About the Book:
Jezebel and Delilah have plenty to teach contemporary Christian women, according to Bad Girls of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them. In this self-help book, Liz Curtis Higgs tells fictionalized, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical characters including Eve, Potiphar's Wife, and the Woman at the Well. In verse-by-verse commentary, Higgs summarizes each life's lessons and provides a list of questions for personal consideration or group discussion. The overall message of each chapter is the same: "Good Girls and Bad Girls both need a Savior. The goodness of your present life can't open the doors of heaven for you. The badness of your past life can't keep you out either." In its effort to turn readers' minds heavenward, Bad Girls draws a distinction between fun and joy. Associated with "fleshly pleasures," fun "is temporary at best; it's risky, even dangerous, at worst." Joy, on the other hand, is found in God's "gift of grace." Perhaps the book's greatest weakness is its inability to see that "fun," in many lives, is a holy and necessary means of attaining "joy." --
My Comments:
I really liked this look at some of the "bad" girls of the Bible. Liz Curtis Higgs begins the book by telling the story of a modern-day "bad" girl--herself, and then takes us through chapters on Eve, Lott's Wife, Potiphar's Wife, the woman at the well, Delilah, Sapphira, Rahab, Jezebal, Michal and the woman who washed Jesus' feet. Higgs takes the story of each of these Biblical women and translates it into a story set in the modern world. Eve is a young Savannah deb whose father has a beautiful garden, which contains a gazebo he has told her and her fiancee they are never to enter. Some slick guy convinces her to go in there, and while there, seduces her. Potiphar's wife is the trophy wife of a corporate executive. Lot's wife lives under Mt. St. Helen's and doesn't want to leave her home. The woman at the well is a barmaid. Rahab is a prostitute in San Francisco. After telling the modern story, Higgs takes the Biblical story verse by verse and talks about it, girlfriend to girlfriend. She talks about Potiphar's wife probably being bored, too idle. She mentions that the woman at the well was a social reject--and also that her decision to have so many husbands was probably and economic one. She calls Jezebel a "Queen with attitude".
Higgs concludes each chapter with lessons we can learn from the "bad girl", and some "Good Girl Thoughts Worth Considering", which are basically reflection/discussion questions.
Higgs is not Catholic so specifically Catholic interpretations are, of course, missing. There is mention of repenting from your sins, for example, but nothing about going to confession. Still, I don't recall anything that was particularly anti-Catholic.
I'd like to thank the publisher from making a review copy available via their Blogging for Books program. Grade: A.
