LCH gently guides us to see how we can learn from the examples of so-called "bad" women in the BiBle ( )

Higgs' casual, chatty style highlights what I think is the best use of this book: study groups. These chapters were designed for discussion amongst a group of friends, probably over coffee, with Higgs as the wise been-there done-that reformed bad girl to guide the way. After a while the constant 'honey'-this and 'girlfriend'-that made my lip curl and more than once I almost walked away from the book. What can I say? I don't like it when people talk like that to me in person, either; it comes off as quite patronizing.

I did appreciate that Higgs brought attention to many of the forgotten and invisible women in the Bible, including the nameless ones like Potiphar's wife, Lot's wife, and the Samaritan woman Jesus met at the well. Her method of bringing them to life - creating a modern equivalent and writing her story - almost succeeded several times, but some of the interpretations felt off the mark, or she'd stop the action without truly bringing her point home. The best of these re-imagined women was Lottie, who sought comfort and definition from physical items in her home in the Cascades - dangerously close to Mt. St. Helens.

So if you're to do a study group focusing on women of the Bible for teens, I'd say this book would be quite useful. But it isn't a particularly effective source for individual self-study. ( )

Higg's brings humour to the women of the Old Testament. When you aren't laughing, you might actually be reminded of a classic truth or two. ( )

A fairly simplistic but interesting examination of the some of the women in the Bible that seem to get short shrift. She does try to see the "bad girls" in a more modern light - first by reinterpreting the story in modern guise, and then by trying to see these women outside of the traditional victim roles. ( )

Higgs is explicit about her authorial strategy in the introduction of her book; she tells the reader that she will begin each chapter (a character’s story) with “. . . a fictional retelling of the biblical story . . .” These “retellings” are contemporary, and couched in the cultural terms of the modern American reader. One of the more creative of these fictional accounts is her metaphoric comparison of Lot’s wife to a housewife who resists leaving her dream home in the Cascades. Unfortunately, one of the nearby mountains turns out to be Mount St. Helens, and the consequences of her character’s hesitation are lethal. Higgs then turns to an exposition of the NIV text where she interprets each character and her story. At the close of each chapter, Higgs emphasizes lessons that follow from the life of this particular woman, and then provides a series of discussion questions. Higgs’ strategy relies on her experience as a storyteller and public speaker.

Higgs writes as a Christian American from an American perspective. She does not have personal background in biblical scholarship, but has admittedly relied on the perspective and input of her husband, who has had such training. This is not to say that Higgs is devoid of insights into the biblical text, but that her comments are frequently critically naïve. She has spent a significant amount of time researching her stories using the resources at hand (“. . . more than fifty commentaries . . . with ten different translations of Scripture.” ), but she rejects out of hand any view of her biblical heroes that disturbs her triumphalist view. One example of this is her naïve dismissal of one unidentified commentator who suggested the possibility that the two spies who visited Rahab at Jericho might have “partook” of her services. It seems that Higgs can understand the concept of “temporary bad girls,” but not “temporary bad boys.” Although she claims the middle ground between the masculine point of view and that of the feminists, her perspective is typically more consistent with philosophically modern, male evangelical thought. Consequently Higgs would reject the feminist perspective altogether, and affirm the Bible as God’s inerrant scriptures.

Higgs’ books have sold thousands of copies and have pleased many non-scholarly, critically naïve audiences. This book about women in the Bible, though, does not compare well to the work of women who are biblical scholars: Sakenfeld and Brenner, for example. ( )