LIBERATED:
How the Bible exalts and dignifies women
By Karen Soole
Christian Focus. 181 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 1 527 107 298
Throughout history, women have often been devalued and seen as unequal to men. This book turns our focus to the Bible to see how we should view women.
The aim is clearly stated in the opening pages: not to address different church practice in women’s ministry, but to address the fear that God does not exalt and dignify women. This is something the author says she has grappled with herself, having grown up thinking being a woman meant particular interests and role and that being a woman was second class. She writes throughout with extensive reference to history, literature and culture to show how this can be seen.
Having shown how man and woman were created equal in Genesis, but then fallen in sin, the book journeys through the Bible, highlighting particular incidents where women have been mistreated: Tamar in Genesis 38; the Levite’s concubine in Judges 19. It defends the Bible against those who would claim it is misogynist and sexist, showing that, by contrast, the Old Testament law acted to protect the vulnerable, with equality to men and women alike. The book proceeds to consider the Bible’s wisdom literature (with particular focus on Hannah and Abigail, women who had an understanding of the wisdom of God); the prophets (looking at Hosea’s unfaithful bride Gomer, an illustration of God’s relationship with his unfaithful bride Israel); and finishing in the New Testament (focusing on Paul’s teaching on wives and husbands, a beautiful picture of Christ’s relationship with the church).
This book is very helpful on grappling with the question it sets out, but so often now the big debate seems not to be about women’s equality, but about what is a woman, what does it mean to be female? The book does a good job of showing the equality of men and women from a Biblical standpoint, but does not try to address the differences between them, and so only provides one part of the answer. Amidst society’s blurred lines between male and female, and in a world that promotes a plethora of genders, what does it mean to be a woman? From an apologetics standpoint that might have been a helpful addition.
