This is a quick new BookNotes reminding you of the special webinar we are doing this Tuesday night (January 27th at 7:30 EST) where I’ll be interviewing author Dorothy Littell Greco, author of the recently published For the Love of Women: Uprooting and Healing Misogyny in America. (Zondervan; $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99.)

As I shared in the last BookNotes it will be an upbeat and fascinating conversation, if on a heavy topic. Greco, herself a journalist, will be great to interview and we invite you into our conversation as we discuss this painful but nearly ubiquitous problem. She will tell how she defines the word, why it’s important to examine the impulses, habits, and systems that create cultures of harm, and what to do to heal from toxic masculine forces in various sectors of culture and church. You can see a bit more of my celebration of the book in our Best Books of 2025 (part two) BookNotes a week or so ago or in the previous one where we announced this event (and another upcoming webinar with author Steve Garber, scheduled for next week.)

Here’s the link you must use to pre-register; they will then send back to you a free Zoom link which gets you to our virtual program. We hope you can join us.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/misogyny-in-america-with-dorothy-greco-and-byron-borger-tickets-1980724025881?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

 

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TEN RELATED RESOURCES

Malestrom: How Jesus Dismantle Patriarchy and Redefines Manhood Carolyn Custis James (Zondervan) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

James’s book Half the Church is a great resource about women in the global church and is a great read, but this one is urgent and helpful, a great book That I know Dorothy recommends. God is dismantling patriarchy in the trajectory of the Biblical story and we need a new kind of man for living in God’s Kingdom. New Testament scholar Michael Bird says it is “book that every Christman man needs to read.”

 

Recovering from Biblical Manhood & Womanhood: How the Church Needs to Rediscover Her Purpose Aimee Byrd (Zondervan) $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19

Given how ecumenical we are here at Hearts & Minds we have a variety of views on this topic, from a diversity of perspectives. Byrd is fascinating to me as she was one part of a denomination that does not ordain women and has written thoughtful books of theology for thoughtful evangelical women. Here she studies Scripture and church history to critique a specific movement among conservative evangelicals that have strict gender roles which she shows is not necessarily Biblical or faithful.

Scot McKnight says she offers “enduring wisdom and wit…”

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Kristin Kobes Du Mez (Liveright) $18.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.16

We, of course, were early fans of this best-selling and much discussed book (back when it was still only in hardcover) and have appreciated historian (and beloved Calvin University professor) Du Mez’s rigorously researched history and really engaging style. This is a study of muscular sorts of masculinity that were promoted in the last half of the 20th century within the evangelical movement in ways that, to some, were seemingly benign but that ended up being harmful in and of themselves and, further, became linked to right-wing movements of extremist patriarchy, white supremacy and more.

Simply a must-read for the riveting social history and powerful Christian insight.

Man Up: The New Misogyny & the Rise of Violent Extremism Cynthia Miller-Idriss (Princeton University Press) $29.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.96

Du Mez’s fans will say “we told you so” when they see this incredibly well-researched, very thoughtful book — called luminous and disturbing — which explores the relationship of women-hating and far-right extremist. It is known that most mass shooters are misogynists and virtulantly homophobic. One can no longer avoid the facts she shows about the ugliness against women deeply embedded in movements of violent extremists, from neo-Nazis down to Proud Boys and local militias and even less dramatic groups. Think of Andrew Tate. (That our tax-funded Department of Justice just ran an except of a song favored by neo-Nazis and skinhead types to recruit ICE agents may not be related, but, geeze…) These sorts are among the people who are involved in the MAGA movement and it is frightening. That some purport to be religious (like the KKK, or, more mainstream, like the ministries of theobros like Mark Driscoll ) is preposterous, but there it is. The data is clear and both gendered violence and hate groups are on the rise. This book is important to expose real-world connections.

Importantly, Dorothy Greco does not focus (in her book) on the extremes of this ideology as she is rightly concerned that it could minimize our concerns about more ordinary, daily encounters of systems biased against women — in healthcare or the work-world or church, say. Still, this increasing radicalization is important to understand and it would make an important follow up on For the Love of Women.

Complicit: How Our Culture Enables Misbehaving Men Reah Bravo (Gallery Books) $28.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $23.19

This recent work has gotten great praise; it has been called “fiercely vulnerable and impressively researched.” Complicit (a great, provocative title) is honest and grave and (as Kate Block puts it) “a text that imbues #MeToo-era discourse with a fresh voice.” Reah Bravo worked for Charlie Rose and obviously has some first hand stories of workplace discrimination and pretty toxic stuff; she is self-aware and a good writer. It got outstanding reviews, noting it’s balance and nuance. Read Greco’s stories in For the Love of Women and then come back to this and read about “soldiering on in stilettos.” Whew.

The #MeToo Reckoning: Facing the Church’s Complicity in Sexual Abuse and Misconduct Ruth Everhart (IVP) $19.99  // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

An exceptional read by a women who has told in an earlier book about her own experience of rape (while a student at a Christian college years ago) and her later leaving her denomination so she could, without barriers, become ordained into the ministry of Word and Sacrament. (She is a PC(USA) minister. With that deeply personal care and great empathy, Everhart wrote this groundbreaking book in 2020 and it is a must-read. Kudos to her and to IVP.

By the way, although sexual abuse in the church is legendary and evil, that particular sin is not the only manifestation of misogyny in the church; Greco’s For the Love of Women looks at this topic (sexual abuse and cover-ups, toxic male power mongering in the church) but gender-based misconduct and harm from patriarchy is broader then this egregious sort of violence.

Prey Tell: Why We Silence Women Who Tell the Truth and How Everyone Can Speak Up Tiffany Bluhm (Brazos Press) $17.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39

This deserves a longer review (and I did write about it when it came out in 2021.) For now, just know it is exceptionally important, exploring the dynamics of power and the lack of accountability that occurs within many church and ministry contexts. One reviewer called it “devasting” while Belinda Bauman (co-founder of #SilenceIsNotSpiritual) says it is “an absolutely must read book for our age, breathing courage into survivor and ally alike.” Action is not optional.

When the Church Harms God’s People: Becoming Faith Communities That Resist Abuse, Pursue Truth, and Care for the Wounded Diane Langberg (Brazos Press) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

Dr. Langberg is a recognized theologically-trained psychologist and trauma scholar so she has seen “the crushing trauma of sexual abuse, trafficking, domestic abuse, and rape — and it’s cover-up.” Yes, there are cover-ups, some of them obvious and gross. Gulp. We really need her  several books, about suffering, about power, and more. When the Church Harms God’s People is concise and powerful.

I think of a very powerful page or two in Greco’s For the Love of Women on the death threats and abuse faced by Anita Hill when she charged (Supreme Court Judge) Clarence Thomas with his creepy abuse. I wept when reading that small bit, especially knowing some of my more conservative friends admire him. Hurting women are too often ignored, their stories disbelieved, abuse minimized. (Think of how President Trump survived his disgusting stories about abuse.)  People and systems collude and churches and ministries fail to reflect the love and care of Christ. Langberg is very helpful giving very good advice to church leaders.

Abuse-survivor, whistle-blower, advocate, lawyer, and Christian leader Rachael Denhollander says it is “a book for anyone wounded in the name of Jesus or seeking to understand who Jesus is and what the church is designed to be.” Very nicely done.

Safe Church: How To Guard Against Sexism and Abuse in Christian Communities Andrew J. Bauman (Baker Books) $18.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19

As we’ll see in our on-line author discussion Tuesday night with Dorothy Greco, she wants to not only name and diagnose the problem of misogyny but wants to offer helpful on-ramps to new efforts and practices of hope and healing. She affirms this author and cites this book.

Sheila Wray Gregoire (author of the important The Great Sex Rescue) says it will “haunt you — and it should.” But then says it inspires us to “go and do something about it.” Exactly.

Dan Allender says Bauman “has with immense wisdom and humility addressed the exegetical, theological, cultural, and traumatic bonds that need to be broken to create not only equity and safety but flourishing for both men and women. This book is a tour de force…”

We Should All Be Feminists Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Anchor Books) $10.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $8.00  //  OUR SALE PRICE = $6.40

I have often highlighted this short essay, made as a pocket sized but handsome paperback, and wanted to mention it again. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a world-renowned African novelist who lives part time in the US and in her homeland of Nigeria. This is a piece written to her good friend, a Nigerian pal who recoiled at the notion of Adichie saying she was a feminist.
Not unlike some contemporary religious folks, the word seems to seem needlessly divisive, carrying negative baggage, for some, almost a curse word. And that is inaccurate and needless, I’d say. We all should be feminists.

She pleasantly shows that there is no intended hatred for men implied (as Dorothy Greco says herself; to resist hatred of women does not mean we hate men.) Chimamanda uses her lovely gifts as a prose writer and her incisive insight about discrimination (in traditionalist African cultures and in modern Western cultures) that good people should all resist.  Can we “dream about and plan for a different world,” she says. “A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves.”

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