Review: Moms on the Way

July 20, 2026July 19, 2026 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

Moms on the Way

Moms on the Way (IVP Bible Study Experience), Kathy Tuan-Maclean and Tara Edelschick. IVP Bible Studies (ISBN: 9781514014202) 2026

Summary: A seven week Bible study for groups with personal readings on following Jesus through the challenges of motherhood.

Being a mom can be challenging. Kathy Tuan-Maclean and Tara Edelschick know this from their own experience as moms. Then they talked to seven hundred other moms to learn about the challenges they faced. In 2024, drawing on this research, they published their first group study book, Moms at the Well, to begin to address facing those challenges by finding nourishment in Christ and in community with other moms. But their research raised more issues than they could cover in just one book, so they’ve returned with a sequel.

In Moms on the Way, they address seven more topics through scripture-based discussions in groups coupled with five days of personal readings and study that amplify the group discussion. The topics are:

When we need a friend
When we feel ashamed
When we feel resentful
When we feel like we don’t have enough
When we’re caught up in the rat race
When God invites us to embrace vulnerability
When all we can taste is bitterness

Each week’s group discussions begin with text introductions and opening activities and a short video clip [QR code in guide to access]. They follow by Bible study with questions to engage and apply the text. Then they conclude with a breath prayer, a “Holy Spirit check-in” to listen for what the Spirit is saying, and a written leader benediction. The studies ideally take about 90 minutes but leaders can adapt them for shorter periods, like a lunch hour.

The five personal studies look at smaller segments of the passage or related passages combining biblical study, reflection questions, prayer prompts and invitations. The guide allows for plenty of room to write in responses.

While I’m not a mom, there are several things I like about this guide. Firstly, shaming is out! Moms struggle with this enough and the authors create a shame-free space where people can be honest about everything from how little of the guide they were able to read to struggles with loneliness, resentment, competition with other moms, and even bitterness. They even address shame and how God beckons us to break the cycle of shame with a cycle of spiritual transformation.

Secondly, Tara and Kathy are real! They share honestly and vulnerably about their own struggles, some continuing, and how they are leaning into their faith. For example, Kathy writes about her bitterness when diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in her twenties and Tara when God felt absent to her when she was grieving her father’s death.

Finally, women in narratives often don’t have names. In several narratives, the authors give them names that make contextual sense. The mother of the groom at the wedding feast at Cana is Yedida. The woman Elijah stays with at Zarephath becomes Zerah. Finally, the Shunamite whose son Elisha raises is becomes Shona. Such names foreground and make characters real, often women, who reside in the background of scripture.

While the guide can be studied individually, the authors believe the communal experience of honest sharing and mutual learning is immeasurably enriching. If you are part of a mom’s group looking for a study discussion guide that takes you deeply into scripture as well as into honest sharing and reflection, this is an outstanding resource.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

My review of Moms at the Well appears here: https://bobonbooks.com/2024/04/30/review-moms-at-the-well/

Review: The Mother’s Smile

May 25, 2026May 25, 2026 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

The Mother’s Smile

The Mother’s Smile, Esther Lightcap Meek, foreword by D.C. Schindler. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9798385236473) 2025.

Summary: How philosophically formative is a mother’s smile and the delighted regard of others.

None of us remembers the first moments of our lives. But Esther Lightcap Meek proposes that they are the foundationally formative events of our lives. This is so not only physically and emotionally, but also philosophically. Specifically, she has in mind the loving embrace of a weary mother, gazing on her child with a loving smile. And throughout our lives, Meek contends, we are formed by the delighted regard of others. Moreover, our delighted regard is central to the knowing of others, including the non-human. And over all is the loving, delighted regard of God upon our lives. In succeeding chapters, Meek develops all the ways the mother’s delighted regard is philosophically formative.

First of all the mother’s smile shapes our awareness of our own existence as the infant “I” faces the “You” lovingly regarding me. I understand myself to be in relationship to another, pre-figuring every I-You relationship in life. I know I exist because I see my mother seeing me. Meek contrasts this with the Cartesian reductivist vision of self detached from a fragmented external reality. For Meek, this loving regard ushers us into a world of wonder in which we are intimately connected with all.

This makes a difference in how we know, the idea of epistemology. Here, Meek elaborates her ideas of covenant epistemology through the mother’s smile. It forms us in the reality that all knowing is personal, that we don’t know objects but others. We are involved and yet non-possessive. We commune and delight. And we know wholes rather than fragmented parts.

This in turn shapes our metaphysics. In place of a Cartesian vision that doubts the reality of anything but ourselves, we embrace childhood’s vision of real others. And we encounter other things as “personlike others.” Instead of mastery of “objects,” we engage in loving regard of even inanimate “others” as well as other non-human living things. I was excited to see her connect with Robin Wall Kimmerer’s work of honoring and valuing all that we encounter in the world.

Mothers are not the only ones from whom we experience this delighted regard. This offers hope for those lacking experiences of a mother’s regard. Meek writes of the wonder when another regards us with delight, using the examples of her sister and a faculty colleague. She writes movingly of how her colleague Bob’s delighted regard formed her:

“But I want to tell you about Bob’s face! I don’t mean any particular expression, but rather the frank, unqualified regard and particular delight that it always registered as he looked at me. I saw him seeing me. Over the years I grew to see myself as Bob sees me; I chose this visage, holding to his seeing me as more objective than my own subjective view. As a person, and also professionally, I have come to be who I am in his unwavering regard” (p. 76).

She then encourages us in the seeing of others, that “[w]e make friends by being friends.”

Ultimately, for Meek, this points toward “a face that will not go away.” Acknowledging the discomfort this evokes, she encourages us with the idea that God’s gaze upon us is one of infinite delight. One of the most amazing things about Jesus as God with us is how he saw people–the Samaritan woman, Zacchaeus, and so many more.

As she concludes, she sums up the work of philosophical service with the word “delight.” We do this as parents. We receive this as children. Then we extend delighted regard wherever our calling leads us, and into all parts of our quotidian existence. Thus, we re-embrace the wonder of a child toward our world, a wonder it was a mistake to abandon.

I read and reviewed Meek’s Loving to Know last fall. It is a long book elaborating her ideas of covenant epistemology, and one of the best I’ve read in recent years. What a “delight,” if I may use that word, to see her bring all these insights together in the simplicity and beauty of the mother’s smile. This is a book to savor as it reminds us of the primal love of our mothers, of the friends who “noticed” us with delight, and of the “face that will not go away.”

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My review of Loving to Know: https://bobonbooks.com/2025/12/09/review-loving-to-know/

Review: Under Her Wings

February 5, 2026February 5, 2026 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

Under Her Wings

Under Her Wings, Jennifer Houston McNeel. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802885081) 2025.

Summary: A comprehensive study of the mothers mentioned in the New Testament as well as references to motherhood.

What is one topic in biblical studies for which there is significant material but little scholarship? Jennifer Houston McNeel contends that mothers and motherhood is one of those. Some has to do with the space mothers are given in male-written and dominated texts. And then there is the historic dominance of men in preaching and scholarship. This book is an important step in redressing this imbalance. McNeel undertakes a comprehensive study of the mothers who appear in the pages of the New Testament as well as the references, often metaphorical, to motherhood.

She begins by setting the context of mothers in the Old Testament and in Jewish and Greco-Roman culture. The genealogies of scripture emphasize families and every named person, mostly men, had a mother! But the society was patriarchal, though free women had opportunities to manage their households. At the same time, childbirth was perilous, and the purview of midwives and female family and friends. While male metaphors dominate God talk, female images also are used.

Then McNeel turns to the birth narratives, beginning with the four unusual mothers who appear in Matthew’s genealogy. None are conventional. Nor is Mary in Matthew and McNeel likens Joseph to Uriah, the righteous Hittite. He marries her despite the scandal. In Matthew, she is silent. But this is hardly the case in Luke. She engages Gabriel and gives assent, if not consent (McNeel explores the ambiguities in her submission to God’s will). McNeel not only explores the encounter between Mary and Elizabeth but has a fascinating section on Mary as Jesus’ teacher. But how does one mother a grown-up Messiah? McNeel’s next chapter considers John’s portrayal of their relationship at the wedding at Cana and at the cross.

Having considered Mary’s motherhood, the next chapters turn to other mothers in the gospels. First McNeel looks at the accounts of four mothers in crisis: Simon’s mother-in-law, the mother of Jairus daughter, the Syro-Phoenician woman, and the widow at Nain. The one thing in common beyond the urgency of their crises was that none of them are named. These were good mothers, but not all mothers are good. McNeel treats the cases of three mothers which range from ambiguous to evil: the mother of the man born blind who protects her own interests, the mother of James and John, who promotes the interests of her sons (and perhaps herself), and Herodias who exposes her daughter to horror to gain revenge upon John the Baptist. Scripture gives us both exemplars and cautionary tales of motherhood.

Before moving on from the gospels, McNeels considers the metaphors of motherhood associated with Jesus. He speaks of himself as a mother hen. There are allusions to Proverbs Mother Wisdom in his call for people to come to him in Matthew 11:28-30 and he is the logos. Likewise, Jesus uses the imagery of birth to describe the new life he brings. When Jesus speaks of rivers of living water springing from him, the word Jesus uses, koilia, can mean either stomach or womb. Water and blood flow from his side as he gives birth to the church.

Acts is dealt with briefly, because the only references are to Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary, the mother of John Mark, and the unnamed mother of Timothy. McNeel sees Acts as an interlude in the story of mothers, to become more prominent in the early church. In the undisputed letters of Paul, McNeel finds actual mothers sidelined. Women are co-workers in the gospel mission, playing prominent roles in many situations. But we don’t learn if they were mothers.. However, she observes Paul using a number of metaphors of motherhood. He uses birth pang imagery for the end times and speaks of creation groaning as if in labor. Then he speaks of his own birth and apostleship as untimely. He describes himself tenderly as a nursing mother with the Thessalonians. But he chides the Corinthians for needing milk rather than solid food.

McNeel treats the controversial material material in the pastorals as part of the non-authentic Pauline letters, written at a later time, reflecting the transitional issues facing the church. Meanwhile she notes the commending of Lois, Eunice, and others. She addresses different options for understanding women being saved through childhood, acknowledging problems with all but opting for a straightforward reading of the text, albeit not in individual terms.

McNeel treats Hebrews and the general epistles together, focusing on the faith of Sarah, Rahab, and unnamed mothers. Revelation presents us with the contrast of the virgin and the whore, which may smack of patriarchal norms. Yet Revelation anticipates a new creation where all oppression ends.

The concluding chapter summarizes themes running through this study: new life, suffering, identity, caregiving, and influence. Not only are mothers important in the biblical story, but motherhood images are at the heart of the gospel. This challenges us to combat androcentrism in biblical interpretation.

While I might take issue with some of the author’s ideas about Pauline authorship, overall I deeply appreciated the approach to the study of mothers which foregrounded these women in a helpful way for me. The fact that many women are nameless, in comparison to men, is disturbing. It reminds me that while scripture is both inspired and authoritative, it is also a human document. As a male reader, this book challenges me to notice the portrayals of women. It challenges me to question but also to appreciate. Particularly as a Protestant, we give Mary short shrift. It was illuminating to consider her as the childhood teacher of Jesus. And it was a gift to think of the motherhood images of Jesus, to be “under her wings,” as it were.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic

January 15, 2025January 14, 2025 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

Cover image of "Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic" by Nadya Williams

Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic, Nadya Williams. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514009123) 2024.

Summary: Parallels the Western disdain for mothers and children with ancient Rome, and what early Christians can teach us.

Nadya Williams decided in 2023 to walk away from a traditional academic career. But it was not, primarily, to freelance, or consult. She walked away to homeschool her children. As a result, she experienced the incredulity of friends and professional colleagues who tried to make sense of her choice. They confirmed her assessment that in a Western, post-Christian world it makes no economic or professional sense to do this. Having children costs a lot of money both directly and indirectly. And the choice of motherhood ahead of professional career has been increasing framed as an inferior, or even oppressive choice, even when freely chosen. Williams argues that her experience reflects a societal devaluation of the personhood of children and mothers and a disdain for maternal bodies.

In the first part of the book, Williams elaborates this argument. She begins with the experience of expectant mothers in modern ob/gyn practices. She describes practices in which the office decor features contraceptive advertising and Botox advertising to remove the after effects of pregnancy on a woman’s body. Williams contrasts it to a midwives practice to which she switched that featured pictures of babies on the wall. [My wife sees a conventional ob/gyn at which pictures of babies adorn the walls, so this must not always be so.]. But she makes the point that one must prevent pregnancy or remove its effects on the body to maintain societal ideals of beauty.

Likewise, if one has children, they are increasingly designed through fertility practices and genetic testing. Then children endure an assembly line education to prepare them to be good and productive citizens. Thus, we deny by objectification and commodification their personhood. Finally, motherhood is denigrated in comparison to being productive creatives by feminist writers.

The second part of the book looks at the parallel devaluation of life in ancient Roman culture and the counter-culture of early Christians. She contends that women were largely considered mere sex objects. The value of children depended on their status and health. Deformed children killed, and others, often girls, left exposed to die. War only underscored the devaluation of women and children, who were raped, killed, or enslaved. She contrasts the ethic of the early church that valued all persons, including the single, childless, mothers, children, and others on the margins. They rescued exposed infants, and cared for the sick abandoned by families during plagues.

What may we learn from the early church in a parallel, though distinct context? In the third part of the book, Williams answers this by appealing to three writers, two ancient, and one contemporary. First she introduces us to the prison journals of Perpetua, who along with an enslaved Christian, Felicity, were martyred. Felicity bore a child shortly before her death, while imprisoned. Perpetua’s discussion of motherhood speaks powerfully to anti-motherhood tracts of modernity.

The second was Augustine, whose City of God speaks of the theological basis for valuing lives amid the dehumanizing sack of Rome. His writing to sustain the Christian community models redemptive writing for our day. He spoke life-giving words into a culture of death. Finally, she calls our attention to Wendell Berry, whose life work has been to connect human dignity both Godward and to the land which sustains us as we seek its flourishing.

Williams concludes with arguing that to be pro-life involves far more than preventing abortions. The diminution of mothers and the commodification of children is a far cry from the human dignity a consistently pro-life stance entails. Of course, this extends across the whole spectrum of human existence. Perhaps the most powerful and counter-cultural witness our communities can engage in is to value mothers and children, as well as other members of the human community.

Williams speaks powerfully to the “we need more babies” contention. This still treats babies as a commodity. Rather, she holds out the ideal of communities who love children.

She models a mother who is creative both in parenting and writing. I do think she needs to address the “Handmaids Tale” fears of women. There is a toxic patriarchy that also “affirms” motherhood at the expense of dehumanizing women. I also know families in which men have forgone careers to raise (if not bear) children. Such men are also denigrated. I’d love to see more said about the dignity of their choices, which equally affirm the worth of children.

I also appreciate the nuance she brings to discussions of education, in which homeschooling as well as public education are part of the assembly line. Each can equally commodify children instead of treating them as image bearers. And each reflects a contest over who controls the assembly line. It often feels to me that we “machine” children to be optimal cogs in our nation’s workforce.

It seems to me that the major challenge is to create a culture of life within our Christian communities that is more compelling than the commodifying culture around us that marginalizes or kills its “non-productives.” I think it means disengaging from the conflicting political narratives of our culture. Neither dignifies life. And I think it means forging communities where we deeply connect across generations and stages of life. Superficial fellowship times over coffee don’t cut it. Nadya Williams identifies a key place where we can begin. We can value our children. We can affirm the choices of moms (or dads) to stay home to raise children. And we can be the village that helps them do it. Yes, this is a costly choice but one Christian communities can embrace. We know loving a child or valuing a mother is costly but this is what God has done.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Power Women

November 10, 2021November 9, 2021 / rtrube54 / 2 Comments

Power Women, Edited by Nancy Wang Yuen and Deshonna Collier-Goubil, Foreword by Shirley Hoogstra. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2021.

Summary: Fourteen women who are both mothers and academics write about how they navigate these callings as women of faith.

Women in the academic world face a unique challenge. The biological clock and the tenure clock are synchronized. The critical years for child-bearing and for career advancement coincide. One’s faith community and cultural background further complicates this challenge with sometimes conflicting values around parenting and career advancement. Many women choose one over the other. Others, like the women in this volume, believe both callings to be important for them, and write about the ways they have cared for their families and continued to pursue their academic callings. Through all of this runs an underlying theme of continue to nourish their own souls and to practice good self-care.

The contributions are organized into four parts: navigating academia, navigating motherhood, navigating multiple callings, and navigating support. In the first part Maria Su Wang describes how she carves out time for research with young children, sharing some of the scriptural reflections that have shaped her choices. Stephanie Chan offered a unique perspective on the synergy of parenting and work (lullaby and syllabi) and how each may enrich the other. Teri Clemons talks about the misperceptions that exist about maternity leave and its importance, including how much time bonding with a child and recovery can take. She urges women (and men) to avail themselves of all the leave institutional and state policies allow. Yiesha L. Thompson closes out the section discussing the unique situation of adjunct professor moms. the special pressures and choices they must make, and ways administrators may offer appropriate support. .

The second section on navigating motherhood begins by asking just what is meant by being a “good” mother. Christine Lee Kim discusses the mixed messages mothers must negotiate and identifies good questions to identify those messages and describes her own process of working through these. Ji Y. Son identifies the double whammy working moms face of being disadvantaged both at work and home and suggests a recategorization that gives women grace by considering herself a “female dad.” Jean Neely describes her struggle with the imposter syndrome and how thinking of God as loving mother as well as father has transformed her spiritual life and how being a mother has deepened those insights.

Part three could be intimidating in its discussion of navigating multiple callings. Jenny Pak describes the juggling acts of the multiple callings of pastor’s wife, mother, and professor. Jennifer McNutt takes it a step further. She is a pastor, professor and mom of three. Yvana Uranga-Hernandez describes taking on homeschooling as a professor mom. For all, these are only possible as they reflect the singular pursuit of Christ and have the support of spouses, extended family, and the wider community.

That sets up the discussions in part four, navigating support. Deshonna Collier-Goubil speaks of her experience as a young widow of assembling a support network. Joy Qualls describes the choice she and her husband made for her to be the primary breadwinner while he managed the household as a stay-at-home dad. Doretha O’Quinn draws on her mentoring expertise to discuss how professor moms may mentor each other and also gets very practical about her own practices of self-care.

The chapters mix personal narrative and academic research. They are honest and practical. Their experiences demonstrate a variety of ways women have approached navigating the callings of mom and professor. While they are amazing in how much they accomplish, worthy of the “power women” label, their stories also reflect the importance of good institutional policies, including leave and tenure policies that do not disadvantage women, and the value of support from spouses, extended family, and a wider community, and lots of grace! This is a valuable work for men to read, to understand how they may be appropriate allies.

The women in this volume represented significant diversity of ethnicity, academic discipline, and life experience. What is missing are women in STEM fields and more women from secular universities (only one contributor is). That said, there is so much wisdom that may be extrapolated into these situations. I’ve worked with many graduate women who wonder whether it is possible to honor God as they pursue both motherhood and academic callings. These narratives offer a resounding “yes” as well as honest and practical models of how that is possible.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

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The ministry with which I serve recently hosted a conversation with four of the contributors to this work that may be viewed on YouTube.