Christy Angelle Bauman - Theology of The Womb: Knowing God through the Body of a Woman

Dear Bold Reader,

It seemed wise to write this foreword as a letter. This book is so profoundly intimate, thoughtful, and life-changing that it seems ill-conceived to use a normal structure. As a man, I dont enter the Red Tentit is a holy space that is not mine to inhabit. However, I have spent too many decades of my life grateful that I am not allowed into that realm. I confess, however, that I shudder deep in my bones at the thought of walking into any sacred space. There is something foreign, dangerous, and alluring that I resist as I return to trade bleared, smeared with toil. I prefer the daylight of the ordinary to the dark unknown of mystery. Also, I dont.

Christy invites me, a man, to stand at the threshold of what I will never suffer, or birth; what I will never know as a loss or a privileged joy. She invites me to behold, wait in mystery, and let the smell of life fill me with desire. There are realities I will never grasp or comprehend as a man, but as a human being, I am meant to receive and to hold in awe. This labor of love is an invitation into the heart of God our mother.

Christy addresses our reluctance, if not fear and, for some, revulsion, to conceive of God as a mother. She doesnt resolve the biblical or theological issues, but she calls me to remember my grandmother and at least to wonder why the being of God who is neither male nor female is not seen through the experience of the feminine as much as through the lens of the masculine.

Studies have shown that women read more than men, especially in areas that make men feel uncomfortable. I fear that few men will read this book. I suspect that most readers will be women and I strongly urge you to ask your partner or friend to read this book with you. Tell him it will not only help him know your suffering and joy with higher intensity, but will enable you both to embrace sex, gender, and mystery with greater pleasure.

Most importantly, this book opens to us all a way to share the glory of love as we are born into the delight of God. We are loved. God loves us beyond what we can name or embrace. I closed this book and thanked my grandmother for being the face of God. My beloved wife will finish our letter to you.

Beloved Reader,

Dan is a man who knows more about the heart of a woman than any other man I have ever known. However, he is correct: he has not been in nor will he ever be invited into the Red Tent. It is a sisterhood that knows a monthly process that brings either a loss of hope or relief, for some a lifetime loss of never having a full womb, and for others a bitter loss of the miscarriage or stillborn. Also, for many a weight of glory that is more than we can ever fathom. It is physically, socially, economically, and spiritually complex to be a woman. It always has been.

What I found as I read Christys holy and beautiful book is coming home to my body. There are so many voices that delegitimize a womans experience, especially as we age. When I walk into a nice store to look for clothes, salespeople dont see me. It is as if the female clerk doesnt know what to do with an aging face and body. I am a reminder to younger women what will one day happen to the beauty of their body. I am invisible to men and, I am a reminder to younger women. As I read Christys book, I was reminded of my scars and the warfare of infertility, miscarriages, leakage, seepage, pain, and far, far more joy. I love being a woman, and yet it is and has always been something far more complex than what it seems my husband suffers. There is no point to compare the cost of living in a fallen world, but Christys work allowed me to enter what it means as a woman to be fearfully and wonderfully made. I regretted not having this book when I was a young woman, and I can assure you that my daughters, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters will receive this book as a present. I, too, hope my son and every other man I love will read as well. Theology of the Womb is a gift I trust you will receive and offer to everyone you love.

Dan and Becky Allender

Bainbridge Island, Washington

February 20, 2019