A Year of Biblical Womanhood

Short Review: I wasn't planning on reviewing this until next year. But it is on sale at Amazon, so I posted early. I am more mixed than I thought I would be. It is a book with great promise. And Evans is a writer with even greater promise. So I think I am disappointed because it did not live up to my expectations. I both wanted more and less. I wanted more focus. I think the book was trying to do too many things, talk about the problems with bible interpretation, the problems with modern movements toward conservatism, the role of women in the church, complementarianism, and wrap it up as a funny memoir. I think if she had focused on a couple of them, instead of all of them it would have been better. I also am tired of the ‘year of...' experiments. Doing something for a month is just not enough time to have life change. I think some of the choices of experiments were mistakes and tended to make the whole project seem a bit trite.

On the positive side, I am amazed at the depth of thought that Evans gets of out these short little experiments. I also think she really reached into the problems with biblical interpretation especially around women's roles. I just wish there was more development around it. It is also a very readable and funny book. I don't want to suggest that her humor is the problem, but I have a problem with some of the choices that seemed to make the problems of women in the church less important.

I have a much longer review on my blog at http://bookwi.se/a-year-of-biblical-womanhood-by-rachel-held-evans/