In A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master”, Rachel Held Evans embarks in a year-long experiment to explore what the Bible has to say about women and taking these practices as literal as possible. Each month Evans takes on a new task such as submission, obedience, gentleness, and domesticity. Throughout her experiment she interviews Rabbis and polygamists, practices many Jewish traditions, camps out on her front lawn during her menstrual cycle, covers her head during prayer, sits on top of her roof, praises her husband at the city gates, learns to sew and cook, and cares for a computerized baby.
Summary
Evans begins her book by stating that evangelicals have a habit of overusing the term biblical (xix-xx). She states that this term is often placed in front of broad terms such as economics, sexuality, politics, and marriage to create this assumption that God has definitive opinions and teachings on these things in scripture. Evans goes on to explain how in technical terms and throughout scripture, it is biblical for a woman to be forced to marry her rapist, remain silent in the church, cover her head, and be sold by her father (xx). This reasoning is why Evans decided to embark on a year long journey to study biblical womanhood and figure out how “an ancient collection of sacred texts, spanning multiple genres and assembled over thousands of years in cultures very different from our own” could offer any truth to women today (xx).
Evans begins each chapter with a checklist of things to accomplish throughout the month pertaining to the particular subject she has chosen. For example, during the month of October she draws her attention to cultivating a gentle and quiet spirit. In order to do this, she adds on her checklist to attend an etiquette class, practice contemplative prayer, creates a ‘swear jar’, and participate in penance on top of her roof for acts of contention during that month (1). In order to have a proper foundation and guide for her yearlong experiment, Evans creates a ‘Biblical Woman’s Ten Commandments’ (xxi). These ten commandments include; that she shall submit to her husbands will in all things, devote herself to the duties of the home, mother a child, nurture a gentle and quiet spirit, dress modestly, cover her head when praying, not cut her hair, not teach in church setting, not to gossip, and not have any authority over a man.
Critical Evaluation
Evans believes the Bible is a historical document, she does not believe that it can be used as a guide for people in today’s culture or that the words are inspired by God. One example of this is when Evans states that the Bible is not the best place to look for traditional family values as we [society] understand them today (48). This would propose a problem to the complimentarian that believes that scripture is still living and active today and applicable for all things.
Throughout A Year of Biblical Womanhood, one can not help but notice the sense of mocking that overcomes Evans as she is practicing silence in the church (254-78), praising Martha Stewart for her domestic skills (21-43), nurturing and feeding a computerized baby (188-96), or giving women tips on what to bring if they ever set up a tent in their front lawn during their menstrual cycle (flash light, book, etc.), or calling her husband ‘master’ and holding a giant sign that says ‘Dan is awesome’ at the town gates (47-68). Time and time again Evans places scripture and the authority of scripture on trial.
Although Evans is an engaging writer and depicts great imagery within her stories, she misses the mark when speaking about what scripture has to say about biblical womanhood. Evans carefully selects popular Old Testament laws regarding women and then practices these laws literally. However, she never explains these laws in their full context nor explains the purpose of these laws being put into place. When it comes to exegetical and hermeneutical methodology, Evans seems to be a little confused or undecided on some things. For example, she claims to believe in the resurrection of Christ while at the same time states that she believes in evolution.
Evans approaches scripture with the presupposition that the term submission is degrading to women and that being a keeper of the home simply means that women are not allowed to have any ambitions or goals other than to master the Martha Stewart’s Cooking School cookbook. Evans addresses several conservative resources such as Created to be His Help Meet, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, and the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. In the book Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, Stacy McDonald states that there is no such thing as ‘Christian Feminism’. In her book, McDonald states that we have a choice to follow the biblical model or reject it (24). Evans addressed this line of thinking by stating that you should not have to choose one or the other and that the reason she chose Martha Stewart as her domestic model instead of the Proverbs 31 woman was because Stewart had drive, intelligence, and an unapologetic ambition.
Evans concludes her book by stating that the Bible is not an answer book (294). Evans states that the Bible is just a “sacred collection of letters and laws, poetry and proverb, philosophy and prophesies, written and assembled over thousands of years in cultures and contexts very different from our own, that tells the complex story of God’s interaction with humanity” (294). Evans believes that when the term biblical or Bible is placed in front of words such as manhood, womanhood or marriage, it tends to dilute the parts of the Bible that does not fit our tastes (294). Sadly, this line of thinking has crept its way into churches today. Believers seems to think that the church and religion is there to serve them and their needs and preferences. The focus has been shifted away from worshiping God to worshipping ourselves.
Conclusion
Finally, after a year of acting out what Evans believed to be ‘biblical womanhood’, she came to the conclusion that there was really no such thing as biblical womanhood (294-295). Evans did not believe that there was any model or evidence in scripture for womanhood. A Year of Biblical Womanhood is an egalitarian resource that directly conflicts with biblical and complimentarian thought.