Review: Poor Art, Worse Theology
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 11 11, 2013
I tried very hard to like this book.  I truly wanted to empathize with the women and their stories, having felt suffering and knowing full well that the Lord is our faithful Helper indeed.  However, I came away with the sense that today's Christianity offers a nice Romans 8:28 band-aid to the people who reap what they sow after their decision to divorce faith from works.In terms of the overall flow of the book and the way it was presented, it needs quite a bit of work to be called a good piece of art.  Various grammatical errors served to detract from its value, and the stories seemed to all have the same "voice," regardless of the different people supposedly telling them.  The author would have greatly benefited from adding her own words at the end of each story to show the reader how exactly each woman portrayed a walk of faith, or rewriting each story so that the unnecessary details are omitted (i.e., some of the information sounded like gossip).As for the theology presented, the stories of the women were very diverse.  In some situations, it appeared that the women faced great pain and suffering "for no reason," and that through it all, they grew in their faith of the Lord's power and love.  In other situations, however, it appeared that the women made poor choices early on (i.e., marrying an unbeliever, ignoring advice, etc.) and reaped what they sowed later on in life, but the Lord was able to bring about blessings in spite of their sinful decisions.  Romans 8:28 was quoted out of context a few times as a halfhearted attempt to explain the suffering the women faced, but there was no real discussion about how faithfulness leads to a deeper love for the Lord and greater obedience, in turn leading to more faith in His goodness.  There certainly were a few nuggets of golden truth found here and there in the book, but they seemed overlooked.  The overall theology of faith and works going hand-in-hand in the practical lives of women today felt lacking, setting the stage for a very disappointing and discouraging read.Disclaimer: I received this book as a free download in return for a review.