It started with Eve—countless tellings that perpetuated shame instead of celebrating a woman’s desire, wisdom, and choice. In Rewriting Eve, I have boldly reimagined, redeemed, even rewritten Eve’s story and nine more—removing doctrine and dogma, inviting us to hear their powerful voices, and calling women of today to claim the sacred lineage that has always been ours.
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We wouldn’t consider letting Isis, Medusa, Pandora, or Persephone slip from our lexicon. To somehow forget the legend of Harriet Tubman, Anne Frank, or Mother Teresa would never cross our minds. And yet when it comes to the stories of Eve and other biblical characters, they are rarely known, barely appreciated, and ostensibly “lost” by most of us not deeply entwined within organized religion. Trapped in patriarchy and theological argument, dismissed as irrelevant, or viewed as unchangeable even as times change, these women’s voices, desires, and hearts have too often been silenced through misunderstanding and neglect. As result, we are as well. But when they are reimagined, deconstructed, disentangled from doctrine and dogma, and heard on their own terms, these stories become powerful inspiration and a source of discernment that reconnects us to a feminine lineage and a sovereign sense of self we’ve never known to call on or trust. In Rewriting Eve you are invited into the presence and power of these sacred women, the endlessly relevant ways in which they speak today, and the countless ways in which they can heal, embolden, and transform our stories.
Praise for Rewriting Eve:
Rewriting Eve is a treasure. Ronna Detrick is part archaeologist and part astronaut. She writes to excavate ancient stories and make them fresh, alive, and meaningful again. She journeys to the wild edges of imagination to dance with these women under an expansive star-lit sky. In reclaiming these voices of wisdom and hope she offers each of us the gift of showing the way back home to our own deepest knowing.
~ Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, online Abbess of Abbey of the Arts and author of twenty books including Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal
I’ve been waiting for this book my whole life. Or rather, I’ve been waiting for this book from the first moment I could tell there were voices missing. No, not just in Sunday School. There, sure, but elsewhere too. Boardrooms, media, you get the idea. And while this book holds a gift in the retelling of voices reclaimed, it also invites a bigger question for me: what other voices are missing? That is the invocation. To bring those voices forward…and mine too. Brilliantly written, lovingly crafted, this book is a calling forth and a revelation.
~ Tanya Geisler, Leadership Coach and Speaker
The stories we’ve been told and tell ourselves about who we are as women shape our future, opening and, too often, closing possibilities. Ronna has written a stunning reimagining of our sacred stories using groundbreaking research. I savored this beautiful book and hope it will free us to rewrite all the stories that have silenced and shamed us.
~ Jen Louden, author of Why Bother? and The Woman’s Comfort Book
Ronna’s book is an inspirational guide to awaken and renew your engagement with the stories of women in the Bible that often have been, like the 10 Commandments, fixed in stone. Many of us learned to accept without question what we were taught and did not welcome our own imagination. Ronna, like Eve, bites into the apple and breaks the rules as she helps us imagine the gifts wrapped in the rich and often hidden stories of biblical women. She gives us full permission to see, weave and claim our own stories, realizing we have a lineage of women who have traveled before us and are cheering us on.
~ Gail Warner, MA, MFT, author of Weaving Myself Awake: Voicing the Sacred Through Poetry
As I read Rewriting Eve, I kept thinking of all the women who have grown up in churches that don’t allow women to be pastors, preachers, or priests. Then I thought about all the women who have gotten as far away as possible from Christian churches because of Christianity’s widespread anti-feminism. Rewriting Eve is a tremendous gift to both groups. It opens up the Bible in a fresh, liberating, stereotype-challenging way. Whoever you are, you will feel that Ronna Detrick is your pastor in these pages, and the best Bible teacher you ever had.
~ Brian D. McLaren, American pastor, author, speaker, and leading figure in the emerging church movement
Hope is a courageous discipline these days, and to revision a limiting story is a bold and hopeful act. A story can create and destroy worlds. A once-upon-a-time can be a battering ram that breaks a long-held dam, one that kept the most medicinal, archetypal rivers from feeding and healing us. To that end, Ronna’s book is an epic achievement and essential addition to any apocalypse-savvy library.
~ Danielle Dulsky, founder of The Hag School, Author of The Holy Wild, Seasons of Moon and Flame, and The Sacred Hags Oracle
This book will help you rewrite your own story. If you’ve carried the weight of a patriarchal religion on your shoulders, this book will lighten the load and give you the freedom to dance. I wish I’d had it in my twenties, but I’m glad I have it now.
~ Heather Plett, author of The Art of Holding Space: A Practice of Love, Liberation, and Leadership
In Rewriting Eve, Ronna Detrick boldly reclaims stories of biblical women – stories we know, stories we only thought we knew, and for some, stories we’ve never heard. Her retellings challenge us to view these women, and ourselves, in a different, more expansive light. Along the way, Detrick weaves in hard-won revelations and insights drawn directly from her own life experiences. This is a powerful read, especially for those steeped in the Christian tradition.
~ Liz Childs Kelly, host of Home to Her podcast, and author of Home to Her: Walking the Transformative Path of the Sacred Feminine
Rewriting Eve is the long-awaited companion for women (and men) wanting to hold onto the stories of their faith tradition during deconstruction and beyond. Ronna thoughtfully and carefully rescues ten key stories from the patriarchal container they’ve been trapped in and breathes new life into them—and into those of us reading them.
~ Monette Chilson, founder of WomanSpirit Reclamation and author of Sophia Rising and My Name is Lilith
Just because the book is finished, doesn’t mean my writing is! You are cordially invited to subscribe (via Substack) to all the words, ideas, thoughts, opinions, and hopes I continue to articulate.