This is such a valuable book and I am so glad I read it. I highly recommend it for anyone who either wants to learn more about the historical origins of the idea of "biblical womanhood" or who is reexamining what they may have been taught about it. It is well written (from the perspective of a historian / professor who knows her stuff), well-cited and thoroughly thought-provoking.

A very engaging and powerful book that combines what I learned in The Gospel According to Eve: A History of Women's Interpretation and Janette Hassey's essay "Evangelical women in ministry a century ago: the 19th and early 20th centuries' in Discovering Biblical Equality: Complementarity Without Hierarchy. Barr's personal experiences that she weaves throughout the historical narrative were especially appreciated. My only critique was her use of the slippery term "evangelicals." When she used it she was referring to the conservative, (reformed), Southern-Baptist, Evangelical Theological Society stream of evangelicalism, which makes sense based on her context. However there has always been a different stream of North American evangelicalism that didn't follow the Old School Princeton theology, didn't bar women from ordination and haven't always felt comfortable with labels like "inerrancy" and the Evangelical Theological Society (see Rediscovering an Evangelical Heritage: A Tradition and Trajectory of Integrating Piety and Justice). I'm especially thinking of Wesleyan-Holiness and Pentecostal groups. All that said, excellent book!

Required reading if you are a Christian woman

This is one of the most important books I’ve ever read, and I have a book with approximately 200 sticky notes to prove it. Every paragraph held either a fascinating revelation or a thorough explanation I knew I would want to reference later. I highly recommend this to anyone struggling to reconcile Christ’s love for women and the least of these with the corruption, abuse, and subjugation they’ve faced at the hands of Christians and the church, particularly the evangelical church and its theology which claims to be rooted in Pauline wisdom but through faulty translation, widespread misogyny, and corrupted systems is so often simply patriarchal sexism in disguise. I’m highly concerned about the number of people who have written reviews about this book who call it a memoir in order to justify why they don’t like it because they are too afraid to say they refuse to budge on the stance that the evangelical church’s understanding of biblical womanhood and submission is not actually biblical at all. It is not a memoir. It is a well-researched book written by a professor of early church history who holds a doctorate and who only references herself a handful of times to illustrate the premise.

3.5 - Overall great introduction to the context of the history of these historical women, regarding both christian social history and translation history. Grounds the ideas of these women in a scriptural context I was not aware of since my personal history was spent only sourcing from the JK version of the bible. Interesting ideas around bible translations, linguistics, and semantic problems within Christian history that ultimately come from power dynamics and patriarchy and less about academic and doctrinal integrity (surprise, surprise).

I liked it, but it was a bit too academic in writing style for me. Not too bad, though! I just have lots of other academic/technical reading to do for school, and this was a bit much as my "for me" reading. Would highly recommend it to my fellow Christian feminists. :)

This is the kind of book that makes you want to get up and punch a fundamentalist, in all good Christian love and charity. And we need many more like it.