In the introduction, Rachel Evans explains
the general thought process behind her decision to spend a year living
according to the Bible’s decrees about women. She and her husband, Dan, had an
agreement that they “would start a family as soon as [they] became
independently wealthy or [Rachel] turned thirty, whichever happened first”
(Evans XV). Evans celebrated her 29th birthday and began to wonder
if this was her “last year of freedom” (Evans XV). This consideration raised
questions about the nature of womanhood, and women’s role in Christianity, the
home, and relationship. Evans reflected on all of the mixed messages she had
received over her 29 years of life about how to be a biblical woman and concluded
that her evangelical understanding of biblical womanhood did not really include
the entire Bible, but was instead highly selective. Her reflection produced an
interesting set of questions:
“Could an ancient collection of
sacred texts, spanning multiple genres and assembled over thousands of years in
cultures very different form our own, really offer a single cohesive formula
for how to be a woman? And do all the women of Scripture fit into this same
mold? Must I?” (Evans XX)
Out of this set of questions came Evans’ vow to spend one
year pursuing true biblical womanhood, researching every Scriptural passage
relating to women, and attempting to follow as many of the Bible’s guidelines
concerning women as possible. Each month Evans focused on a different biblically
based virtue. Throughout the process, she blogged her experience for the world
to consider.
In the
month of October, the first month of Evans’ year of biblical womanhood,
gentleness is the primary focus. As in every month in the coming year, Evans makes
a scripturally based to-do list concerning the virtue related to that month.
October’s gentleness to-do list includes statements such as, “Cultivate a
gentle and quiet spirit, even during football games (1 Peter 3:3-4), Practice
contemplative prayer (Psalm 131), Make a ‘swearing jar’ for behaviors that
mimic the “contentious woman” of Proverbs (Proverbs 21:19; 19:13; 27:15 NKJV),
Do penance on the rooftop for acts of contention (Proverbs 21:9)” (Evans 1).
Over the course of the month, Evans struggles with the restraints gentleness
places on her football-watching habits, reaction to nasty commenters on her
blog, adjustment to her new “up before dawn” schedule, and devotion to “the
duties of the home” (Evans 5). She also works to curb her “less-than-gentle
habits” using the Jar of Contention, to which she adds a few cents for each
time she caught herself “in the act of contention,” which includes gossiping,
nagging, complaining, exaggerating, and snark (Evans 8). When the Jar of Contention
proves to be working only in minute ways, Evans turns to contemplative prayer,
through which she experiences a new sense of stability and security. She concludes
that perhaps God wants to teach her that, “gentleness begins with strength,
quietness with security” (Evans 16).
In the
month of November, Evans focused on domesticity, including “Cook through Martha Stewart’s Cooking School
(Proverbs 31:15; Titus 2:5), Clean through Martha
Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook (Titus 2:5), and host a dinner party (1Peter
4:9; Hebrews 13:2)” in her to do list (Evans 21). Evans discovers that she
greatly enjoys the focused task of cooking, and learns to truly appreciate the
value of cleaning. After considering Brother Lawrence’s efforts to act
faithfully even in small, mundane tasks, Rachel seeks to care for her home with
greater mindfulness. Hosting a dinner party proves initially stressful, but
ultimately rewarding as she remembers the Scripture from Hebrews 13, “Do not
forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some have unwittingly
entertained angels.” As a part of studying Scripture related to women, Evans
spends a great deal of time considering Martha and Mary. From those studies,
she realizes that there are many tasks, like maintaining the home, that can
lead people to God, “but God is not contained in them” (Evans 36).
In the
month of December, Evans considers obedience and her relationship to her
husband. She assigns herself three tasks: “Call Dan ‘master’ (1Peter 3:1-6),
Interview a polygamist (Genesis 30; Exodus 21:10), and Hold a ceremony in honor
of the victims of biblical misogyny (Judges 11:37-40)” (Evans 47). This is the
first month in Evans’ “radical experiment” in which she faces the fact that the
Bible “routinely describes women as property” (Evans 48). She includes several
Scriptural passages in this section discussing adultery, freedom (or lack
thereof), rape, and captivity as it relates to women, highlighting her
discomfort at the realities of these passages. Through researching these
Scriptures, Evans discovers Vision Forum, a group “committed to preserving as
much of the patriarchal structure of Old Testament law as possible” (Evans 51). Evans also examines the story of
Jesus Christ who, when confronted with a woman caught in the act of adultery,
responds with, “Let any of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone
at her” (John 8:7 NIV). She remarks in her discussion “the disturbing laws of
Leviticus and Deuteronomy lose just a bit of their potency when God himself
breaks them” (Evans 54). Evans then sets herself the task of calling her husband,
Dan, “Master” for a week in response to the 1 Peter passage that identifies
Sarah as an example of a wife who submitted to her husband. At the end of that
week, Evans remarks that Sarah wasn’t truly a model for submissive behavior.
After all, Sarah ordered Abraham to banish Hagar and her son so that he would
never share an inheritance with Isaac. Evans also interviews a woman who is a
sister wife in a polygamous family, learning much about the dynamic within a
polygamous family and finally remarking on the Bible’s specific use of rival to
describe sister-wives. In the final section of the chapter devoted to December,
Evans wrestles with the story of Jephthah’s promise to God and his subsequent
fulfillment of that promise in sacrificing his only daughter. Before Jephthah
sacrificed her, he allowed her to wander the hills for two months in mourning.
From then through the writing of Judges, the women of Israel began a tradition
in which they “go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah”
(Judges 11:39-40 KJV). In an effort to honor that ceremony, Evans invites a
friend over to “honor the victims of the Bible’s ‘texts of terror’ ” (Evans
64). Their simple ceremony remembers the daughter of Jephthah, the unnamed
concubine from Judges 19, Hagar, and Tamar of the Davidic narrative. Evans ends
this section proposing that Christian women have forgotten the dark stories of
the Bible in their pursuit of biblical womanhood. She proposes that it is the
responsibility of women of faith to “guard the dark stories for our own
daughters, and when they are old enough, to hold their faces between our hands
and make them promise to remember” (Evans 66).
Evans writes the first four sections of her
book with earnest authenticity, asking difficult questions and pursuing
difficult answers. She hasn’t solved it all, but she pursues God in her musings
and in her actions.
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