Its a review about this product
Wow, rarely do you see a book filled with such a variety of Christian authors. I wasn't sure what to expect, since I already knew from experience that a few of these authors were too conservative for me and I'd only heard of others. Initially, I feared this book might be another Mary Pride specimen: too old-fashioned to be taken seriously and constantly chiding women, none too gently, that our only place is home. Upon closer inspection, though, I was proved most happily wrong.
I'll admit I was turned off by the first chapter. Carolyn Mahaney was doing a lovely job of explaining beautiful womanhood, until she actually told women to submit to the males in their lives. I'm not just referring to fathers, bosses, or even husbands here; Mahaney honestly thinks that anything with testasterone should be given headship. Here are her exact words confirming this: "We are inclined to affirm the leadership and initiative of the men around us. In all our relationships, we should be making room for Godly men to practice servant leadership".
Now, seriously; I thought everyone knew better than this nonsense by now. No complimentarian I know of still preaches that women must submit to men as a WHOLE. Hello, newsflash, the Bible never says this! What it does say is that girls are to have obedience for their fathers (when they're children, just as boys do) and submission to their husbands. This "submit to all men" crock is just ridiculous and extremely outdated. Seriously people, with the Biblical scholarship we have now, there is no excuse for this ridiculous belief and even the most conservative of Christians usually know better. It's a good thing the whole book wasn't devoted to this idea, or it would have gotten a flat out one-star rating from me.
Luckily, it got better. I still had my guard up when I came across the chapter about appreciating God as "Father", but it was blessedly not the masculinity overload I feared. The author did a great job of explaining how, even though God has no gender, we still must appreciate Him as the Holy parent that He is. God doesn't need to be male for us to address Him as Father; we do this because this is what He instructs. Addressing God as He wishes us to address Him is the first action of respect and acknowledgement as a Christian.
My favorite chapter of the book by far was Bunny Wilson's excellent "Liberated through Submission." Up until now, I'd only heard of Mrs. Wilson's work and was very glad to see such a healthy and wonderful explanation of submission by a Godly woman. There were two main things about her section that hooked me completely: for starters, Wilson shared a startling story about the time she terribly distorted marital submission and basically became a puppet to her husband, smiling without pause and doing whatever he asked. It wasn't until her little girl told her she didn't want to marry because she didn't want to obey a man like her mommy did that Wilson realized the error of her practice. (From the mouths of babes, huh?) What a remarkable thing! Wilson went on to explain what submission really is, how both husbands and wives are called to do it, and how the world would fall apart without it. Everyone, Wilson explains, is submitted in some way to some sort of order. Submission doesn't mean being a submissive person in general, it means respecting order so we can maintain harmony and organization.
The second thing that really struck me about Bunny Wilson's section was her address and even rebuttal of Laura Doyle's popular book, "The Surrendered Wife." I'd never before heard any Christian writer address Doyle's book and I was very curious to hear Wilson's thoughts on it. The ironic thing about "Surrendered" (as Wilson pointed out and as I noticed myself beforehand) is that, while some women flock to it because it avoids the word "submission", it actually offers a far more stifling practice than the kind of submission that the Bible truly exhorts. Wilson said that Laura Doyle even personally told her that she does not believe in submitting because it places the woman in an inferior position to her husband (what does she think her book tells women to do, then?) Wilson pointed out that not only did Doyle get the meaning of submission wrong, but even misunderstood her own choice of words: the word "surrender" is a military term and means giving in and giving up completely. Submission, on the other hand, has another meaning entirely and is appliable to everyone without being restrictive or even always authoritave. When we either misuse the practice of submission or try to avoid it and instead substitute something more extreme (as Doyle did), we end up just complicating matters. I won't go into any more details, but suffice it to say that Wilson's chapter was excellent and thought-provoking. I'd go so far as to say that it's essential reading for any Christian.
Altogether, this book is really a good tool for women. Sure, some of the definitions of femininity are too confining and simplistic, but that's the beauty of having several authors: you get a variety of perspectives. If nothing else, the book can give some insight into each of these writers' viewpoints and help you get an idea of whose works you'd like to explore in the future.
