Books like The Making of Biblical Womanhood

The world and the world’s products are based on male bodies and men’s needs, which can harm women.

Our patriarchal culture expects women to adjust and adapt in all kinds of ways. For example, PPEs (the suits worn by frontline medical workers during the pandemic) are designed for men’s bodies, even though most frontline health care workers are women.

Seat belts in automobiles continue to be designed based on crash-test dummies that do not replicate the female anatomy. These male-centric designs are not simply inconvenient—they are highly consequential. 

When comparing the Protestant and Catholic versions of Mary, the Catholics always come out on top. The Protestant Mary is little more than a vessel to house the Godhead, while the Catholic Mary is the Queen of Heaven. Indeed, medieval sermons stories and miracles align Mary most closely with the superheroes of the modern era: ready to help at a moment’s notice, she takes on the worst of villains and always wins. Yet, there’s something about Mary… despite being best known for a quintessentially feminine act (giving birth), she’s really not your typical woman. Why is that?

In this movingly written book, Monagle explains how scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages refashioned the ideal Mary by stripping away the inherent messiness of femininity. Monagle explores also the pitfalls of this perfection for the modern woman, taking aim at Gwyneth Paltrow, Marie Kondo, and Jordan Peterson, all of whom seek to… show more.

For much of Western history, birth out of wedlock has been a serious barrier to inheritance and succession. It is often assumed that this attitude arrived alongside Christianity: yet, McDougall explains that the medieval world actually cared very little about the circumstances of one’s birth until the thirteenth century. What historians have consistently misinterpreted as concern for legitimate birth was instead dogged insistence that a legitimate marriage existed only when husband and wife were of equivalent status. This is particularly relevant when it comes to an heir’s “throneworthiness.” It was not sufficient for a king to be the son of a great man with a remarkable patriline; the matriline had to be every bit as impressive to qualify him for the throne.

McDougall’s eminently readable and thought-provoking book reveals how the misogynistic assumptions of modern-day historians have gotten in the way of understanding medieval dynasties. Historians have preferred to see… show more.

Theresa Earenfight is a renowned queenship scholar whose ideas about queens and queenship inspired me when I was a graduate student and continue to excite me today. This is a book that I recommend to my own students as the perfect place to start with medieval queenship. Earenfight’s book moves chronologically across the Middle Ages, drawing together examples of queens from all across Europe to illustrate key ideas about queenship and demonstrate how different women exercised the queen’s office. An engaging read which is underpinned by years of research and deep expertise in the field.

Because everyone loves a good rebel. Eleanor de Montfort was little known before Wilkinson’s fine book. She was the daughter of King John, the sister of King Henry III, and the aunt of King Edward I. She was also the wife of one of England’s most notorious rebels, Simon de Montfort, whose leadership during the period of baronial reform and rebellion (1258-67) saw him rise to become the de facto ruler of England and host of the first representative parliament. Eleanor was no shrinking violet in all of this; she actively supported her husband’s cause through recruitment of allies, strategic hospitality, caring for royal prisoners, and suing for the properties and rights of her sons and husband, even after her husband’s gruesome death and desecration at the Battle of Evesham turned her into an outlaw on the run from English authorities.

Wilkinson’s book is a pleasure to read, as she… show more.

The book reads like one of the best novels ever written.

Unfortunately, it’s based on a true story of a woman who was institutionalized by her disgruntled husband for disagreeing with his theology. Upon arrival in the lockup, she realized that most of the women there were totally sane. 

At this time, male family members could place female relatives/spouses in such institutions for any number of invalid reasons, including epilepsy, independent thinking, and endometriosis. Elizabeth Packard decided to fight the system and eventually won.

It’s a tragic and inspiring story.  

Mathews does a masterful job at unpacking the many ways that Scripture affirms God’s love for women and wants them to thrive.

I love how she relies on Scripture and history to show how Christianity does not endorse misogyny. It’s a theologically rich book that will make readers think about and hopefully work towards the goal of mutuality in marriage, the church, and all aspects of culture. 

As someone who has battled the broken healthcare system for 25 years now, I felt seen, understood, and vindicated by Cleghorn’s book.

Through research and story, she reveals how male bias and misogyny are stitched into the healthcare system. From a lack of funding for female health issues, excluding women from drug trials, and not trusting women’s voices, the author makes a compelling case for the many ways misogyny makes it difficult for women to get well in the US.

All who are convinced that the Middle Ages was a barbaric period in which emotions were on the whole angry and violent will quickly change their mind as soon as they pick up this book. It shows that, far from being a stagnant interlude between the richly emotional worlds of classical antiquity and our own age, the period we call the Middle Ages was in constant emotional ferment, drawing above all on the implications of Christ’s passion and what it meant for human sensibilities.

So many Christian churches struggle over who ought to lead. Do female priests/pastors fulfill or discount God’s intentions? How does one know? Scripture? Tradition?

Macy digs into the long-term history and finds that women were clearly ordained in the early church, but evidence of that ordination has been erased or explained away. Women used to perform many duties that we associate with religious leadership today, including some sacraments.

Furthermore, some were ordained, receiving vestments, staffs, and mitres. Their gradual exclusion from their traditional roles happened over centuries and was virtually complete by the 13th century, as the Church redefined ordination in ways that excluded women and their ministries.

Then we rewrote the history to make it appear women had never been ordained. Again, no agenda here—just the history.