Book Review: Notes on Feminism by Lauren Windle

Rating: 3 stars of 5

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, it’s an interesting book about the intersectionality between feminism and christian faith / church environments, and the author brings up some good, thought-provoking points throughout. I like that she discusses relevant research and that the book is well cited. It might be worth reading if this is a topic that interests you.

On the other hand, I felt that it lacked focus, which ended up making the book feel more like a collection of blog posts all kind of mashed together with the random guest post mixed in here and there. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, one of the “guest posts” felt like it didn’t belong in the book and the rest of it often felt disorganized.

I found myself wishing the author had taken a bolder stance instead of riding the line. She emphasizes multiple times throughout the book that she thinks there is room for a range of perspectives on women in faith communities. While I can understand where she was coming from, the way she perpetuated the narrative that there is space for harmful, destructive perspectives in faith communities didn’t sit well with me.

Overall, it’s a book that I liked in some places and in others, found concerning. If this is a subject you’ve already been studying for awhile, you likely won’t find much new information here, so you probably won’t be missing much if you choose to skip it.

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