Reviewed by David Christian

Rebecca McLaughlin, Theologian and outstanding writer, has written this very stimulating book which has already helped me for some of my sermons.

Of the woman who had been disabled for eighteen years Rebecca McLaughlin writes: “While many come to Jesus in the Gospels and bow down, this woman finally stands up and glorifies God… having stood the disabled woman up straight for the first time in eighteen years, Jesus then stands up for her.” Jesus calls her a “daughter of Abraham” used only of her in the whole Bible, and through this also implies that the Synagogue Leader is not. “Luke ends the story by dividing the audience in two, those who followed the synagogue leader in their critique and those who followed the woman in her praise.” In each story we are challenged to examine whether we are for Jesus or against him, for the women or against them.  Each chapter has helpful study questions. 
McLaughlin places most of the women in the Gospels into different categories and “shows Jesus in all his tenderness, majesty, compassion and defiance.” In each story she gives us fresh insights, and shows us why women loved Jesus so much, how women had so many battles to fight, especially against the religious leaders, and how Jesus stood  up for the women. 
I found this book so inspiring and stimulating, and found it hard to put down.  I will look at it every time a woman appears in a Gospel text I am preaching on. It is not a book on Women’s Ordination, but after reading it I don’t think anybody could use the Gospels to argue against women being ordained.  
It would be a great book for a study group, not just for women. I hope you can all get a copy, and why not buy one for a friend. It is more than worth the $22 or so you will pay, unless you wait for the next Koorong sale! I didn’t!!