A Christian Woman Lives Biblically for one Year

A blogger decided to attempt to follow, as literally as possible, all the instructions in the Bible concerning women. She called her husband "master," grew out her hair, slept outside of her house in a tent when she had her period, and broadcast his praise at the gates of her city (picture above). She has now documented the year-long experiment in a book - A Year of Biblical Womanhood.

On her blog, Rachel Held Evans answers the #1 question most people seem to have concerning the book; "How on earth did you get this idea?" Her answer?

Growing up in the conservative evangelical subculture, I was often told that I should strive to practice “biblical womanhood.” In response to second-wave feminism, evangelical leaders have been debating the role of women in the home, church, and society in recent years, and as a result, Christian women receive a lot of mixed messages about what it means to be a woman of faith. While many hail “biblical womanhood” as the ideal, few seem to agree on exactly what it means, and any claim to a “biblical” lifestyle is inherently selective. (After all, technically speaking, it is biblical for a woman to be sold by her father to pay of debt, biblical for her to cover her head when she prays, biblical for her to be one of many wives.)

I wanted to challenge the idea that “biblical womanhood” could be reduced to a list of roles and rules, and I wanted to do it in a creative, disarming way. I was thinking about this in the shower one morning, when I got a crazy idea: What if I tried it all? What if took the notion of biblical womanhood literally to show that it’s not as simple as it may sound?

As a result, I found myself growing out my hair, making my own clothes, caring for a computerized baby named Chip, consulting with Orthodox Jews, travelling to Amish country, interviewing a real “sister wife,” sitting on my roof, covering my head, and calling my husband “master.”

Just like the book by the Nun, I think I'll be getting this. Below is the blurb from Amazon, and some videos.

What is “biblical womanhood” . . . really?

Strong-willed and independent, Rachel Held Evans couldn’t sew a button on a blouse before she embarked on a radical life experiment—a year of biblical womanhood. Intrigued by the traditionalist resurgence that led many of her friends to abandon their careers to assume traditional gender roles in the home, Evans decides to try it for herself, vowing to take all of the Bible’s instructions for women as literally as possible for a year.

Pursuing a different virtue each month, Evans learns the hard way that her quest for biblical womanhood requires more than a “gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:4). It means growing out her hair, making her own clothes, covering her head, obeying her husband, rising before dawn, abstaining from gossip, remaining silent in church, and even camping out in the front yard during her period.

See what happens when a thoroughly modern woman starts referring to her husband as “master” and “praises him at the city gate” with a homemade sign. Learn the insights she receives from an ongoing correspondence with an Orthodox Jewish woman, and find out what she discovers from her exchanges with a polygamist wife. Join her as she wrestles with difficult passages of scripture that portray misogyny and violence against women.

With just the right mixture of humor and insight, compassion and incredulity, A Year of Biblical Womanhood is an exercise in scriptural exploration and spiritual contemplation. What does God truly expect of women, and is there really a prescription for biblical womanhood? Come along with Evans as she looks for answers in the rich heritage of biblical heroines, models of grace, and all-around women of valor.