewish interpretations particularly compelling.
Did I agree with her on everything? Nope. Will you find the Gospel in this book? I didn't see it and it was unclear how well she understands the gospel. But are there some valuable insights? Definitely.
I remember some reviewers being particularly harsh when the book first came out. Rachel does not trust those whom she perceives to have power and influence within evangelicalism because she's been manipulated and spiritually abused. However, she seems to be utilizing the practice of throwing out parts of the Bible she doesn't understand or like because some people have used scripture to (falsely) justify wrong practices. It's worth noting that since this book was published, she has broken with evangelicalism. I would argue that she was never truly evangelical.
Lastly, I just want to say that Rachel's baggage and experiences are not isolated. When girls are taught modesty and submission as primary, elevated above the pursuit of God and a deeper understanding of his character and our image-bearing personhood it is a shame-inducing, crushing experience that does not lead women to God.
The message of scripture is about Jesus and his work to rescue a people who are enslaved to their broken, sinful ways and determined to live independently by either self-imposed rules or absolutely no boundaries. When you manipulate God's word to control children (or women) it will backfire and you are left with people who are immunized against the true Gospel. I'm not saying Rachel immunized, just that her writing evidences that she bears scars from having lived under that paradigm.
The premise of Rachel's project initially struck me as a ridiculous attention-getting scheme, and maybe it was. But her commitment was real. She mapped out the whole year and stuck to it. How and why she included certain things is anybody's guess, but she found aspects of the project incredibly challenging and she changed a lot through the process.
Rachel asks good questions. She is brave enough to struggle and to do it in public. That takes a lot of vulnerability. I do not think it would be a stretch to say the project was born out of baggage from her evangelical upbringing. I did not get the impression that she is a Bible scholar and she doesn't seem familiar with Biblical Theology (understanding the Bible as one complete story culminating in Christ & his kingdom) and I doubt she studied hermeneutics, catechisms, or creeds prior to writing this book. But she wants to know why the word "biblical" is so frequently tacked on as an adjective and used to justify many random ideas & practices (within and without evangelical/orthodox Christianity) specifically oppressive, unjust, or objectifying ones in relation to women. Over the course of the project, she observes many of these: she stops wearing pants, stops cutting her hair, dons a head covering, makes bread from scratch, interviews Amish, practices monasticism, and befriends an Israeli woman to better understand how modern orthodox Jews interpret the Old Testament and compares/contrasts it to modern cultural-christian norms. I found her discussion on Proverbs 31 based on traditional Jewish interpretations particularly compelling.
Did I agree with her on everything? Nope. Will you find the Gospel in this book? I didn't see it and it was unclear how well she understands the gospel. But are there some valuable insights? Definitely.
I remember some reviewers being particularly harsh when the book first came out. Rachel does not trust those whom she perceives to have power and influence within evangelicalism because she's been manipulated and spiritually abused. However, she seems to be utilizing the practice of throwing out parts of the Bible she doesn't understand or like because some people have used scripture to (falsely) justify wrong practices. It's worth noting that since this book was published, she has broken with evangelicalism. I would argue that she was never truly evangelical.
Lastly, I just want to say that Rachel's baggage and experiences are not isolated. When girls are taught modesty and submission as primary, elevated above the pursuit of God and a deeper understanding of his character and our image-bearing personhood it is a shame-inducing, crushing experience that does not lead women to God.
The message of scripture is about Jesus and his work to rescue a people who are enslaved to their broken, sinful ways and determined to live independently by either self-imposed rules or absolutely no boundaries. When you manipulate God's word to control children (or women) it will backfire and you are left with people who are immunized against the true Gospel. I'm not saying Rachel immunized, just that her writing evidences that she bears scars from having lived under that paradigm.