| Title | : | Unseduced and Unshaken: The Place of Dignity in a Woman's Choices |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0802405649 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780802405647 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 |
| Publication | : | First published August 1, 2012 |
Unseduced and Unshaken: The Place of Dignity in a Woman's Choices Reviews
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Rosalie de Rosset’s book is thought provoking and encourages women to live dignified and godly lives. She uses examples from classical novels (Jane Eyre, Pride and Predjudice) as well as examples from the Bible. The theme of the book is contained in the title, Unseduced and Unshaken. To live well women need to know themselves, speak truth and be willing to swim against the current of culture.
Several chapters were written by other women. The chapter by Pam MacRae on finding one’s voice seemed to have an edge, a note of frustration. Ms. MacRae explored reasons why a woman’s voice might be inhibited. I thought about my experiences as a nurse. I have worked at ways to communicate with doctors, speaking truth in a way that leads to better patient care. I was left thinking about the complexity of authority structures, leadership, service and the best ways to speak up.
Other chapters resonated with me immediately. Linda Haines wrote an excellent chapter on sexual dignity. I appreciated Stacy Parlee-Johnson’s chapter on modesty.
Throughout the book Ms. de Rosset has referred often to Jane Eyre, pointing to the character as an example. I was surprised by how much she drew from that novel. Overall Unseduced and Unshaken raises issues that are valuable to think about and discuss.
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I purchased this book for the title. I was disappointed. I found the author to be speaking from a feminist perspective. For instance, she speaks of women being silenced and oppressed. Where is she from? The average American woman couldn't restrain her tongue with a bridle and wouldn't know discretion if it kicked her in the pants. (Which it wouldn't, by the way.) I don't mean to get on a soapbox, but the truly oppressed in our society (the unborn and elderly) would be liberated if Christian women would stop complaining about not having "a voice" in the church and state, and start doing their duty in the home. I did not consider this book a complete waste of time, but neither would I recommend it.
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I absolutely loved this book. I originally picked up a copy of the book after hearing Dr. de Rosset present her book on the radio. I have always loved Bronte's Jane Eyre, but in more recent years, have appreciated the novel even more when I began to realize how many unhappy blows life can deal a person. In this book, De Rosset reaffirmed these thoughts about Jane Eyre and spoke highly of the heroine, saying she prized her wit and intellect, her unwavering morals, and her spunk. Jane Eyre, she pointed out, was a human first and a woman second, and she commanded respect wherever she went. Dr. de Rosset went on to say that she thought that modern readers needed better literary role models--it's ironic, she said, that in our modern culture where we prize the liberation of women, we actually find modern women reading books where the heroines are subservient and boring (think Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey).
In reading the book, Dr. de Rosset explored this theme of what a strong, dignified women should embody. She presents essays on cultivating the mind and reading well, on growing closer to God through the exploration of culture, and she advocates being well-spoken and articulate. The book also contains a great essay on modesty, but the essay was far from the youth group response to why a girl should dress modestly. The book explored the reasoning (and insecurities) lying behind why women so readily wear so little.
I was interested in all of the various essays included in the book, but especially appreciated the essay calling women to explore theology on their own. I had never really thought about the fact that we will all stand before God alone. We can't rely on husbands or family members to explain why "we" did such and such or why "we" learned what we did. We are each accountable for ourselves, and God calls us to know Him. We cannot just voice the opinions of the men living in our home. We have to truly know God on our own. What a good reminder to me!
Like I said, I loved this book. I have already ordered copies for family and friends. I have never read a book like this. It was an excellent resource and challenged me intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally. -
I first read this book three years ago, marking passages with post-it note tabs as I read. Recently, I wanted to loan the book and realized I had never removed the tabs, so I set out to write down page numbers, etc. to indicate the parts that stuck out to me.
Well. In a jiffy the book sucked me back in, and I ended up rereading almost the entire thing. How interesting to discover that some of the ideas presented have impacted my thinking in the past three years!
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As other reviewers have mentioned, the essay on modesty is EXCELLENT. (Just had to put in a plug for that too!) One of the best pieces I've ever read on the subject, and I've read plenty of mediocre pieces (even whole books!).
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I'll confess, I'm a sucker for the literary heroine examples (
Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennett -
Pride and Prejudice) that may not appeal to those who are unfamiliar with them. However, the good thing about being unfamiliar with literary heroines, is that unfamiliarity can change to familiarity. :)
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One of the neat features this book contains is a list of books, essays, and movies for the further cultivation of the reader's mind. Here's a
shelf with the recommendations I have read or want to read. And here's a
list of the recommendations + source books, etc. -
I enjoyed this book and I agree with De Rosset and the other contributing authors in their conclusions, but I want to argue with their vocabulary and I'm not sure I would find their arguments convincing if I did not already agree.
First, De Rosset keeps talking about dignity. I may be quibbling too much about how she says things, but she seems to imply that dignity requires a certain level of intelligence. I agree that we honor God's creation when we learn and study and expand our mental horizions. However, I also believe that all human beings inherently have dignity and worth whether they are capable of reading classic literature or not. I felt like her vocabulary didn't quite work when we consider, say, people with Alzheimer's.
Secondly, I felt like the authors needed more robust arguments for their recommendations on Christian women should live. I think a wonderful starting place would be
The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative by Christopher Wright. Because I understand something of the wonderful calling that God has saved me to and called me to live out, I am able to make better decisions about how I treat my body and what I do with my time.
One thing that stood out that I did really like: the chapter on modesty did not include any specific rules, but simply discussed the whys of modesty and intentionally left it up to the reader to consider the context and what is appropriate.
I still really liked the book and I hope I can talk about it with my daughters when they are old enough to read it. -
I waited for months for this to be available at my library and was excited to finally get to sit down and read it.
This is a series of ten essays by different authors. Most are by Rosalie de Rosset, but there are three other contributing authors included, plus two more who wrote the two appendices (which were, confusingly, about another book).
I’m not going to rate this book because the different chapters were all so completely diverse from each other, not only in writing style but in both content and message.
Having never heard of any of the women who wrote this book, I was unsure what to expect. I’ve had more than one book recommended or gifted to me as a wonderful message for Christian women that turned out to be nothing but tripe.
Some of this was tripe.
The second chapter, by one of the guest contributors, is called “Finding Your Voice: Knowing and Being Known.” It is pure tripe.
The main gist is women being silenced in the church - not allowed to speak, express their opinions, or serve in the church. I’m a thirty-three year old woman who has faithfully attended church my entire life, and I’ve never one time experienced any of that. I’ve lived and attended church in six different states, (as well as visiting churches in several foreign countries), and in every single one of them women served alongside men, were valued members of the church, and if anything, shared their opinions at times a little too freely. Odd that the author assumes every experience is like hers and every church devalues women. No doubt some do, but far from all. In my experience, women who can’t mind their own business and keep their mouths shut actually cause all kinds of problems and a whole lot of damage in churches. This chapter is ridiculous and frankly pushes the feminist agenda. There IS a difference between men and women, in the church and everywhere else. Neither is better than the other, but they are completely different and have different roles. It’s troubling to find such overt feminism in a book that claims to be all about helping young Christian women make choices that honor their Creator.
Chapter four, by the main author, was also completely disappointing and frustrating to the point that I almost put the book down. Actually, I did put it down. Then I picked it back up and finished it.
Chapter four is all about theology. I know this is a book for women, but the author differentiated very clearly between men and women in that she insisted repeatedly that women are not taught to be theologians, seeming to imply that there’s some sort of conspiracy to keep the women shallow.
To that I say, bosh.
“Shallow teaching leads women to becoming absorbed with the ‘small and transitory.’”
Yes, it most certainly does.
But it also leads men that way.
And children.
In fact, American Christianity as a whole is in a crisis of “small and transitory” thinking.
So why act like this is a woman problem, one more way we poor oppressed women are being abused by the men? Pathetic.
I did have a few other issues with the main author, although I found the rest of her entries to be much better and in some places even excellent.
- In chapter five, an overall good chapter, she says, “...the question, ‘is Christianity only meant for pretty women?’ is not so far-fetched.”
Huh? What Bible has she been reading? Where does God EVER differentiate between the beautiful and the not? In my opinion, that ridiculous statement is a gross slight of the Cross and the price that was paid there. How could any Christian imply that the sacrifice of Calvary had anything to do with outward appearance? Truly sickening.
- In the same chapter she says, “Life in America is particularly hard on women.” Give me a break. She’s speaking in the context of body image, losing weight, fancy hair and make up, etc., etc., but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a more ridiculous statement. She wants to see a hard life for women, she ought to spend some time in Africa with the mothers whose children are kidnapped, raped, sold into slavery. She ought to go to Asia and meet the young wives whose husbands disappeared and never came home, the little girls whose daddies died in horrible conditions because they were faithful to Christ. She ought to visit the Middle East, where women are viewed as possessions and mistreated in ways we couldn’t begin to imagine.
There is no more blessed being on this earth than a woman who is born an American and becomes a Christian. There just isn’t. Christianity values women more than any other religion I can think of, because they are made in the image of God.
If you haven’t noticed yet, I have absolutely no use whatsoever for this poor abused women nonsense. In my opinion, we privileged women complaining about our lot cheapens the condition of those who really are needy and abused. So just stop already, Christian women. Stop whining and get over yourselves, already.
In spite of all that, there were some really good parts of this book.
Chapters three and eight, both by a lady named Linda Haines, were absolutely excellent, as was chapter nine, by Stacie Parlee-Johnson.
Both of these ladies repeatedly took the reader back to God’s purposes and challenged our unbiblical thought processes.
The latter defines modesty as “holiness in dress, speech, and manner.” What a great way to look it! That pretty much answers all the reasons I’ve heard over the years about why a Christian can do, say, wear, watch, listen to, read, etc. anything and everything they want to. Those things aren’t about me. They’re about the holiness of God.
“Having rules to follow is so much easier than thinking about the reasons behind the rules.” So she doesn’t give us rules. She focuses on the reasons.
“If, after understanding that modesty comes from holiness, you cannot decide for yourself what to put on, one of two possibilities is the truth: either you still don’t understand the point, or you reject the point. The first is a misunderstanding; the second is sin.”
“Thinking theologically is what Christ-in-us means. Everything we do matters. Everything we put on matters.”
Chapters six and seven by the main author were also particularly good, but I can’t reconcile in my mind how she could write both the nonsense of previous chapters and the solid goodness of the later ones. Such is human nature, I suppose. We are none of us altogether consistent.
By the time I was slogging my way through the fourth chapter, with only chapter three being truly good, I was completely over this book.
I’m glad I kept on, though. I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to read certain chapters again, and I do believe that they would be harmful to many. But the rest of the book just might redeem those atrocious chapters.
If this book is on your radar, I’d say go for it. Just don’t be afraid to skip the nonsense. -
Wow. This book is so important. I want every Christian teen & woman to read this!!
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I had never heard of this author before, although I have read many books from Moody publishers . . . so when I found this book at the used bookstore, I bought it simply because it looked interesting and the fact that I was familiar with the publisher.
I started it wondering about whether or not this was going to be a Christian feminist book, or one that exhorts feminity and Biblical womanhood, to it's fullest extent. There's not a lot out there that encourages a biblical model of womanhood. And this book was so much more than that.
Did I agree with every nuance this author wrote? Umm . . . no. Far from it, actually. There was one whole chapter I skipped (about sexuality -- too detailed for me, but the first few pages were upholding total abstinence. So I agreed with it, but didn't want the details) and one chapter that I read and disagreed with (about finding a woman's voice in the church). There were several times Rosset spoke about women preparing sermons for Sunday -- I hold to the belief that women were not sanctioned to lead the corporate worship of the Lord's Day.
BUT I agreed with a lot. Her premise was that theology governs every part of our lives, and every decision we make is an outworking of the theology and doctrine we adhere to. And she is absolutely right about that. Every single decision we make is an outworking of our personal, fundamental beliefs.
Her calling to a life of dignity is one that we need, desperately. This is an area that I believe that many women are lacking in -- and the way she explains dignity is beautiful. And to have a dignified life encompasses so much.
The authors' call to reading -- not just any book, but the good classics, as well as sound theology -- was a refreshing chapter. I firmly believe that women need to be educated in both these areas. Frivolous novels teach nothing - in our family we call them "potato chip books" -- and often fill your mind with frivolity and enable you to make emotional decisions. We need to be a thinking people, and we need to have the ability to make good, sound decisions. While a good, light read is necessary, I think, every once in a while, it should be balanced out with books that make you think.
I also am under the impression that very few girls read solid theology books -- simply because we have always put that into a category for men. I think that we should read and study them for several reasons -- one, as women we are called to nurture our children in the faith. Our husbands are likely to be gone working the majority of the day . . . and if we can't answer any of their theological questions, how are we teaching them? Second, I'm sure our husbands would appreciate having a solid, sound conversation with their wives :D But besides all that, we should want to know for ourselves why we believe the way we do, why some doctrines are heretical, how to answer people when they question us, and we should always be longing to know about our Lord and Saviour.
I loved the chapter on modesty, and how it was focused not he heart. While the author did address the immodesty of dress, I appreciated the point she made that we aren't to dress modestly simply because we could cause a man to stumble, or because we don't want to be seen as objects by the men around us ((although those ARE valid points, and we should be thoughtful in our clothing choices, to lead no one into sin)), but because we should want our clothing to reflect our Saviour and our beliefs. The way she went into the theology of clothing was amazing, and some of it I had never thought of before.
The short of it is, This is absolutely a book that I feel every woman or young lady should read at least once. It is for older girls as some of the content is for mature readers -- I would say 18+, and that's with me skipping one chapter. It is a book that you read carefully, chewing the meat, spitting out the bones. But the premise was wonderful, the message was sound, and I think it's one that very woman in modern and reformed evangelical church society should read at least once. -
This book is somewhat unique among the Christian book I've read directed towards women. It talks about various issues--a women's voice, sexual dignity, modesty, leisure time--from the perspective of classic heroines (think Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennett), and from a theological perspective. It is both relevant and thought-provoking. There were many things I wasn't quite sure I agreed with, but that wasn't a big detractor for me, because the tone of the book is not that of spoon-feeding neat packages and solutions for the Christian life, but rather of inviting the reader to think.
If there is one big fault of this big it is a lack of continuity, both in the book as a whole, and in the individual essays. For example, this book contained one of the most compelling pieces of literature I've ever read on modesty, because of its theological approach to the subject and the lasting thoughts I've had about it. However, the author didn't "land the plane" of her argument very well--I felt as if I had somehow missed the vital piece that would bring home her point.
Overall, as an invitation to THINK, this book was top notch. I'd recommend it as a discussion starter, or for personal musing. -
To whoever complained this was “too feminist,” you’re wrong. This is the exact kind of empowerment and direction Christian young women need.
I truly wish someone had given me this book in high school (albeit, it hadn’t been published yet) because it truly could have had the power to change my life earlier on.
Youth groups, while well intentioned, rarely look at topics like being thoughtful and well-read; dignity and modesty; decision making and friendship without oversimplifying things with Sunday-school answers like “We do X because Jesus said to.” Or “We dress modestly to protect our Christian brothers!” (Gag me.)
Thank you, God, for Rosalie deRosett and her co-authors for sending a clear and Christ centered message about what it means to be a true, growing woman of God in the 21st century.
Now that I’ve read it, I want to read it again (with a notebook and journal at the ready to answer the discussion questions at the end of each essay.) -
Thought provoking! This book is "spot on" regarding the way women are treated, the way the culture trains them to think, and in what Scripture says about the way women should think and live. I have thought about this book repeatedly since I finished reading it. I have picked it up and re-read sections more than once. I have given multiple copies of it as gifts to women friends of ALL ages. It is definitely NOT just for young women! I have even given it as a baby shower gift to a young woman who is expecting a baby girl--after all, her daughter will not be an infant forever, and she needs to be able to prepare her for womanhood! I can't recommend this book highly enough!
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I love Dr. de Rosset’s teaching and her writing. This is an important read.
The first few chapters of this book focus on having depth and a voice as a woman. It reinforces the importance of living intentionally, studying theology, being well read, and having character and richness in your relationship with God.
The last couple chapters focus a lot on maintaining sexual morality and dignity even through modesty, speech, and character. Usually these topics really make me cringe because of how much they have been misunderstood in the church and used as a tool to shame women in to dressing and acting a certain way instead of focusing on the heart behind it. However, I actually found that this book addressed these things excellently and provided a deeper explanation and theology behind dignity. -
As a young, conservative, Christian woman, it is rare indeed to come across a book that inspires women to take up their voice, explore for themselves, and pioneer in the industry of Christian theology. Beginning with the example of Jane Eyre, de Rosset shows that determined discipline adorns women with the dignity and self-confidence that can propel us forward in our goals, both professionally and spiritually. It is a great display of how the combination of spiritual pilgrimage and literary exploration can aid our sanctification and enrich our understanding of God and ourselves.
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Anyone who says this book is feminist needs to reevaluate their understanding of the waves in the feminist movement. Sure, these dignified women are not arguing for your place to be solely in the kitchen (they are women profs at a conservative christian college) but they are also not arguing that a women finds dignity in her self. Quite the opposite actually. This book is firmly rooted in the truths of Scripture and is a challenging and refreshing read for women in all walks of life.
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This book is gold, concisely filled with truth and wisdom. Our world is brimming over with noise and confusion. By contrast, this book quietly yet firmly describes true womanly beauty and dignity. I plan to share this book with every woman I know. We need this book! It is worth 10 stars and more.
Thank you, Dr. Rosalie De Rosset, for writing this book. I appreciate and admire you greatly. -
There were parts I strongly disagreed with, and parts that I did agree with so strongly. I haven't read a book so internally polarizing in a long time. However, the good is so good that I do want to get this one. I plan on reading selected chapters with my daughters.
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Absolutely a must read for both men and women!
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2.5 stars? Maybe three? I'm conflicted.
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This is the first book I will recommend to Christian women everywhere. Top 5 books. Must read. Unlike any christian woman book
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changed my walk with the Lord as a woman and as an individual. 10/10
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Reading Unseduced and Unshaken organized and articulated many ideas that have been knocking around in my brain for decades. Here is just one example: I find it hard to look at photos of exercise coaches in health magazines. First—These personal trainers show embarrassingly more skin than any normal woman would. Do they not realize the women they hope to motivate to exercise do not want to see their breasts, or any airbrushed, bronzed perfection, for that matter? Couldn’t the coaches show they are physically fit in more modest workout gear?
Second—These coaches claim to want to empower women to become stronger and healthier. Do they not know they allow themselves to be exploited by the media when they bare most of their body parts to millions of viewers? Do they really think their “Be strong, be free” message shouts more loudly than the “Sex sells” photos of them?
These questions about exercise coaches have bothered me for a long time. Don’t get me started on the décolletage of brilliant, articulate TV news anchors or on movie costumes that turn intelligent actresses in serious roles into soft-porn stars. And doesn’t it break your heart to see what teen girls wear to school and the mall these days? They wear less and less. They reveal more and more. Which brings me to this book: Unseduced and Unshaken: The Place of Dignity in a Young Woman’s Choices in which Rosalie de Rosset and three other contributors share rich reflections in ten chapters.
De Rosset begins by defining dignity as “a strong, chosen, deliberate way of life, the result of the totality of a person’s choices and worldview.” Further, the Christian woman must understand who she is before God. Examples draw strongly on the strong character of fictional heroine Jane Eyre, who showed “the need for women … to fulfill their gifts, to use their creativity, to stretch beyond prescribed activities and passivity to true humanity. Dignity requires the development of principle and the use of intelligence.”
Pam MacRae writes about finding one’s voice in order to know and be known. She says, “… by humbly offering our voice and graciously accepting the voice of another, we reflect God’s pattern of relating. To know God and be known by God helps us understand our capacity to be known to each other.”
Linda Haines discusses the person divided “between who I think I am and who I really am.” Women long for wholeness and want to believe the culture’s promising-sounding paths to self-confidence. The Apostle Paul’s wisdom rings truer: It is impossible for us to manage fleshly impulses and thus unite our divided self. The fact is, what the culture touts lures women further from God, where true fulfillment and wholeness are found.
In building a historical case for modest dress, Stacie Parlee-Johnson makes a stunning revelation: “The need for clothing is a confession of our need for Christ Himself.” God originally gave Adam and Eve clothing to cover their shame better than their fig leaves could. Parlee-Johnson follows with comforting words: “God designed us for union, and we crave it still. This is why we desire to be naked, because we desire intimacy.” Nakedness within marriage represents holy unity. Outside of marriage, sexy or immodest dress perverts God’s best intent for us.
These are brief summaries of four of the ten chapters. (Each chapter has Discussion Questions and Suggested Reading.) The other six chapters give reasoned treatment to dignity-related topics as well. Not surprisingly, the empty temptations of our culture pop up often in this book. This resonates with me; in fact, my novel, Beyond Betrayal, could be a fictionalized account of the points in Unseduced and Unshaken. The young female characters’ dignity (or lack thereof) corresponds to their responses to varying voices in modern culture. Their choice of dress, leisure pursuits, reading material, and money expenditures reveals who they are. Although my heroine still searches for her voice, her heroines are dignified literary heroines like Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennet who value moral tradition.
Unseduced and Unshaken challenged me. It’s clearly written, but it’s deep, and I often found myself saying, “Hmmm …” and then rereading a section to think it through. I liked the book’s frankness about sex. When I was a young girl, I tucked a newspaper clipping under the glass on my desktop (the old-fashioned wooden kind of desktop). The clip was a quote from journalist Sydney J. Harris: “Don’t let the good things in life rob you of the best.” My understanding of his wise aphorism has deepened over the decades, of course. Reading Unseduced and Unshaken gave me a new appreciation for God’s best. And now I better understand that every decision a woman makes matters. Her respectability depends on it. -
some of this is less than applicable thanks to being married and out of college, but yeah this book is solid and De Rosset's writing is a beautiful combo of the best kind of feminist thinking and solid, life-giving theology... all with a deep appreciation for the classics.
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When a friend lent me this book, I thought, "Oh, great, a book about modesty and chastity that will make me feel totally worldly and guilty." But when I started to read it, almost at once I saw that my prejudice was unfounded. This book is edgy, theological, relevant, and inspiring.
Every Christian woman should read it, no matter how old or young. In fact, men would benefit from it as well. That being said, I wish this book had been around when I was a teenager; it would have been a breath of fresh air, and may have saved me some grief later on. It's empowering, for women, this book--empowering in the best way, since it always points them to Jesus. "Everything is theological," declares De Rosset, and she sets out a series of engaging essays urging young women to pursue Christ and become all that He wants them to be, in every area of their lives. She urges girls to be serious students of the Bible; to pursue Christian dignity; to develop their minds by reading good literature; to have a "theology of recreation"; to be "fully present" in all relationships and use their voices in truth, instead of silencing themselves out of fear that they will be acting in an un-feminine way. Every chapter is excellent.
Even while still reading it, I found myself urged on to practical action. During the chapter on using your voice, I realized that the Spirit had been prompting me for some time to write a certain letter, and I had held back out of fear. I put down the book and started writing; with much prayer and feedback from my mother, I was able to write a loving but truthful letter of request. Soon after that, as I kept on reading my borrowed book, I found myself wanting to underline something on every page. So I ordered my own copy. And so should you. :) :) -
Review to come
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Recommended to me by a very trusted young friend, I found this book to be a wonderful encouragement for young women to live with dignity and deliberate excellence in a world of mediocrity. I especially appreciated the connections with literary heroines of times past, Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennett to name just two. The book is very worthwhile in helping any woman (young or old) make decisions for excellence regarding their minds and their bodies.
Women are divided against themselves when it comes to beauty and thinking. An artificial physical beauty is held as the highest standard for a woman, so you spend the rest of your life being inadequate because you do not match the world's definition of "beautiful". How wonderful for the author to contrast this with Jane Eyre, who was not physically beautiful but was spiritually and morally beautiful, and as such BECOMES a beautiful woman! The rich life of the mind is not emphasized for young women, so the author encourages women to learn, to read, to read WELL, and to develop their minds and thinking. Reuniting the body and the mind into what God intends for women brings the possibility for life-long beauty and life-long wisdom.
Highly recommended. -
This book advocates a perspective that I've been waiting to hear for years from Christian authors. The author is relatable and relevant, speaks clearly and advocates some intriguing and certainly unique perspectives. She uses the classic heroines that everyone adores to prove her point about the Christian woman, and character traits that they reflect in their everyday lives. One of the things I found most appealing about this book was that de Rosset argues for the Christian woman to be intelligent, thoughtful, and dignified. She argues against the behavioral mold that I've heard I need to adhere to for years. She argues that the reasons behind adhering to modesty shouldn't be some kind of preventative measure for men, but due to your relationship with Christ. I just loved how she advocated for smart, thoughtful women who figure out their relationship with Christ out for themselves. She wants women to read the classics, to think theological, and become their own individual in the Church. I really loved it.
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I've mentored quite a few young women over the years and this book will be one of my top recommendations from now on. As the author herself states , it's an "eclectic mixture of subjects". And it is, ranging from why women should study theology and the importance of reading and play, to sexuality and modesty. Included at the end of each chapter are questions to encourage reflection and discussion, and recommendations for further reading. Excellent book for all women, not just the younger ones.
