The book list continues…
"Shalom Sistas: Living Wholeheartedly in a Brokenhearted World" by Osheta Moore
I loved Moore's book "Dear White Peacemaker," and so decided to check out this earlier work, which focuses on what it means to practice shalom in our everyday lives, whether that involves working for racial justice, reframing the way we view our enemies, or being willing to give up a "calling" in order to be called into the life we've been given instead of the one we wish we had. As with her previous book, Moore challenges me to actually take Jesus seriously, even when it goes against the grain. I especially loved her method for dealing with people we are tempted to think of as enemies: telling more generous stories about them. An encouraging, thought-provoking read.
"The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth" by Beth Allison Barr
I had heard this one compared to "Jesus and John Wayne" a lot, so I was braced for another book that was going to knock me off my feet. However, Barr's book, while unflinching about the grave consequences of "Christian patriarchy," is warm, down-to-earth, and even joyful.
It begins as a memoir of how she began to question patriarchy in the first place as the wife of a minister in an evangelical church, and she uses her personal experience as a jumping-off point to give an account of the women through the history of Christianity who have preached the Gospel, and how this history is often erased in an attempt to strengthen male power.
Barr has a PhD in Medieval History, and she bring a historian's detail-oriented style— and excitement— to the subject of how Christian patriarchy came to exist, who subverted it from the beginning, how it has expressed itself through the history of the church, and the many women who followed Christ's calling in their lives anyway, from Mary Magdalene to Medieval saints to 20th-century evangelical women preachers. Her book is a love letter to Christian women everywhere, encouraging us to own our agency and be skeptical of Biblical interpretations that ignore the contributions of women throughout the millennia.
By this point I'd learned about how incredibly recent most complementarian teaching and enforcement is (for instance, the Southern Baptist denomination didn't officially prohibit women ministers until 2000!), but if I hadn't, this book would've floored me. The new perspective in this book that absolutely blew my mind, though (and also came up in Bridget Eileen Rivera's book "Heavy Burdens"), was how fundamentally the Reformation changed Christian perspectives on women— shifting women's value from their relationship with Christ to their relationship to their husbands— and what we Protestants lost in the process. Reading this book definitely made me want to look up the stories of women of the faith that Medieval Catholics would have read— the story of Martha (the Protestant frazzled homemaker) slaying a dragon sounds particularly interesting!
In short, this book was incredibly fascinating, engaging to read, and full of encouragement to any woman who has felt unsure about patriarchy but felt she would be going against her very religion if she questioned it. Highly recommended for anyone!
I grabbed this book off the library shelf because I loved the cover, but had no idea what it was about. I was delighted to see that it was a book about art history, specifically through the lens of how people use art to perceive our bodies, God, and society. It's a quick read, with short chapters briefly touching on various ways that art reflects our views of the world. I was particularly fascinated by the chapter discussing the introduction of realistic sculpture in ancient Greece, and the oddly sci-fi-like debates that the lifelike statues introduced about human sexuality. If you're interested in art or history, this one's worth picking up!
"Where Goodness Still Grows: Reclaiming Virtue in an Age of Hypocrisy" by Amy Peterson
The title made me skeptical, but someone I like recommended it, so I dutifully ordered it from the library, and I'm glad I did! Peterson joins the ranks of yet another author about my age who speaks to my experience growing up in the evangelical church: she discusses at length how the concept of virtue has been weaponized, particularly against women. And yet, she argues, we need not throw out the idea that has characterized Christianity for two millennia: we just need fresh eyes to understand why these virtues matter, and what they mean in the first place.
The chapters that follow are each titled with a traditional virtue. The words— purity, kindness, modesty, authenticity, discernment, and so on— carry heavy and often harmful baggage, but Peterson discusses each one with care, insight, and encouragement. (In the case of "modesty" and "purity," she argues that the modern church has forgotten what these virtues are even about in the first place!)
I was most fascinated by the chapter about "authenticity:" she picked apart the notion that authenticity and spontaneity are the same, or that spontaneous speech or actions convey the truest authenticity. Her argument for learning and practicing as a way to express authenticity is an idea that I'm going to be mulling over for a long time.
Her insights are fresh and relevant, but also rooted in church history and tradition. Recommended for any Christian!
Others in this series:
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