{"id":2871,"date":"2012-10-04T10:29:28","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T10:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/?p=2871"},"modified":"2018-07-20T18:39:40","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T18:39:40","slug":"the-end-of-biblical-womanhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/10\/the-end-of-biblical-womanhood.html","title":{"rendered":"The End of Biblical Womanhood?"},"content":{"rendered":"

And, finally, my review of Rachel Held-Evans’ latest book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood<\/em>,\u00a0which aired on Sermons That Work<\/a>\u00a0two days ago and is\u00a0reprinted here with the permission of\u00a0The Episcopal Digital Network<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

If \u201cbiblical womanhood\u201d were a rutabaga, then Rachel Held-Evans, in her newfound, tongue-and-cheek praise of womanly domesticity, would slice and dice it until it is no longer recognizable, then garnish it with a sprig of parsley. The result? An awkward vegetable \u2013 the kind I avoid in grocery stores \u2013 served up as a flavorful dish.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Held-Evans\u2019 latest book, \u201cA Year of Biblical Womanhood,\u201d takes a difficult, loaded subject, one that can elicit strong feelings and knee-jerk reactions, and humorously pokes holes in it until it no longer holds muster; but what could be a painful, bitter rant by a feminist evangelical is instead a fun, amusing story about one young woman\u2019s relationship with the Bible she holds dear and her effort to follow, over the course of one year, all of Scripture\u2019s prescriptions for women.<\/p>\n

At stake here is the popular mantra of conservative evangelicals John Piper and Wayne Grudem and the movement they and their Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood lead: \u201cbiblical womanhood\u201d asserts that a woman\u2019s best place is in the home, women should submit to their husbands\u2019 leadership, and women should not be allowed to serve in main leadership roles over men.<\/p>\n

If the notion that there is only one biblically supported form of how to be a woman is dubious at the start, it only becomes more ludicrous and downright ridiculous as the book progresses, offering both author and reader a boatload of laugh-rich material.<\/p>\n

Held-Evans spends a year observing on a daily basis what she coins her \u201cBiblical Woman\u2019s Ten Commandments.\u201d These emerge from the favorite proof texts of \u201cbiblical womanhood\u201d enthusiasts. \u201cThou shalt submit to thy husband\u2019s will in all things,\u201d \u201cthou shalt devote thyself to the duties of the home,\u201d and \u201cthou shalt nurture a gentle and quiet spirit\u201d are a few examples.<\/p>\n

These daily guidelines for living are interspersed with practices Held-Evans enacts just once, with a view to focusing each month of the year on a different womanly \u201cvirtue,\u201d such as gentleness, domesticity, obedience or valor. October\u2019s focus on \u201cgentleness\u201d thus involves refraining from loudness, even at football games (1 Peter 3:3-4), taking a lesson in etiquette (Proverbs 11:22), and doing penance on the roof for acts of contention (Proverbs 21:9). April\u2019s call to \u201cpurity\u201d means camping out in the front yard for the first few days of menstruation, in accordance with the Levitical rituals surrounding female purity (Leviticus 15:19), while an emphasis on fertility in May inspires caring for a mail-order, computer-simulated baby (Titus 2:4).<\/p>\n

Certain sections elicit applause in addition to a good laugh. Held-Evans\u2019 exploration of \u201cwhat biblical submission really means\u201d is near the top of my short list of best exegetical commentary on the submission passages (Ephesians 5:22-24, Colossians 3:18-19, 1 Peter 3:1-2). Here Held-Evans effectively shows the deeply\u00a0contextual<\/em>\u00a0nature of the command that wives submit to their husbands, insofar as it appears within a Greco-Roman household code that also accommodates slaves submitting to their masters. The implication is clear \u2013 that if we are to support wifely submission to husbands, we must also implicitly embrace a household code that accommodates slavery!<\/p>\n

Outdated? I would say so.<\/p>\n

Outlandish? Absolutely.<\/p>\n

I have a few, small gripes after reading the book. The short sections highlighting a particular woman from Scripture, from Mary, the mother of Jesus, to lesser-known types like Huldah, are enriching narratives that further dismantle the misnomer of \u201cbiblical womanhood,\u201d but they seem a bit disjointed in their placement within the book\u2019s overall framework. It can be unclear how, for example, the story of Ruth the Moabite really relates to the preceding chapter on \u201cbeauty\u201d \u2013 or if, for that matter, it is supposed to.<\/p>\n

Every so often Held-Evans\u2019 welcome, self-deprecating sense of humor about the evangelical tribe in which we both were reared is prone to broad generalizations built on faulty assumptions, like this one: \u201cIn the evangelical Christian subculture, there are three people a girl\u2019s got to know about before she gets her period: (1) Jesus, (2) Ronald Reagan and (3) the Proverbs 31 woman.\u201d Growing up in a conservative evangelical home, I heard a lot about Jesus, but a whole lot less about Ronald Reagan and the Proverbs 31 woman; and recent studies would confirm that today\u2019s evangelicals do not fit easily within any one particular subculture.<\/p>\n

Finally, while a chapter on sex and beauty is most certainly germane to an exploration of \u201cbiblical womanhood\u201d and will gratify readers in our sex-obsessed culture, I\u2019m frankly not interested in hearing about Held-Evans\u2019 seemingly riveting life in the bedroom. Held-Evans is a gifted, competent writer, one who has earned a broad, loyal readership, and she doesn\u2019t need to pander. \u201cA Year of Biblical Womanhood\u201d deserves to be taken seriously for its deft and funny application of a devastating misnomer in today\u2019s evangelical world \u2013 despite a couple of these cheap shots to salivating readers.<\/p>\n

The other day, a woman from a \u201cBible church,\u201d upon meeting me and learning that I was a minister, exclaimed simply and with great conviction, \u201cThat\u2019s not\u00a0Scriptural<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to \u201cA Year of Biblical Womanhood,\u201d\u00a0I was able to respond more confidently and with a laugh, \u201cBut of course polygamy\u00a0is<\/em>!\u201d\u00a0(Genesis 30, Exodus 21:10).<\/p>\n

But for more on polygamy as part and parcel of \u201cbiblical womanhood,\u201d you\u2019ll have to consult Held-Evans\u2019 chapter on the womanly virtue of \u201cobedience.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what do you think? Can we finally put “biblical womanhood”- and “biblical manhood” for that matter- to rest once and for all, thanks to Held-Evans’ good work? Leave your thoughts below.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And, finally, my review of Rachel Held-Evans’ latest book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood,\u00a0which aired on Sermons That Work\u00a0two days ago and is\u00a0reprinted here with the permission of\u00a0The Episcopal Digital Network: If \u201cbiblical womanhood\u201d were a rutabaga, then Rachel Held-Evans, in her newfound, tongue-and-cheek praise of womanly domesticity, would slice and dice it until it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,43,5],"tags":[1120,1119,445,360],"class_list":["post-2871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism","category-humor","category-women","tag-bible-and-women","tag-biblical-equality","tag-biblical-womanhood","tag-rachel-held-evans"],"yoast_head":"\nThe End of Biblical Womanhood? - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/10\/the-end-of-biblical-womanhood.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The End of Biblical Womanhood? 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