For those who are really interested in pursuing this topic, reading Jane’s or Katharine’s books with an open mind will probably help you more than you expect. I know that I have been greatly helped by reading these books as well as others.
Note: There are several editions of
God’s Word to Women available on the Internet. At least one of them, readily available on Amazon, is abridged and not nearly as good as the full text, I am told. One place I know of to get the unabridged is
GodsWordToWomen.org. (The ebook version from this site looks to be complete but lacks Katharine’s timeline diagram of
teshuqa.) Personally, I started with Jesse Penn-Lewis’
The Magna Carta of Woman, which is a condensation of Katharine Bushnell’s book but which didn’t have enough meat in it for me. It might be a good place to start for some, however. Katharine Bushnell’s book is the seminal work and very erudite. (This book should not just be skimmed quickly and then denigrated just as quickly, as some are wont to do.)
These two books had such an impact on me that I wrote a
very brief synopsis of what I thought at the time (about nine years ago) were the most important parts: “Woman 101: What Every Christian Man Needs To Know.” It has honestly taken years for the import of the message of these books to get through my male brain, to the extent that it has, and into my wicked heart, and impact my own innate male bias and behavior. I should also add that my relationship with the Lord has deepened in correspondence with my behavioral change which is due to repentance (to which my wife attests).
Jane’s book culminates with the need for repentance by both males and females in order to remove a huge, longstanding relationship wound in the body of Christ (which has offended the Spirit). She points out that, historically, it is repentance that paves the way for blessing and for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit on the earth. This, I would say, is the main point of Jane’s book.
Learning from Jane
I actually have followed Jane’s example, which is seen modeled in
The Thread of Gold as well as in
A Woman of Chayil: When I am reading Jane’s writings, it seems that she is always referencing her relationship with the Lord and how she contacts Him for guidance in her Bible study. (She has even been disparaged for this; apparently, it’s not scholarly enough. Katharine Bushnell was even criticized for noticing cultural bias in the Chinese translation and starting with that; apparently, some have not heard of or thought of inductive reasoning.) As to me, I prayed about whether or not to answer the request to post again and about what and how to post, and the Lord brought to me the explanation of the Greek word,
oikodespoteō. At first, I didn’t see the beauty of this approach. After further thought, I realized that the opposers (which is what the Local Church leaders call people like us) are picking up statements and reworking them to fit whatever narrative they want to create and attack, and then making it look like Jane Anderson and Katharine Bushnell are really just some misguided, irrational, feminist imbeciles, without any approved capital letters after their names. I then realized that a “male gender bias for dummies” approach, taking one word at a time, could possibly begin a fissure in those brains, without getting too bogged down in other vagaries of Greek translation.
Well, this is enough for now. The books are available; and, in addition, Jane is dispensing some of the contents of Chayil in small portions on her blog. I am hoping to take up another Greek word sometime soon, but I might post more about repentance next.