The women in Scripture have much to teach their heirs. In five new and forthcoming books, authors bring ancient female voices to life to caution, advise, and inspire modern women.
Free and Fearless: Life and Leadership Lessons from Women of the Bible
Business consultant and entrepreneur Maupin writes that in reading about women such as Deborah, a judge; daring Queen Esther; and even Mary Magdalene, she drew lessons for both her career as a leadership consultant and work teaching biblical principles at her website, Bible Roads. These women, Friendship publisher Brian Sigmon says, show how to “confront cultural norms, lead teams, build consensus, and do it with strength, grace, grit, and courage.”
In Her Voice: Stories of Women in the Bible
During her decades as a pastor, Fowler imagined dramatic monologues for dozens of biblical women to speak at church assemblies about critical moments in their lives, their troubles, challenges, and triumphs. Now 16 of these monologues have been compiled because, Paulist editor Mary Dern Walker says, “the issues biblical women encountered—misogyny, rape, patriarchy, sexual exploitation, love, envy, and more—still confront women today.”
In the Beginning Were the Women: Matriarchs, Mystics, Wise Women, and Warriors in the Hebrew Bible
A spiritual leader and activist for social justice, McKeever-Burgett reimagines stories of overlooked, even unnamed, biblical women whose lives can inspire healing, liberation, and transformation. Their experiences still resonate because “the joys and concerns of women, their beauty and resistance—they’re timeless,” says Brad Lyons, Chalice president and publisher. “All these years later, women still work, mother, protect, lead, fight, and speak truth.”
Knowing God’s Voice: What Female Prophets of the Bible Teach Us About Recognizing, Trusting, and Obeying God
A Bible teacher and podcaster, Groll recognizes that when women speak up about God, their messages are too often undervalued. Rachel McRae, executive editor for Revell, says that while women today are advancing in leadership and teaching roles, “their voice still doesn’t carry as much weight as a man’s.” By highlighting powerful biblical women who spoke confidently about God, Groll shows that “God has always valued and empowered women to carry out his purpose, his word, and his love to those around them.”
Unmaking Mary: Shattering the Myth of Perfect Motherhood
The director of Theos, a religion and society think tank, writes that the idealized image of Jesus’s perfect mother has permeated art, literature and popular culture for millennia but real world mothers, facing the challenges of parenthood, can never measure up. McDonald sets out to “reconstruct a more authentic, grace-filled way forward for the most important job in the world,” according to the publisher.
