I often hear from men and women who are struggling with their traditional teachings on women in the Church, callings, vocation, and particularly the complementarian view of marriage. I don’t engage in debates online anymore because, well, they are exhausting and usually unhelpful plus it’s pretty time-consuming. But many people are genuinely searching because their marriage or their experience or their reading of Scripture does not line up with the narrow and tiny box they’ve been offered in their tradition, particularly when it comes to these issues. So they are searching.
Often our heart (or I would even argue, the Holy Spirit) leads us with our questions and our struggles, and then, as the proverb says, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. My teachers are often hidden in the pages of books.
I did a tremendous amount of research for Jesus Feminist
Every word of Jesus Feminist has purposeful thought and intention behind it but, as is my habit here, I often work through theology with story or prose, as an invitation and conversation, instead of in a traditional scholarly fashion. (There are other works which inform my underlying theology ranging from N.T. Wright to Walter Brueggemann, Jurgen Moltmann to Eugene Peterson to Stanley Haurwas, and probably a bit too much Barth for some of you, but I didn’t include those works as they are more foundational to me, and less focussed specifically on this issue.) I also have not included online websites and resources here but hope to gather those up for you soon, as well.
So here are my top books for becoming a Jesus Feminist. These books are a mix of story-telling, journalism, theology, and academics. (P.S. They are in alphabetical order because a ranking was impossible for me.)
A Woman Called: Piecing Together the Ministry Puzzle
A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master”
Finally Feminist: A Pragmatic Christian Understanding of Gender
Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership: Compelling Stories from Prominent Evangelicals
The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible
Junia Is Not Alone
Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (Gospel & Our Culture)
Theology for the Community of God
Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (American Society of Missiology)
Why Not Women : A Biblical Study of Women in Missions, Ministry, and Leadership
Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry
Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis
Lastly, my heart and thinking is always rooted in Scripture, and so, of course, the Bible.
And in a bit more book news, I should have the final official cover ready to announce soon! I’m excited to share it with you. (The one online is just a place-holder draft.) November feels really far away because I can’t wait to give this book to you. It feels very precious and sacred to me right now. You can find info about preordering – and my first “official” endorsement! – here.
P.S. My full reading lists are here.
image source, Creative Commons
, a paraphrase of the Bible by Eugene Peterson. I read the Message almost every day, and it feels like Scripture is brand new to me. It takes Scripture into an earthy, Everyman language that resonates with me, it’s so real that it reads like poetry, and cleanses like a bath.
. This is the Bible that Brian bought me right after we were married. He had my new married name imprinted on it, and I’ve loved it ever since. I grew up on the NIV and KJV, which I still like, but this Bible was my companion, and, in so many ways, my healing.
came into my life 10 years ago. I had been a Christian for 15 years before I discovered that there was a Church calendar, let alone liturgy or creeds. Who, low church? me? I began to attend a small Episcopal church in San Antonio on my lunch breaks, for Eucharist, and fell head over heels in love with it, right down to the smell of waxed wood and candles. I continued my lunchtime Eucharist habit at a stone Anglican church over the next few years. I found 
) to be the best introduction to learning to pray the hours. I go through seasons with this one, times when I pray the hours daily, for weeks, and other times, when I simply don’t pick it up, usually because I’m using Common Prayer, below.
by Sarah Young. A series of daily devotions, this book is written from Scripture, as if a letter from Jesus directly to you. It’s one of my daily devotions, typically read over my coffee or breakfast.
by Shane Claiborne, Enuma Okoro, and Jonathon Wilson-Hargrove. This book came into my life through a friend, during the season of Lent in 2011. I have used it daily, ever since, and I love it. I don’t always do the singing (that seems more communal, I guess) but the readings and Scripture orient me every day. I read it every morning, and sometimes the evening prayers as well, but struggle to find the discipline or habits for the midday prayers.
. We give the tinies a Bible for their first birthday, and this was Evelynn Joan’s present. But all of us have fallen in love with it, and this is the Bible we have started to use for the tinies bedtime Bible story (along with their other two, okay three, all right fine four, other stories). It’s beautiful, weaving the story of Jesus throughout, and the illustrations are whimsical.
, 
, 
, and 
.)
by Anne Lamott. Almost impossible to choose a favourite Lamott book. But this one just seems to always speak to me. I love her irreverence, her liberal ranting, her self-deprecating honesty, and I love that she is part of my big glory God-family. This is the book that taught me about the two most important prayers: Help and Thank you.
by Lauren F. Winner. I struggled with choosing a Lauren Winner book because they’re all just so damn good. Her most recent one, about the middle places of faith and life, called 
, completely undid me. I wanted to read it, out loud, with a glass of red wine in my hand, it was pure, spare poetry. But this one was her first book, and it occupies a special place in my heart. It tells the story of her conversion.
by Donald Miller. (Not pictured because I loaned it out.) This book came at the right time for me. I wrote 
by Kathleen Norris. Another patron saint for me, this book is part devotion, part meditation, all brilliant. I can hardly find words but “read it” will do nicely.
by Carolyn Weber. A fellow Canadian and former agnostic, Carolyn Weber helped me to see that one can come to faith precisely because of Christians, rather than in spite of other Christians. Plus, a spiritual memoir (my one weakness) coupled with Oxford, literature, poetry, and other English-isms (my other one weakness), well, I sort of adopted her as my kindred spirit. (
by Rachel Held Evans (sadly, not pictured above as my sister is currently holding it hostage). Rachel is one of the boldest voices in the church of my generation, particularly in the male-dominated world of theology and ecclesiology. Her 
by Sara Miles. This story was beautifully written and utterly fascinating, passionate and disarming. A lesbian left-wing journalist, Sara, surprising even herself, receives communion and becomes a Christian. She introduced me to the phrase “you can’t be a Christian by yourself” that has sort of wrecked my plans. I loved this book. More conversion memoirs should include the occasional f-word.
by Brennan Manning. I’ve already mentioned how 
changed my life for good. But this is the story behind the man that wrote it. I reflected on it here. It’s sad, lonely, brave, authentic, poignant, lovely, and raw. I’ll say this: it’s true. All is grace.
by Annie Dillard. This one doesn’t strictly fall into the “spiritual” memoir category, I suppose, but I found it a deeply spiritual experience. Annie Dillard can write me down to my knees to pray, just by writing about a year in Virginia, watching the world.
by Enuma Okoro. Enuma is one of the best narrators I’ve read in a long time. She’s funny, quirky, honest about her own faults, and interesting. Enuma writes about paradox and struggle in a way that makes me exhale.
