In today’s fast-paced world, investing time in a business career, maintaining the home environment, raising responsible children, developing social roots, and many more time-demanding activities all have a tendency to encroach on a woman’s consistent attention to establishing her own deep spiritual roots.

Bible Gateway interviewed Bible study leader Jen Wilkin (@jenniferwilkin) about her book, Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds (Crossway, 2019).

Your book is directed at women. How is reading the Bible as a woman different than as a man?

Jen Wilkin: Ideally it isn’t that different. Certainly men and women may interpret and apply Scripture in some ways that are gender-specific, but reading comprehension should happen in much the same way for both genders. In recent years, however, the resources written specifically for women tend to target our emotions before our intellect. I directed my book at women because I want them to rediscover the joy of loving God with their intellect when they approach His Word.

How do you compare rhumba tights with reading the Bible?

Jen Wilkin: As a little girl I loved rhumba tights but couldn’t stand that the frilly ruffles were in the back where I couldn’t see them. So I wore them backwards, which wasn’t such a great idea from a comfort or coverage standpoint. Rhumba tights were not meant to be worn backwards. Many of us approach the Bible in the same way. We want it to speak to us on our own terms, but it was not written to be read any way we feel like reading it.

What do you mean, “We must read and study the Bible with our ears trained on hearing God’s declaration of himself”?

Jen Wilkin: Many of us have been told that the Bible is a road map for life, an instruction manual, a sort of cosmic self-help book that will answer all of our questions about what we should do and who we should be. This kind of thinking can cause us to begin regarding the Bible as a book about us. The Bible is not a book about us. From Genesis to Revelation it’s a book that articulates the nature and character of God. Rather than read it to discover truths about ourselves, we must first read it asking what it teaches about God. Only when we do that does the Bible begin to show us truth about ourselves—not independent of Him, but in relation to Him.

How does the statement in your book, “…pleasure increases in something when we learn its history, origin, and deeper nature…” pertain to reading the Bible?

Jen Wilkin: Many Christians believe that the way to grow their love for God is by having repeated experiences of Him. If they feel spiritually dry, they listen to praise music or read inspirational writings, they journal or go on a retreat. But our pleasure in something (or in this case, Someone) actually grows the more we learn about them. We learn about God in His Word. So, to say that we love God implies that we would devote time to learning about Him in His Word. Otherwise, we worship an unknown God, attaching our uninformed emotions to a deity we know very little about.

What is the case for biblical literacy?

Jen Wilkin: I believe the church today is in a full-blown Bible literacy crisis. With the decline in expository preaching and mid-size teaching groups like Sunday School or weekly Bible studies, many churches now have no (or very few) environments in which their people are learning the Bible according to any kind of structure that builds literacy. Topical studies and devotional material tend to cultivate only a spot knowledge of the Bible. To gain a hearing, the false teacher and the secular humanist rely on biblical ignorance. We have proven quite reliable. I’d like that to change. I propose that we call the Church to love deeply the text that teaches us the knowledge of our God, that we reject anti-intellectualism as incompatible with a living faith. I propose that we demystify Bible study so that the church can once again reclaim her heritage as people of the Book, rather than as people who read lots of books about the Book.

[Also see our blogposts, Ten Obstacles That Get in the Way of Bible Fluency and The Church is Starving Itself: An Interview with Kenneth Berding.]

You say women should study the Bible with purpose, perspective, patience, process, and prayer. Briefly explain what you mean.

Jen Wilkin: In the book I offer a study method that incorporates all five of those elements. It’s a method that I believe is accessible to any student, whether she has a seminary degree or a high school degree, whether she has hours or minutes in her day to give to study. The method offers women basic tools to help them grow in Bible literacy over the long-term. It’s not a method that removes our emotions from our study of the Bible, but rather, one that helps us worship God with emotions that are informed by right thinking.

Bio: Jen Wilkin is a speaker, writer, and teacher of women’s Bible studies. During her 13 years of teaching, she’s organized and led studies for women in home, church, and parachurch contexts. Jen and her family are members of the Village Church (@villagechurchtx) in Flower Mound, Texas.