Thanks to Brooke LeFevre for this review!

            It did not take long after I started reading The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth for me to be completely hooked. Really, it was on page 6 in the Introduction. Barr told the story of what inspired her to write the book—her husband’s dismissal from his job as a youth pastor. Barr, a historian of medieval Christianity, had long recognized issues with the idea of Biblical womanhood as it was taught in her Southern Baptist faith, but she had stayed silent for a myriad of reasons. Finally, she could not stay silent anymore. Barr wrote, “By staying silent, I had become part of the problem. Instead of making a difference, I had become complicit in a system that used the name of Jesus to oppress and harm women.”[1]

            For me, those sentences spoke to an internal wrestle I was already having. You see, I had been thinking a lot about Eliza R. Snow. Eliza is, I think, a fascinating case study for the negotiations of patriarchy within nineteenth-century Mormonism.[2] Snow was not what we would consider a feminist. She did not believe in equality between men and women. She upheld the authority of men in the church over women and she taught that wives should submit to their husbands. However, she had a powerful voice within the church and used her voice to help dismantle or counter some patriarchal teachings and encourage women to obtain educations, pursue careers, contribute to the economy, and other things that we might look back on and praise for their feminist underpinnings. Eliza made a real difference in the church. But at what cost? Eliza, it seems, had to uphold the authority and superiority of male power within the church to be given space for her voice to be heard. She was, to some degree, complicit in a system that oppressed women.[3]

            I had been wondering if that was still true today. Do women in the LDS Church today still have to support patriarchal systems to have a voice? Is the possibility of having a powerful enough voice to enact real change worth the risk of complicity in an oppressive system? I still do not have answers to those questions. But Barr’s book inspired me to think more critically about ideas surrounding womanhood within Christianity.

            When I ordered a copy of Barr’s book, I expected to find a typical academic book about the history of the concept of biblical womanhood. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Barr’s audience was not actually academics: “This book is for the people in my evangelical world. The women and men I still know and love. It is to you I am speaking.”[4] Although the book is full of thorough historical research, Barr’s tone is quite personal, and it often felt like I was sitting in a room, listening to her speak. She tells personal stories, shares her own thoughts and ideas, and discusses history in a way that could hold anyone captivated (the stories of medieval women are particularly attention-grabbing). Barr starts with an explanation of patriarchy itself, and its contrast in the actions of Jesus, then explains the historical context behind Paul’s letters which are so often quoted to justify complementarianism. She moves through time, from the medieval period to the Protestant Reformation, through Bible translations, to the Cult of Domesticity, and modern-day evangelical orthodoxy. Patriarchy in the church existed in all these time periods, but it did not always look the same. “Patriarchy is a shapeshifter,” Barr explains, “conforming to each new era, looking as if it has always belonged.”[5]

            And that is the problem with modern evangelical ideas of biblical womanhood. Evangelicals claim that complementarianism is simply biblical truth, but most Christians throughout history would disagree. Sure, they also often had problematic views of womanhood, but they were different and best explained through historical context, as is complementarianism. Additionally, she explains, women have always found ways to fight against those varied versions of oppression.

            Barr’s final chapter is undoubtedly the most personal and, for me, the most powerful. “Christian patriarchy,” she explains, “was built, stone by stone, throughout the centuries. Evidence shows me how, century after century, arguments for women’s subordination reflect historical circumstances more than the face of God.”[6] Barr seems to be asking, have Christians wholly misunderstood one of Jesus’s primary messages? “Complementarianism is patriarchy,” she explains, “and patriarchy is about power. Neither have ever been about Jesus.”[7]

            Mormonism does not enter Barr’s book, which is rightly expected given her audience. But I would argue that Barr’s message, research, and mission are remarkably relevant to Mormon historians and practitioners alike. From women such as Eliza R. Snow to Amy Brown Lyman and Barbara Smith, Mormonism has a history of, as Barr would explain it, shapeshifting patriarchy, patriarchy that seems to “reflect historical circumstances” more than Mormonism’s doctrine or revelations. Barr notes, “Historically, one of the greatest problems for women is that we do not remember our past and we do not work together to change our future. We do not stand together.” But then she asks a question that I, in turn, extend to those within Mormon studies: “But what if we did?”[8]

[1] Beth Allison Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Brazos Press, 2021), 6.

[2] The idea of patriarchy as an ongoing negotiation comes from Julie Hardwick, The Practice of Patriarchy: Gender and the Politics of Household Authority in Early Modern France (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), xiv.

[3] See, Brooke R. LeFevre, “‘I Would Not Risk My Salvation to Any Man’: Eliza R. Snow’s Challenge to Salvific Coverture,” Journal of Mormon History 47, no. 2 (2021): 48-74.

[4] Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, 9.

[5] Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, 187.

[6] Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, 205.

[7] Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, 218.

[8] Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, 217.