A Year of Biblical Womanhood

I just finished re-reading this book, and this part nearly took my breath away. At the end of the book, Rachel listed several resolutions, things she wanted to do as she went forward after this project. This was number 7:

“Champion women leaders in the Church. Whatever small influence I may have over the Christian community, I will use to advocate on behalf of my talented sisters who long to use their gifts to benefit the Church and the world. I will share my platform with women writers. I will lend my support to women leaders. I will cheer on women scholars and teachers. And I will speak out against those who try to silence them with patriarchal readings of Scripture that idolize the culture and context in which the Bible was written over the equality and freedom granted to each of us in Christ.”

She said she would do those things, and she did. Woman of integrity. Woman of valor.

Rachel also said she would “Keep loving, studying, and struggling with the Bible—because no matter how hard I fight it, it will always call me back.” and “I'd learned to love the Bible again—for what it is, not what I want it to be.” As always, I see myself in her words. I see my own journey and struggle and commitment to keep wrestling with the Bible.

As Rachel said, “The Bible isn't an answer book. It isn't a self-help manual. It isn't a flat, perspicuous list of rules and regulations that we can interpret objectively and apply unilaterally to our lives. The Bible is a sacred collection of letters and laws, poetry and proverbs, philosophy and prophecies, written and assembled over thousands of years in cultures and contexts very different from our own, that tells the complex, ever-unfolding story of God's interaction with humanity. 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.”

I also love these quotes at the end of the book:

“For those who count the Bible as sacred, interpretation is not a matter of whether to pick and choose, but how to pick and choose. We are all selective. We all wrestle with how to interpret and apply the Bible to our lives. We all go to the text looking for something, and we all have a tendency to find it. So the question we have to ask ourselves is this: Are we reading with the prejudice of love or are we reading with the prejudices of judgement and power, self-interest, and greed?

If you are looking for Bible verses with which to support slavery, you will find them. If you are looking for verses with which to abolish slavery, you will find them. If you are looking for verses with which to oppress women, you will find them. If you are looking for verses with which to liberate and honor women, you will find them. If you are looking for reasons to wage war, you will find them. If you are looking reasons to promote peace, you will find them. If you are looking for an outdated and irrelevant ancient text, you will find it. If you are looking for truth, believe me, you will find it.”

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My original review from 2012:

A Breath of Fresh Air - Entertaining and Thoughtful
There has been a lot of controversy from the “conservative evangelicals” about this book, but I loved it! It made me laugh and it also made me think. In many ways it was like a breath of fresh air for me as she dives into so many of the same questions I've been asking.

I love the conversational style of the book and the ways Evans is able to laugh at herself and tackle deep hermeneutical questions about how we interpret the Bible, specifically as it applies to women's roles in the church, in the home, and in life in general.

As others have noted, there may not be new arguments here, but Rachel made the work of scholars much more accessible and personal. (And again, renewed my desire to dig deeper.)

Reading this book reawakened my love of the Bible in ways I could not have anticipated.