Books I Loved: A Year of Biblical Womanhood

 A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

True confession first. I am a Rachel Held Evans fanboy, so I think everything she writes is amazing. So there was never actually a question about whether I would review this book. I had been intrigued by this book for a while, but it just never made the leap from wish list to my account.

Rachel's idea was to live as literally as possible exactly as the Bible tells women to live for one year.

She researched womanhood in the Bible for a long while and then broke it into 12 big ideas many of which drew from the Proverbs 31 chapter. Each idea would be investigated over the 12 months. One month she called her husband master and assumed a role reminiscent of the I Dream of Genie TV show. They included numerous excerpts from his diary throughout the book, giving a lot of insights. One month she learned to cook and another she learned to sew. One she tried to get into the real estate business. Once she lived in a tent in the yard due to her monthly period. Just in case, Dan was just inside through an open window sleeping with his axe. One month she focused on cleaning, getting to know Marth Stewart very well.

One of the most powerful insights she has was that Proverbs 31 was written by one man praising his wife for who she was. It was not a list of rules from all women. And given how hard it was to achieve everything, it may have been a little hyperbolic even then. This is likely one of those places where the bible is being more descriptive than prescriptive. Of course, she is not saying any of the descriptions are bad or that Christians should not want to be like that proverbs 31 woman. But she is clear that women  trying to match their life precisely to that of the Proverbs 31 women are likely setting themselves up for overwhelm.

Another thing I liked a lot was it's balance. She clearly wanted to demonstrate to herself and others the impossibility of literally doing everything the Bible tells a woman to do, yet she never denigrates the skills she sought to learn. And she never shames the women that are striving to meet the Proverbs 31 standard. In fact she comes to value many of the investments she made. In particular she found that she enjoyed cooking much more than she ever realized, and cooking became an integral part of her life. I think that women that have successfully navigated Biblical Womanhood and those that feel crushed by the idea would benefit from her story.

I would recommend this book to any Christian woman that wants to think through her striving to be a good Christian woman. Additionally, I think it is great for any Christian man willing to learn about the struggle of Christian women.