This week has been all about feminism. Both Erin and Indy have posted personal stories about different facets of feminism and christianity, which we hope will lay the groundwork for many more contributions. We believe that feminism is necessarily intersectional because a woman’s experience cannot be reduced to gender alone. Below you will find a whole bunch of material to read about Jesus and feminism for your research journey. We hope that these resources enrich and encourage you, and we are excited to hear your feedback!

On Intersectionality by Kimberlé Crenshaw

If you are keen to learn more about intersectionality, then look up the amazing Kimberlé Crenshaw. This essay collection is essential for any reader who wants to learn more about intersectionality. Black women such as Crenshaw, and notably also bell hooks, paved the way for intersectionality by exposing the underlying racial biases of many classical feminist texts. It is only through this crucial lens that we can really understand the depths of women’s struggles.

Sarah Bessey “Jesus Feminist”

If you loved Indy’s piece and want to learn more, read Jesus Feminist. Indy became a feminist before she met Jesus, and Bessey became a feminist because she was a Christian. Not ready for a whole book? Listen to this 30 minute sermon by Bessey. She goes into greater detail about intersectionality, allyship and the Church.

Rachel Held Evans, Collected works

We lost a great feminist Bible scholar earlier this year, but her legacy lives on through her amazing work. Rachel Held Evans stands out as sensible, smart, and able to hold onto the gospel while bridging the gap between conservative Christian circles and liberal theologies. Read a snippet about her life and thoughts here. Consider one of her four books, all which deal with being a Jesus centered woman in the 21st century.

Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions

Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again

Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church

A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband 'Master'

The Junia Project

The Junia Project is committed to gender reconciliation and biblical equality. They support women in the Church, women in ministry, Christian feminism, a Biblical view of women, and egalitarian theology. They curate a lovely Pinterest page that expands on these ideas. We highly recommend listening to Kate Wallace talk about the Junia project on this episode of the Seminary Dropout Podcast. Give it a listen and learn all about Christian egalitarianism, which is key to the Christian Feminist doctrine.

Anne Lamott, collected works

Anne Lamott is a powerful writer and vulnerable person of faith. She has written 8 books on faith from her own uniquely female perspective. Pick up any of them or find audio versions of them. For a trippy dose of Lamott wisdom, you can find her on season 1 episode 2 of the (not-for-kids) cartoon, The Midnight Gospel, found on Netflix. Be prepared for psychedelic, bizarre images set to a podcast between Lamott and Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward. For more Lamott wisdom, you can follow her on Instagram.

Daniella Mayfield, collected works

Daniella is a feminist and Christian who makes a bevy of beautiful things exploring these ideas. She has a fun podcast called the Prophetic Imagination Station that reminisces on 90’s Christian pop culture artifacts, a gorgeous blog, has written two books and her articles are featured in Christianity Today, Religion News, The Washington Post, Sojourners, Vox, and many other publications as a former missionary and female Bible scholar.

We found her article on why she can no longer call herself an evangelical thoughtful and provocative. Mayfield also has written extensively about the heritage of Christian feminism, one of our favorites articles she wrote is about Dorthy Day. Mayfield’s writings take a lovely dive into what it means to be Christian, female, and an activist -yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Additional Reading: Feminist Classics.

For those who are starting out and are looking for those ground work feminist texts, this is the list for you. This list is compiled from texts Indy read during her politics degree where she looked at feminism as a discipline, so some of them are pretty hefty. This is not a full or comprehensive list, and we don’t agree with all the thoughts of these authors, but it’s a good place to start.

Women & Power, A Manifesto by Mary Beard
Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies curated by Scarlett Curtis
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollenstonecraft
Men Explain Things To Me and Other Essays by Rebecca Solnit
Invisible Women, Exposing Data Bias In A World Designed For Me by Caroline Criado Perez
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
The Feminist Mystique by Betty Friedan
The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir
A Room Of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Feminism Is For Everyone by bell hooks
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Colour edited by Cherrie Moraga & Gloria Anzaldua
Gender Trouble by Judith ButlerWomen & Power, A Manifesto by Mary Beard

Are we missing a story/ resource that you think needs to be shared? Then please reach out to us, we want to hear from you! Learn more here or contact us directly with your ideas at erin@ourchurchtoo.com or indy@ourchurchtoo.com