Suzannah Rowntree’s Reviews > The Sexual Reformation: Restoring the Dignity and Personhood of Man and Woman > Status Update

as an aside: I used to think that people who said the ESV was translated to be the anti women version were being a bit alarmist...but after having read a number of works lately on the theology of sex and gender I now wish I had a dollar for each time some theologian has had to correct the ESV for its most-misogynistic-possible, historically and theologically novel translations of passages like Gen 3:16.

ALSO now I'm running back to a Middle English lyric that made me very uncomfy 10 years ago but WHAT WAS I THINKING IT'S GORGEOUS:

"I am trewe-love that fals was nevere;
My suster, mannes soule, I loved hire thus:
Bicause I wolde on no wyse dissevere
I lefte my kyngdom glorious:
I purveide hire a place ful precious
She flitte, I folwed, I lovede hire so
That I suffred thise peynes piteous,
Quia amore langueo"

the typology of sexual differences in this chapter, which argues against thinking of sexuality as a role, rather than as gift, is extremely valuable, even though I'm left wishing for a little more detail and argument to support her view of the male part.

it feels like after deconstructing some of my views, this book (and the Amy Peeler book WOMEN AND THE GENDER OF GOD) is helping to reconstruct them

this reading of Genesis 3:16 pitching the woman's desire as a good thing that will be continually thwarted by the man's sinful domination, in parallel to the v17 picture of the man's labour as a good thing thwarted by thorns and sweat, is amazing, has far-reaching consequences, and explains so much about why I like my favourite romance tropes

'As Abigail Favale puts it, “The virgin represents the human being alone before God, divested of any extrinsic valuation"' and this was the point at which I came THIS CLOSE to shouting HALLELUJAH at the entire gym

I'm having to backtrack plentifully and I think I'd want to re-read this book more closely in a physical format, but I'm finding it really thought-provoking so far. I am LOVING the deep dive into the typology the Song draws on, the affirmation of both allegorical and literal meaning, and the suggestion that the Song may have had a female author which makes sense considering the intense, distinctive female gaze