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Book review: Hero Lover Daughter Queen: Finding yourself in the Bible by Lavinia Byrne and Jane McBride

06 December 2024

Naomi Starkey reads a fresh presentation of what scripture offers

THIS book offers a creative invitation to people otherwise immersed in “today’s clickbait world” (according to the blurb) to “journey into the Bible”. Focusing on a selection of characters (Jezebel to Job via Mary Magdalene) who “grappled with the challenges of living well”, it aims at gleaning wisdom that connects with our own anxious times.

Similar books have been published over the years, but here the authors are clearly targeting the contemporary longing for (not to say obsession with) self-awareness and the assumption that individual preference is a universal starting-point. Rather than promote Bible-reading as a spiritual discipline or simple scripture lesson, it presents it as a way of gaining access to deep truth and profound insights into the human condition (and even “finding yourself”).

At the same time, the authors don’t gloss over the ways in which the Bible has been used to control, oppress, and abuse. They show how the text can be in dialogue with issues of enduring concern — racism (the Song of Songs), toxic masculinity (Goliath), and homophobia (St Paul). The point is not to serve up a narrow definition of “what the Bible says”, nor to denigrate scriptural authority, but to encourage thoughtful and interactive reading.

To that end, each chapter includes a wide variety of suggestions for action and reflection, some to stimulate further thought (“Can you write the draft of a letter Paul never wrote? One to his own mother”), others offering ways into spiritual self-examination (“In what circumstances do you find it easy to tell the truth?”). I found particularly diverting the “Princess Jezebel diary”, a fantasy rendition of part of that sorry story. To combine Solomon’s Temple, the Ten Commandments, and Donald Trump in a single chapter was inspired.

While this is an excellent attempt to engage with an otherwise predominantly online readership, its format may, I fear, limit its wider appeal, because habitual scrollers may well find the text-heavy design hard going. Highlighting the likely time needed for a chapter — “This is an x-minute read” — would be one way of encouraging the hesitant to persevere — and find their way towards that promised wisdom.

Canon Naomi Starkey is Ministry Area Leader of Bro Padrig, in north Anglesey.

Hero Lover Daughter Queen: Finding yourself in the Bible
Lavinia Byrne and Jane McBride
Canterbury Press £12.99
(978-1-78622-593-1)
Church Times Bookshop £10.39

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