A Biblical Woman’s Reading List
I have just one week left in my year of biblical womanhood, which means I am days away from a much-needed haircut and the ceremonial packing-away of my many head coverings. In the spirit of Rosh Hashanah, I plan to spend the week reflecting on the past year and the year to come while snacking on apples and honey and attempting to track down a shofar.
In addition to accumulating a stash of head coverings, I’ve amassed quite a few books over the past year.Occasionally people ask me what sort of resources I used during the project, so today I thought I’d share the list.
All Year:
The Bible (There are many translations available at biblegateway.com)
- Anchor Bible Commentary Series
- The Women’s Bible Commentary, Edited by Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe
- Living Judaism: The Guide to Jewish Belief, Tradition, and Practice by Wayne D. Dosick
- Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books, and the New Testament, Edited by Carol Meyers, Toni Cravien, and Ross Shepard Kraemer
- Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem
- Discovering Biblical Equality: Complementarity Without Hierarchy, Edited by Ronald W. Pierce, Rebecca Merrill Groothuis and Gordon D. Fee
- Women in the World of the Earliest Christians: Illuminating Ancient Ways of Life by Lynn Cohick
- God’s Word to Women by Katharine C. Bushnell
- Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis
-"On The Dignity and Vocation of Women" by Pope John Paul II
- The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
October (Gentleness):
- Etiquette by Emily Post
- Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila
- The Autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux by John Beevers
November (Domesticity):
- Martha Stewart's Cooking School
- Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook
- The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and “Women’s Work” by Kathleen Norris
- The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
- Passionate Housewives Desperate for God by Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald
- The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Shaeffer
- Next to Godliness: Finding the Sacred in Housekeeping by Alice Peck
December (Obedience):
- Created to Be His Helpmeet by Debi Pearl
- Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement by Kathryn Joyce
- Quivering Daughters: Hope and Healing for the Daughters of Patriarchy by Hillary McFarland
- Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives by Phyllis Trible
January (Valor - Proverbs 31):
- Sewing for Dummies by Janice Saunders Maresh
- The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace
- Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs by Ellen F. Davis
- The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 15-31 by Bruce K. Waltke
February (Beauty):
- Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs by Ellen F. Davis
- Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions About Sex and Desire by Jennifer Wright Knust
March (Modesty):
- A Return to Modesty by Wendy Shalit
- Amish Society by John Andrew Hostetler
April (Purity):
- The Red Tent by Anita Diamat
- Inside the Red Tent by Sandra Hack Polaski
- Living Judaism: The Guide to Jewish Belief, Tradition, and Practice by Wayne D. Dosick
- Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren Winner
May (Fertility):
- What to Expect When You’re Expecting, 4th Edition by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel
- On Becoming Baby Wise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam
- The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two by William Sears and Martha Sears
- Babyproofing Your Marriage by Stacie Cockrell, Cathy O'neill, Julia Stone and Rosario Camacho-koppel
- How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
- Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay: And Other Things I Had to Learn as a New Mom by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor
June (Submission):
- Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot
- Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire by Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat
- Finally Feminist: A Pragmatic Christian Understanding of Gender by John Stackhouse
July (Charity):
- Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices by Julie Clawson
- Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDUnn
- The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns
August (Silence):
- I Suffer Not a Woman: Rethinking 1 Timothy 2:11-15 In Light of Ancient Evidence by Richard Clark Kroeger and Catherine Clark Kroeger
- The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight
- Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women by Carolyn Custis James
- Roman Wives, Roman Widows: The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities by Bruce Winter
- The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
- A Quaker Book of Wisdom by Robert Lawrence Smith
- Let Nothing Disturb You (30 Days with A Great Spiritual Teacher) by Teresa of Avila, with John Kirvan and Caroline Myss
- All Will Be Well (30 Days with A Great Spiritual Teacher) by Julian of Norwich
- The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle
September (Faith):
-Walking on Water by Madeleine L’Engle
-Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich
-No Greater Love by Mother Teresa
- Loaves and Fishes by Dorothy Day
- The Hospital By the River by Dr. Catherine Hamlin
…So what did I forget? :-)
Learn more about my year of biblical womanhood here.