Rachel Held Evans is known for her liberated theological beliefs, so when I stumbled upon A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master buried deep on a bookshelf at my home, I was intrigued. The subtitle is especially eye-catching because it touches on some of the most confusing and frustrating laws and customs women had to endure historically.
So how did Evans find herself doing these things? First, some backstory on the author. Rachel Held Evans was born in Alabama and moved to Tennessee when she was fourteen. She became an author and blogger who wrote about her life, faith, doubt, hope, and what it was like to be a Christian born and raised in the Bible Belt. She was married and had two sons, but tragically died at the age of 37 from an allergic reaction to medication taken for an infection. She wrote six books in her lifetime, the last one came out after her death and was finished by a friend of hers.
A Year of Biblical Womanhood was a book based on a year-long experiment she conducted. She focused on one trait each month that was mentioned in the Bible specific to women. Examples include gentleness, modesty, silence, and justice. She would read the scripture that corresponded to the attribute and took it as literally as she could, living out what it commanded and applying it to the modern world.
While there are definitely funny moments in this book, the experiment was not done out of mockery. Evans is a genuine believer. She loves God, loves being a progressivewoman, and thinks that both identities can exist together . Evans included a lot of the research she did for each attribute. For instance, when she was practicing silence, she spent the night at a monastery. She also practiced purity laws from Leviticus regarding her period. Women back then were instructed to leave the camp until their menstrual bleeding was over. Evans slept in a tent outside her home one night while on her period to honor and explore this ancient law.
My favorite part was when she was practicing obedience. In her research, she found that there was an ancient holiday to honor Jephthah’s daughter. Jephthah returns home from battle and promises God he will sacrifice the first thing that comes out of his home. His daughter runs out to greet him and he instantly is regretful. However, he keeps his promise to God. His daughter asks for a few months to go mourn with her friends (this can be found in Judges 11). After that time, she is sacrificed. Jewish women would travel together into the wilderness for four days and mourn her death.
The holiday or memorial is not practiced anymore among Jewish women, but Evans decided to make her own ceremony for Jephthah’s daughter and for all the other women who tragically died or were abused in the Bible. Her list included Jephthah’s daughter, Hagar, Tamar, and the unnamed concubine that was brutally raped and murdered in Judges 19. Evan’s ceremony included reading these women’s stories in scripture followed by saying “we remember”. Then she ended by quoting Jesus saying, “as you have done unto the least of these so you have done to me.”
I think Evan’s book redeems all of these passages that feel restricting, confusing, or harmful. I love this book because it explores femininity and Christianity but not in a way that pits them against each other. She isn’t afraid of questioning her faith or the Bible, but she doesn’t come away condemning them either.
She invites the reader to go on her journey where they wrestle with these texts. She acknowledges the duplicities in the Bible and makes the point, “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… This is why there are times when the most instructive question to bring to the text is not, what does it say? but what am I looking for? I suspect Jesus knew this when he said, “ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” If you want to do violence in this world, you will always find the weapons. If you want to heal, you will always find the balm” (Evans). Don’t be afraid of your questions or your curiosity.
So, if you’re looking for a book that will challenge you, make you laugh, and leave you with so much to think about in terms of feminism, liberated theology, and the Bible, then I highly recommend this book.