Hoping for More Girls to Go Wise -- By: Courtney Reissig

Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 16:1 (Spring 2011)
Article: Hoping for More Girls to Go Wise
Author: Courtney Reissig


Hoping for More Girls to Go Wise

A Review of Mary Kassian, Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild. Chicago: Moody, 2010.

Courtney Reissig

Writer, Speaker

Little Rock, Arkansas

If we were asked to think of a “wild woman,” a person, or type of person, would typically quickly come to mind. We can all think of her right? She is usually the girl we don’t hang out with because of her bad reputation. She is the girl flirting with the boys in school, dressing provocatively, or hanging out at clubs every weekend. But she certainly isn’t in our homes or churches. She couldn’t be, could she? Mary Kassian, author of Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild, begs to differ. By holding up the mirror of God’s Word she sets out to show that all women are the wild woman at heart, and need a new heart to make them into the woman God wants them to be (11).

Kassian’s book contrasts the wild woman in Proverbs 7 with the wise woman that God sets forth in his Word. Kassian sees wildness creeping into the church and into our homes, and her burden is for women to follow God wholeheartedly (19). The book is divided into twenty chapters, which serve as the points of contrast between the wild and wise woman. There are three general themes permeating these chapters, which highlight Kassian’s heart and mission.

To be a wise woman means getting a new heart. Kassian says, “A woman who attends to her heart will attend to her ways” (33). For Kassian, the entire book is built on this premise—the heart reveals our treasure and our desires. She shows that if a woman’s heart is captured by Jesus, then she will walk according to his ways. If her heart is captured by the world and its pull, then she will walk in the ways of the world. According to Kassian, the heart must be transformed first before any of the following points about wise living can be fulfilled.

To be a wise woman means understanding what God says about womanhood. This isn’t the entire point of the book, but it is where she is going ultimately. Kassian is decidedly complementarian. Feminism’s lure has been influencing women since the Garden, and to be a wise woman means to understand who God created you to be. She walks through the entire biblical history of gender starting with creation in her chapter on roles (119-34). Understanding gender helps us know how to live. The wise woman understands that God created her with boundaries, and these are good and wise limitations. She says, “The fact that woman was created within boundaries of a household also implies that women are to have a unique responsibility in the home. This is consistent with the idea that a woman meta...

You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
Click here to subscribe
visitor : : uid: ()