After years of searching for healing and grappling with her identity, Bible teacher Julie Wright discovered that the keys to wholeness had been in front of her all along in the life of Eve—the first woman in the Bible. Wright’s new book, Redeeming Eve: When a Woman Lives Loved (Tristan Publishing, Sept. 16), explores our journey through sin and struggle to strength and security.
“I discovered so much beauty, profound purpose, Eve’s inherent value to God, and her glorious, sin-free relationship with Adam,” Wright says. Inevitably, though, Adam and Eve do experience sin, shame, and other devastating consequences in the Bible, which led Wright to an even deeper understanding of “God’s redeeming love, not just for Eve but for myself and every woman,” she says.
Understanding God’s design—what God intended for Eve to be and do—can help every woman find her own path and purpose in today’s fast-paced, demanding, technology-driven, and often perfection-obsessed world, Wright says. “Social media has magnified superficial, physical, image-based values, leaving both women and men robbed of the deep joy and security of being known and securely loved.”
Further, Redeeming Eve makes a case for how identity—or the terms one uses to define oneself—can determine so many other aspects of life, including one’s goals and influence on others. Wright wants women of all ages and backgrounds to know that some of life’s challenges are universal and that how they view them, and themselves, can have a negative or positive ripple effect on self-confidence, desires, relationships, and more.
Wright also includes in Redeeming Eve insights into the lives of nine other women from the Bible, highlighting how they too searched for identity, value, and purpose. For instance, Wright says that Esther “could have lived from labels such as ‘orphan’ or ‘minority’ but instead chose to live from her identity as a child of the Most High God.” Lessons about how to use one’s influence are explored through the lives of Sarah and Abigail, while insights into female sexuality are gleaned from Bathsheba and Ruth.
“Redeeming Eve illustrates this search through the lives of real women who struggled and overcame,” Wright says. “Women will see parts of themselves reflected in each of the chapters and be encouraged to secure their identity in being loved, healed, and helped by the God who created them.”
Wright is still a student of the Bible and works daily to deepen her understanding of it—and she’s continually reminded that there is always room for more growth. It is her hope that readers of Redeeming Eve learn how to live loved. “When we understand that we are already, fully, eternally, and completely loved, we can stop going through life looking for love,” she says. “We can live from emotional and spiritual wholeness instead of need.”
Noting the impact living loved has had on her own life, including aspects of marriage and parenting, Wright says, “We do not need to go through life hurting and hungry, tired and thirsty. There is a love that heals and fills. Jesus came to love us to wholeness and redeem the Eve in all of us.”
Sheila Waldman, publisher at Tristan Publishing, calls Redeeming Eve “timeless yet relevant for today” because it sheds light on hardships that haven’t changed across millennia, as well as the specific challenges women face in contemporary society. “Many women of all ages struggle with discouragement—even hopelessness,” Waldman says. “In culture today, we see so many unhealthy messages, arrows of sorts, that come at women from countless sources.”
Redeeming Eve met the key criteria for all books published by Tristan Publishing with its encouraging, uplifting, and hopeful message. “We immediately recognized that Redeeming Eve points readers back to one source, the Bible,” Waldman says, “the source that shares the truth about God’s love for us and that introduces us to the person, Jesus, who has the ability to change hearts and give readers encouragement and hope for the future.”
