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quitejessi 's review for:
A Year of Biblical Womanhood
by Rachel Held Evans
It's an interesting premise for a book, but I don't think it worked. One main reason: RHE is a blogger, not a scholar. On the flip side, I don't think this book would've worked if it was a biblical (or Jewish) scholar either because it wouldn't have existed. (Christian denominations and Jewish sects have all decided what is and is not mandatory to follow in the Bible's commands towards women. In the more orthodox Jewish circles, more is taken literally.)
As it was, it was a humorous but not serious look at the commands given for women in the Old Testament and New Testament. I enjoyed the vignettes of biblical women, and some of the applications given. These were the strongest parts of the book.
However, RHE realizes she doesn't have a definitive answer, and the book suffers for that. Because without a definitive answer, it's just one woman doing some things that people have recommended her to do (and sometimes not doing the things and having her friends do it for her).
I loved a few of her quotes, though:
"As a Christian, my highest calling is not motherhood; my highest calling is to follow Christ. And following Christ is something a woman can do whether she is married, or single, rich or poor, sick or healthy, childless or Michelle Duggar."
"When we turn the Bible into an adjective and stick it in front of another loaded word (like manhood, womanhood, politics, economics, marriage, and even equality), we tend to ignore or downplay the parts of the Bible that don’t fit our tastes. In an attempt to simplify, we try to force the Bible’s cacophony of voices into a single tone, to turn a complicated and at times troubling holy text into a list of bullet points we can put in a manifesto or creed. More often than not, we end up more committed to what we want the Bible to say than what it actually says."
As it was, it was a humorous but not serious look at the commands given for women in the Old Testament and New Testament. I enjoyed the vignettes of biblical women, and some of the applications given. These were the strongest parts of the book.
However, RHE realizes she doesn't have a definitive answer, and the book suffers for that. Because without a definitive answer, it's just one woman doing some things that people have recommended her to do (and sometimes not doing the things and having her friends do it for her).
I loved a few of her quotes, though:
"As a Christian, my highest calling is not motherhood; my highest calling is to follow Christ. And following Christ is something a woman can do whether she is married, or single, rich or poor, sick or healthy, childless or Michelle Duggar."
"When we turn the Bible into an adjective and stick it in front of another loaded word (like manhood, womanhood, politics, economics, marriage, and even equality), we tend to ignore or downplay the parts of the Bible that don’t fit our tastes. In an attempt to simplify, we try to force the Bible’s cacophony of voices into a single tone, to turn a complicated and at times troubling holy text into a list of bullet points we can put in a manifesto or creed. More often than not, we end up more committed to what we want the Bible to say than what it actually says."