What One Reads
I am not sure if I am supposed to read the book, or not. It is titled A Year of Biblical Womanhood.
Rachel Held Evans, 31, of Dayton, Tenn., decided to pursue a life of “biblical womanhood” for an entire year in an effort to explore the true meaning of what women are being taught in her evangelical Christian community. (ABC News)
I looked briefly at Mrs. Evans blog site, and saw this is her second book. Now I have no plan or desire to say anything about her, her book, her motive, or her theology. But I do have a concern that comes out of her talking with ABC News about the book. Here are the quotes:
It just didn’t feel natural.” She said that to describing her feelings when she was “taking those submission passages very literally.” She went on to say that she had to stop that pretty quickly. Right! Well, it’s not supposed to feel “natural.” It’s supposed to feel super-natural. Submission is a trait we all struggle with, but everyone of God’s people is commanded to submit (practice submission) in various ways.
When asked whether she would recommend practicing this lifestyle to anyone, her answer was clear: “No. I don’t think anyone should try this. It’s terrible. Obviously, not all of those things should be taken literally. (IBID.) Is it being a “Biblical woman” that is terrible, or is it taking the Scripture literally that is terrible? If we don’t take some of it literally, which “some” is it? And if we do take some of it literally, which “some” is that?
I am sure I am headed for trouble here. I repeat, I haven’t read the book – so, understand, this is not an evaluation of Mrs. Evans’ theology. Rather it is learning to be wise about what I allow to enter my mind. Perhaps she is not getting wise council about the contextual, historical, cultural, societal* concepts of Scripture. Perhaps I am misreading her words, or her meanings.
What I do believe is that being a “woman who builds her life on Scriptural TRUTH is a blessed, happy, fulfilled, Godly woman. Such is true for every man (read: Believers) as well.
*The verse she enjoyed most was Proverb 31:23, which states, “Her husband is
respected at the city gate.”
“I took that one hyper-literally and made a sign that said ‘Dan’s awesome.’ I took it out to the ‘Welcome Dayton’ sign. That was actually pretty fun, I enjoyed that one,” Evans said. (IBID.)