cover image Caught in a Higher Love: Inspiring Stories of Women in the Bible

Caught in a Higher Love: Inspiring Stories of Women in the Bible

Carolyn Nabors Baker, Carolyn Nabors Baker. B&H Publishing Group, $9.99 (176pp) ISBN 978-0-8054-1198-0

Baker explains in her introduction that she has ""written this book to honor and encourage young women.... There is no more encouraging resource for us to turn to than the women whose lives emerge from the history of Holy Scripture."" In short, reflective meditations, Baker combines personal anecdotes with stories of well-known biblical women such as Hannah, the mother of Samuel the prophet; Esther, the queen who saved her people; the unnamed Samaritan woman whose life is changed in her momentary encounter with Jesus at the city's well; and Mary, the mother of Jesus, to illustrate how contemporary women might draw strength from the lives of their biblical counterparts. Each chapter closes with a prayer and questions that direct reflections in journal entries. These journal questions are one of the book's highlights, for they provoke readers to deeper thought about the spiritual lives of these biblical women. While the book might make an interesting jumping off point for discussion groups, it contains very little to distinguish it from the already huge volume of books (e.g., Edith Deen's All the Women of the Bible) that explore the spiritual lives of biblical women. (July)