Reclaiming Christian womanhood beyond patriarchy
Westminster John Knox Press publishes Chelsea Kim Long’s ‘Faithfully Dissident Daughters’
LOUISVILLE — For centuries, patriarchal Christian spaces and interpretations of Scripture have distorted women’s understanding of God, their bodies and their place in the world. “Faithfully Dissident Daughters: Reclaiming Christian Womanhood Beyond Patriarchy,” published this week by Westminster John Knox Press, invites anyone who has felt unseen or diminished by their faith tradition to reimagine and reclaim what it means to love God and embrace themselves.
Raised in evangelical churches, “Faithfully Dissident Daughters” author Chelsea Kim Long had a clear vision of the Christian woman she was born to be: a doting wife and mother, filled with the joy of the Lord and love for her family. But after suffering a traumatic birthing experience, postpartum depression and further reproductive loss, she found that vision — and her faith in a God who would mandate that singular role for women — shattered.
Working through the pain of these deeply feminine experiences opened her eyes to the broader ways the patriarchal Christian worldview undermined not only her but womanhood in general. The faith she’d been handed had no room for questions or nuance and even less room for the bodies, feelings or the spiritual authority of women’s lived experience.
Through raw personal narrative and rich theological reflection, Long explores the false limits the church has placed on women and how the demand for unquestioning obedience silences women’s natural intuition and erodes self-trust. She shares her search for and embrace of feminine expressions of the Divine, uncovering long-neglected images of God as Mother, Wisdom, and Spirit that have always lived within the Christian tradition. Steeped in Scripture and diverse, historic Christian traditions, this book will inspire and empower readers to become faithfully dissident by stepping into a faith that feels honest and whole through honoring women’s bodies, emotions, experiences, and innate wisdom.
Chelsea Kim Long is a writer, lay theologian, and meditation teacher exploring Christianity through the lens of women’s embodied experiences and contemplative spirituality. Her work invites readers to reimagine Christianity beyond patriarchy and toward a more expansive and inclusive expression of faith. She lives in San Diego with her husband and three children, where she co-leads an intentional neighborhood faith community grounded in belonging and justice.
“This is a book that will guide you home to yourself.” —Gemma Hartley, author of “Fed Up” and “No One Loves an Angry Woman”
“Read this. And then pass it to every woman you know.” — Christy Angelle Bauman, author of “Theology of the Womb” and “Her Rites”
“There is a tradition, ancient and unbroken, of women who knew that the Divine was bigger than the men describing it — and Chelsea stands squarely in that lineage. This book is not a departure from Christianity — it’s a contribution from its deepest truths.”— Scott Erickson, author of “Honest Advent” and “Say Yes.”
Download the book club guide or an excerpt from “Faithfully Dissident Daughters” here.
You may freely reuse and distribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes in any medium. Please include author attribution, photography credits, and a link to the original article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.
