Taking Back God: American Women Rising Up for Religious Equality is an important book for anyone interested in religion or ladies's issues. The author, Leora Tanenbaum, describes herself as an 'observant Jew' and clearly cares passionately regarding her own faith. In this book she interviews ladies from 5 totally different traditions - Catholicism, Evangelical Christianity, Mainline Protestantism, Islam, and Judaism. All of the girls consider themselves devout within their respective faiths, however struggle - to varying degrees - with the second-class status accorded ladies within them.
The author combines excerpts from her conversations with these girls with in-depth religious history. She covers the standing of ladies over the centuries at intervals every faith, and the usually tenuous scriptural support used to justify their second-class status. She focuses on four main issues: 1) Restrictions on the roles girls will hold, significantly leadership roles, 2) The predominantly male language and pictures used to represent God, three) The thought that ladies's bodies are somehow intrinsically sinful or problematic, and 4) The thought that only men, and not ladies, are created fully within the image of God. The dearth of scriptural and historical support for many of those views is explored in depth.
A number of the ladies she interviews contemplate themselves feminists and activists, but several don't, and it's the latter that really offer the book its power. The foremost moving comments are from the 'average' women who have stuck steadfastly by their faiths because they feel a passionate connection to them, however are uncomfortable with the messages usually sent them (and their daughters) about themselves and God. Many feel that trying to change their religions from among, instead of leave, is the greatest kind of religion they can demonstrate, and believe this to be an absolute necessity if their faiths are to survive for future generations.
The spiritual history portions are equally fascinating, and demonstrate just how often non secular mandates have been changed to adapt to changing cultural and social norms in the past. That there's thus abundant resistance related to changing women's roles now, considering the changes in the encircling society, seems almost absurd by comparison. Up to date American women don't settle for second-category standing in the workplace anymore, and increasingly they're uncomfortable with it in their houses of worship. That their status is changing therefore slowly, and that thus several of the women who advocate for it are considered 'troublemakers', raises intriguing questions concerning the role of faith in public life, and concerning the interplay of politics and faith in this age of faith-fueled 'culture wars'.
Though this book is not a lightweight read, I suggest it to anyone fascinated by learning the history of the three 'religions of the book', and/or women's roles among these traditions. I additionally recommend it to anyone inquisitive about girls's spirituality, whether or not they are doing not think about themselves historically religious.
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