Book Review: Rachel Held Evans' A Year of Biblical Womanhood

Actually, this is not MY review.  It's Kathy Keller's, who has an M.A. from Gordon-Conwell Seminary and is married to a highly influential pastor in evangelical life, Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City.  She's also, if I may point out the obvious, an accomplished woman, renown in ministry, theologically degreed, and in blistering disagreement with what seems to be a biblically unsound book.

The most devastating paragraph of the devastating review is this conclusion:

Rachel, I can and do agree with much of what you say in your book regarding the ways in which either poor biblical interpretation or patriarchal customs have sinfully oppressed women. I would join you in exposing churches, books, teachers, and leaders who have imposed a human agenda on the Bible. However, you have become what you claim to despise; you have imposed your own agenda on Scripture in order to advance your own goals. In doing so, you have further muddied the waters of biblical interpretation instead of bringing any clarity to the task.

As a woman also engaged in trying to understand the Bible as it relates to gender, I had hoped for better.

The full review is here:  LINK.

RHE is one of the people who has seemingly made it a profession of taking up other people's hurts as her own and parlaying that victimization into books, blogs, and bucks.  I can respect someone I disagree with, but it's tough for me to respect someone like her.  And now, based on this review, there is significant twisting of basic biblical interpretive principles to, once again, move books from shelves to nightstands.

Buyer beware.