February: A Year of Biblical Womanhood (Tristinn's Review)

Don't be frightened by the title of this month's book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband "Master" by Rachel Held Evans. It's a lot less scary and a lot more humorous than you might think.

Annie had the privilege of choosing this month's book and I was immediately on board since the premise of this book sounds strangely similar to the "things" that Annie and I do. In the book the author, who is a blogger and writer by trade, decides to dedicate a year of her life to living biblically all the while writing about the experience. Each month Rachel focuses on a specific biblical virtue and outlines a list of traditions, celebrations and activities she will participate in as a fulfillment of those virtues.  

The book is fun and informative and the author somehow manages to smoothly integrate colorful narratives of biblical women with thoughtful, and at times humorous, attempts to follow a more literal "biblical womanhood". The project eventually leads Rachel to do all kinds of things like camp out in a tent in her front yard during her period, spend a weekend in a monastery, create a Jar of Contention, and to befriend women of many different faiths.

Reading the book was a lovely experience. Not only did it seem appropriate to read a book about someone else's "Year of ________" experience, it also was nice to read a book that took the bible to a new and more tangible level. I love how the author didn't try to follow the letter of the Biblical law for all of her project elements; she blended strict law observance with the spirit of the law and with the way traditional faiths have interpreted the Bible. 

What did I get out of it? Two things are coming to mind at the moment (maybe there will be more later). 1) You can learn a lot about spirituality, faith and Jesus by interacting with people of other faiths. Sometimes other groups of people have a better understanding of what God is really trying to say. 2) The Bible is an interactive tool. As the author quotes from Peter Rollins, "By acknowledging that all our readings [of scripture] are located in a cultural context and have certain prejudices, we understand that engaging with the Bible can never mean that we simply extract meaning from it, but also that we read meaning into it.".

Faith is interactive. And you have to interact with texts, people and life in order to grow it.

WILLIAMS SCALE RATING: Moosetracks Ice Cream {Light and fun with occasional deep chocolate moments}