Rewriting Eve: Rescuing Women's Stories from the Bible and Reclaiming Them As Our Own

We wouldn't consider letting Isis, Medusa, Pandora, or Persephone slip from our lexicon. To somehow forget the legend of Harriet Tubman, Anne Frank, or Mother Teresa would never cross our minds. And yet when it comes to the stories of Eve and other biblical characters, they are rarely known, barely appreciated, and ostensibly "lost" by most of us not deeply entwined within organized religion. Trapped in patriarchy and theological argument, dismissed as irrelevant, or viewed as unchangeable even as times change, these women's voices, desires, and hearts have too often been silenced through misunderstanding and neglect. As result, we are as well. But when they are reimagined, deconstructed, disentangled from doctrine and dogma, and heard on their own terms, these stories become powerful inspiration and a source of discernment that reconnects us to a feminine lineage and a sovereign sense of self we've never known to call on or trust. In Rewriting Eve: Rescuing Women's Stories from the Bible and Reclaiming Them As Our OwnRonna Detrick invites us into the presence and power of ten sacred women, revealing the endlessly relevant ways in which they speak today and showing how they can heal, embolden, and transform our stories.

Table of Contents:
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi  Chapter One: Eve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1   Chapter Two: Cain’s Wife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25   Chapter Three: Hagar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39   Chapter Four: Th e Midwives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61   Chapter Five: Jael . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83   Chapter Six: Vashti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101   Chapter Seven: Esther . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123   Chapter Eight: Th e Canaanite Woman . . . . . . . . 147  Chapter Nine: Th e Woman at the Well . . . . . . . . 169   Chapter Ten: Th e Woman of Revelation 12 . . . . 193   Chapter Eleven: A Chorus of Voices . . . . . . . . . . 213   Afterword: Rewriting You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225   Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 A bout the Author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

About the Author :
Ronna Detrick left the church and its dogma nearly twenty years ago but took the stories of women with her. She combines her Master of Divinity degree with decades of coaching and spiritual direction, training and public speaking, corporate leadership and entrepreneurship. She shocked and delighted her audience in her provocative TEDx presentation on an Eve who inspires and empowers women instead of shaming and silencing them. After living most of her life in the Pacific Northwest, she is now just minutes from the Atlantic Ocean in Hampstead, NC, where she writes, drinks strong coffee, has beautiful conversations with her clients, and cannot be dissuaded from the belief that her two daughters are the most amazing humans on the planet.

Review :
“Re-Writing Eve is a treasure. Ronna Detrick is part archaeologist and part astronaut. She writes to excavate ancient stories and make them fresh, alive, and meaningful again. She journeys to the wild edges of imagination to dance with these women under an expansive star-lit sky. In reclaiming these voices of wisdom and hope she offers each of us the gift of showing the way back home to our own deepest knowing.”—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, online Abbess of AbbeyoftheArts.com and author of twenty books including Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal “Ronna is a modern-day demigoddess. Part-soul priestess, part-tenderhearted feminist, her words are a divine benediction to all who hear them. She has an instinctive knack for prying you open with the utmost compassion—and she helped me recognize my resistance to reconciling with the beliefs impressed on me throughout my childhood. Ronna is someone I trust implicitly and she is the perfect intermediary for this soul work.” —Nikki Groom, Author of A Power Of Your Own “When Ronna Detrick speaks, you can see her pulling down wisdom from St. Theresa to Simone de Beauvoir . . . to give you a gem of grace—or grit. And she can write—like a poet on a practical mission. Like a feminist with faith.” —Danielle LaPorte, author of The Desire Map and How to Be Loving “As I read Rewriting Eve, I kept thinking of all the women who have grown up in churches that don’t allow women to be pastors, preachers, or priests. Then I thought about all the women who have gotten as far away as possible from Christian churches because of Christianity’s widespread anti-feminism. Rewriting Eve is a tremendous gift to both groups. It opens up the Bible in a fresh, liberating, stereotype-challenging way. Whoever you are, you will feel that Ronna Detrick is your pastor in these pages, and the best Bible teacher you ever had.”  — Brian D. McLaren, American pastor, author, speaker, and leading figure in the emerging church movement