It is hard to review a book that is a compilation of essays and that is what “Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible” is. Some of the essays were good and I learned so much from them, some were things I already knew, and some didn’t really make a good case.

I wanted this book to give me facts based on Scripture, on church history and to give a voice to these women in the Bible. It did that somewhat, but unfortunately in the background there was a lingering peal of feminism that didn’t sit well with me. I wanted it to exalt our Creator because He uses both men and women (both just as broken as the other) to go about His business in furthering His Kingdom and revealing more of Himself through us. And the book did this, but not as wholly as I think it could have. It exalted God, but also bashed very well known pastors. I feel it took them out of context and some seemed to have had a bone to pick with them.

And that’s the problem with today’s feminism. We, as women, create not because we are creative, but because we want to create better than men. We want to be the boss of an organization, not because it pays well and you can influence more people, but because a man has it, and we want what a man has.  And this book seemed to focus on women of the Bible, not because they all point to Jesus, but because the preachers who spoke about them didn’t give them enough credit. Granted, I believe some preachers don’t believe women characters in the Bible are as important as male characters. I also believe that some preachers treat their female sheep as a second-class group. But when you write a book to counter that by doing the exact same thing you hated done to you, you lose the validity of your work. You become whiny and petty.

There are countless of women Jesus loved, that God loved and used for His glory in the Bible. There are also many women who have been maligned just because of their sex. But correcting that by belittling men is not the way a Christian man or woman should write.

This book was good, but the echoes of past hurts were just a bit too loud for me. It was also very academic, something I did enjoy about the book. In the end, the book left me wanting to lick completely healed wounds and a Christian book should never make anyone feel that way (Philippians 3:13b). I, cautiously recommend this book if you want to know more about these women in the Bible, but there are plenty of other books that dignify these women just at much without abasing men.

You can buy the book here. It is 304 pages long.