Welcome to Litsy!

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing Christians that oppression is godly.“

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.

Productive reading weekend to kick off a week-long holiday! Set Me Free is a great middle-grade own voices novel about a deaf teenager trying to help an abused child. The Making of Biblical Womanhood is about the historical and cultural influences that have shaped, and continue to shape, views on gender in Christianity and is written by an evangelical historian. #weekendreading

Historian Beth Allison Barr shows how events throughout history, stemming from patriarchy, set the stage for today‘s take on complementarian Christian womanhood. Barr also illustrates how the intent of Christianity was not subjugation but equality, and how an unbiblical adherence to patriarchy has distorted women‘s roles throughout history.

This was a fascinating read, and fits nicely with “Jesus and John Wayne.”

What if institutionalized ways of subjugating women in Christianity aren‘t actually Christ-like (or even biblical) at all…? 🤔 What if it's about patriarchy and power? Duh, but this book does an excellent job of explaining the historical context of it all. More hermeneutics in this than I have a taste for, but others might appreciate that more. My teenaged self would have been 🤯 and also consoled and empowered by this.