Women and God

Kathleen Nielson proficiently unpacks difficult passages of Scripture that we sometimes want to avoid. On every page, she helps us wrestle with complex questions, while inviting us to embrace this beautiful truth: God is good to women. This is an excellent and needed book—I highly recommend it for both men and women.

In our day, debate over the treatment of women, especially in the church, is one of the hot topics. I hope that many readers on all sides of this debate will take the time and invest the energy to listen carefully and respectfully to Kathleen, a woman who has a keen mind, a heart devoted to Scripture, and the courtesy to treat other viewpoints fairly even while she marshals the evidence that supports her understanding of key passages and themes.

As we face a new post-christian world, we need this book. Warm, engaging, inviting, articulate, and convincing, this book models how Christians can face this world's hard questions about gender and sexuality with the gospel's beautiful truths. Reading this book feels like a long conversation with a safe friend, steaming mug of tea in hand. Kathleen proclaims gospel light without erasing her readers' diverse points of view or lived experiences. You will find no platitudes, no cliches, no tired defenses of priggish moralism. Instead, you will find Jesus, the Word made flesh, arms open.

I was deeply helped by reading Women and God. It is a book written by a wise woman, and it does not shy away from hard, painful, complex issues. Frankly, there are few people I trust more than Dr. Nielsen to push me, challenge me, and make me think rigorously, carefully, and biblically about these things. This book is faithful and sensitive, truthful and persuasive, restrained yet comprehensive.

I loved this book! Women and God is more than just an overview of the roles of women in the family and the church. It tackles all the usual texts as well as the more shocking and perplexing ones that other people sometimes avoid. Kathleen anticipates all the questions and objections that people have, and then answers them from the text with wisdom, clarity, and sensitivity. What makes this book so compelling is her conviction that God is good, and that women can have confidence that living by his word is a beautiful thing and for our good.

Kathleen Nielson examines hard questions about women and God that some might be afraid to ask: Is God for women? Does he like us? Using God’s own words in Scripture, Nielson teaches us that the answer is a resounding "Yes!"

I am encouraged by this book, which takes on a subject that is not easy or popular as it grapples with some seriously hard questions and helps equip us to answer them from God’s word. As you read the book, it is easy to see that Kathleen herself delights in the goodness of God’s plan for women as she carefully and winsomely seeks to show us how that goodness runs throughout the whole Bible.

At a time when there is increasing confusion and perhaps resistance to God’s word about gender, Kathleen offers a clear and wise path to understanding God’s word rightly in this important area. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a book just for women. This is an excellent resource for men as well, as we all grapple with the Bible’s teaching on what it means to be a woman.

I applaud Kathleen Nielson’s courage in facing some difficult questions head-on and I think many will benefit from her thorough approach and carefully argued insights. Often the issues dealt with in this book are fraught with emotion, which obscures careful reasoning. Kathleen keeps us fixed on the word of God, while showing his love and compassion toward women.

I have started to read loads of books on women, but this one is unique—partly because I finished it! In fact I couldn’t put it down. Kathleen has gathered all the tricky questions about women and tackles them head-on. As I read about what I was created for, I was moved to tears and felt a burden lift from my shoulders. Every chapter brings fresh insights as Kathleen unflinchingly grapples with tricky verses. It’s simple, accessible, up to date and down to earth, and is a book I will keep coming back to.

In Women and God, we find a writer well prepared to walk through the interior world of godly women who are in need of good answers. In reading it, I had the sense that Kathleen
Nielson’s voice will encourage, assist, and support Christian women who have reason to feel that the goodness of God has escaped them.

It is with great joy that I recommend Women and God. What I like most about this book is not that it is written by a woman for women but that it is written by a faithful Bible-teacher who happens to be a woman. Kathleen answers the hard questions the Bible raises in relation to women by showing us the beauty of the truths of Scripture and the glory of our Savior, Jesus.