What It's About
What It’s About
What It's About
What It’s About
Women are essential to the biblical story--they bear life, lead communities, and testify to God's power and presence. Some of their names we know, others we've only heard, and others, tragically, go unnamed.
Following the success of her beloved book Fierce, pastor and provocateur Alice Connor introduces us to a whole new group of women from the Bible, including Rachel, Leah, Miriam, Esther, and Lydia. Connor invites us to see them not as players in a man's story--as victims or tempters--nor as solely morality archetypes who teach women to be better wives and mothers--but as brave foremothers of the faith. Skillfully drawn by the author, these women's stories are messy, challenging, and beautiful. When we read their stories, we can see not only their particular, formidable lives but also our own.
Reviews
Reviews
Reviews
Reviews
“
Brainy, hilarious, and unapologetic, the book is every bit as courageous as the Biblical women Alice Connor brings to life. Don’t read it unless you’re willing to reevaluate what you think you know about the Bible and gender.
Jana Reiss, author of Flunking Sainthood and The Twible
“
Alice Connor’s retelling of the biblical story—fanfiction, as she calls it—is half stand-up comedy, half soul-piercing truth. She spins the ancient tale in startlingly fresh ways, bringing the women of Scripture to life in a way that is both authentically relatable and unapologetically feminist. With each chapter I felt the anticipation of reading a brand new story, even when it was an account I’d heard a thousand times.
Kyndall Rothaus, author of Thy Queendom Come
“
A consistently surprising and almost gleefully subversive reexamination of the very human side of our most sacred stories. Alice Connor’s explorations of these tales and those who inhabit them ask us to question all the familiar elements we have taken for granted for so long, and to shine a much overdue light on perspectives we may have never considered. In the end, we emerge better from the experience.
Matt Kish, illustrator of Moby-Dick in Pictures
“
Brave is such a pleasure to read and Connor is so friendly and funny and so adept at making biblical scholarship accessible, reading it felt more like taking a long walk with a wise woman than undertaking some gnarly challenge to overturn centuries of male-centric commentary. And yet she gracefully does some immensely valuable overturning. I’m grateful for this important and inviting work undertaken with such humility and generosity. Connor writes as a pastor with a clear heart for those who might receive from her work a spark of freedom to become more fully themselves.
Debbie Blue, author of Consider the Women: A Provocative Guide to Three Matriarchs of the Bible, Consider the Birds, and Sensual Orthodoxy
“
Oh my…did she really say that?” That was my initial reaction to Alice Connor’s latest work, Brave. In her quest to give voice, agency, and depth to biblical women, Connor opens a door for us to “see” our biblical sisters in a different light—as human beings who have something to say and show us about being human. With her candid and conversational style, Connor reveals dimensions and aspects of women we malign, misunderstand, marginalize, silence, or ignore—in our preaching and teaching.
Connor's style is accessible, witty, irreverent, and engaging. She surprises us at every turn—making complex situations simpler, redeeming what seems blasphemous, and all the while, speaking the truth.
Some studies of biblical women gloss over contextual and interpersonal challenges and inconsistencies, leaving us with sappy platitudes and surface conclusions. Connor takes us deeper into the stories and their contexts. In the end, Connor shows us women who mirror who and what we are—sometimes flawed, misguided, ill-advised; yet, also wise, clever, creative, subversive, and, you know, brave!
By the end of this book, I was saying: “Oh my…she did just say that! Please, say it again!
The Rev. Barbara J. Essex, author of Bad Girls of the Bible: Exploring Women of Questionable Virtue
Excerpt
Excerpt
Excerpt
Excerpt
Please enjoy the introduction from Brave. You don’t read introductions, you say? Give this one a try.