As part of a project with the diet of bookworms I have been reading The Feminist mistake

The author does a good job of cateloguing the thought of secular and religious feminists. It is clear that to the author the last fify years is a story of how a biblical view of feminism has been erroded and replaced with a form of femminism that has more in common with paganism than christianity. I found the story this book portrays deeply disturbing, and there were parts of it I simply could not read- particularly when the author was detailing the sncretism of pagan goddess worship in some femminist church circles.

I am sure I came to the book with the wrong expectation however, the reason I found it so disturbing was that it was painting such a bleak picture. Right until the end there was no explanation of what a biblical view of women and men ought to look like. Without reading the last couple of chapters the book might even convert some people to the cause of feminism, which is clearly far from the desire of the author.

I was expecting more of an attempt to construct a biblical theology of man and woman. The "Complementarian" view is not even discussed. Feminism like most other errors arrose to correct a pre-existing error. The "good old" days of male-female relationships were not quite as rosy as some might like to imagine. The author does not assume that everthing was fine before feminism but does not try to explain the errors of that time and what christians today should think of men and women in the home workplace and church. The bible view of women is not the same as the 1950s view of the west.

If you are looking for a history of feminism this is a great book, but if you are looking for a book that will equip you to engage with the important issues of men and women and their relationship to each other and God, this is not the right book- nor did it set out to be.

This book is well worth a read for those interested in a disection of the views of feminists inside and outside the church. If on the other hand you are looking for a theology of men and women, then this book is not aimed at you. If you are looking for such a theology, I would recommend you read "Recovering Biblical manhood and Womanhood"