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A Year of Biblical Womanhood

Rachel Held Evans

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Mar 25, 2014 Matt LeFevers rated it it was amazing

"I have come to regard with some suspicion those who claim that the Bible never troubles them," Rachel Held Evans writes, in response to encountering some truly horrifying Biblical misogyny. "I can only assume this means they haven't actually read it."

I like Rachel Held Evans' blog a lot, and her last book was a breezy, interesting read. The concept of this one sounded fascinating but also reminded me of A.J. Jacobs' "Year of Living Biblically" (which she briefly references, a fan having made th "I have come to regard with some suspicion those who claim that the Bible never troubles them," Rachel Held Evans writes, in response to encountering some truly horrifying Biblical misogyny. "I can only assume this means they haven't actually read it."

I like Rachel Held Evans' blog a lot, and her last book was a breezy, interesting read. The concept of this one sounded fascinating but also reminded me of A.J. Jacobs' "Year of Living Biblically" (which she briefly references, a fan having made the same connection) with a more feminist slant. I was little prepared for how very powerful this book turned out to be.

Where Jacobs' book is more of a comedic endeavor with moments of thoughtfulness, the more religious Evans approaches this project with a little more reverence. Attempting to spend a year living as a "biblical woman" (and figuring out what, if anything, that could possibly mean), she assigns each month a virtue and a list of tasks, and delves deep into scriptural analysis to discern what instructions the New and Old Testaments do, and don't, have for women.

There are a lot of lighthearted domestic stories here -- the inexperienced Evans trying to learn how to cook complex recipes and lashing out at Martha Stewart's instructions had me laughing aloud, and her portrait of her supportive but perplexed husband was touching. The stories about Bolivia and visiting various isolated religious sects here in America, on the other hand, have an almost travelogue feel, capturing details and sensations. Evans is great at both.

Where the book elevated itself for me -- past any of her other work, and past most other people's for that matter -- was in the moments where things got more serious. The memorial that Evans and a friend hold for the many women in the Bible who were tortured and killed senselessly, whose names are not even recorded for us, moved me profoundly. Her research into the conditions that workers labor in to provide us foods we don't even think about the origins of, made me feel sick with guilt.

After this book, Evans might be my favorite feminist. When it comes to scripture, she has done her homework, and she dismantles the patriarchal culture of the evangelical church deftly and matter-of-factly. The fundamentalist conception of women's roles is based much more on an idealized 1950's housewife than anything the Bible has to say, and she pulls no punches in researching and then dissecting these viewpoints. There were moments I wanted to cheer.

More than anything, her take on Biblical interpretation (both good and ill) is refreshing, affording the scriptures a healthy respect while cautioning against being too quickly sure we know what they are saying. Jesus himself, Evans reminds us, routinely got in trouble for violating religious prohibitions. "It may serve as little comfort to those who have suffered abuse at the hand of Bible-wielding literalists, but the disturbing laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy lose just a bit of their potency when God himself breaks them." ...more

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Dec 11, 2021 Travis rated it really liked it

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