Brief Book Review

I have recently finished reading Lost Women of the Bible: The Women We Thought We Knew by Carolyn Custis James. Needless to say, the book title caught my attention immediately and the content kept my attention throughout. Here is a brief review I published on an online book club website.

This book has had a profound effect on me. So much so that I started reading it again, just after I finished it the first time. As a woman who has grown up in the church, I have often felt that women have gotten the shaft not only in the Bible but from the pulpit as well. I was fortunate enough to have been raised in a church whose denomination was founded by a woman, but you would hardly know it if you looked at the various church directories in this very denomination. To add insult to injury, women are not only extremely neglected in sermons, but outside of the pulpit, ridiculous mythical expectations and roles are defined for us because of poor interpretations of Biblical stories.

Custis James clears all of this up as she brilliantly profiles women who have been entirely ignored, those who have unjustly been given a bad name, or those who have been put on a pedestal that they probably should not have, for the reasons that they were. I love clarity, and Custis James brings about scriptural clarity where teaching has been cloudy, at best.

Who would have ever thought that an entire chapter could be devoted to Noah's wife, or that a close, realistic look at Esther would reveal that she was actually quite the compromiser, until it came down to the 11th hour for her people?,

The lovely thing about this book is that it, in no way, has a rabid feminist tone that would be off-putting to men or would pit women against men. Rather, she simply makes a case for women in the Bible, gently reminding men about our worth and reason for being and encouraging women who may not fit the standard they have seen set for them, in whatever social circles they call home.

I put this book down with tremendous sense that God has created me equally in His image, and that my "role" as a woman is in no way as binding as society, Christian or secular, would have me believe. I'm grateful to live in a free country but am not settling for the nonsense that I can only achieve true value in ministry if I fulfill the docile, unopinionated, married mother of 5 archetype. That's just not how God created me, and I am now convinced that that view is entirely opposed to how God sees women, his ezers. Not to say most of us don't long to be wives and mothers but that is not the end point of our existence. We are fighters, supporters, helpers, and nurturers. Custis James reminds readers that those qualities just might come not come wrapped in their expected packaging.