Gospel Women

As President of the National Episcopal Church Women, I am honored to recommend Gospel Women: Our Spiritual Ancestors by the Rev. Lindsay Hardin Freeman. Lindsay has a remarkable gift for inviting readers into Scripture—not simply as observers, but as participants. Her unique writing style draws us into the lives of each woman, allowing us to experience their joys, fears, heartbreaks, and unwavering faith as if we were walking beside them.

Lindsay carefully unpacks each woman's story, revealing layers of meaning that are often overlooked. Yet she does not leave these women in the pages of history. Instead, she gently turns the story toward us, inviting us to consider how their journeys intersect with our own. Their courage becomes our courage. Their questions become our questions. Their encounters with Christ illuminate our own walk of faith. Through their stories, we discover our own place within God's unfolding story and are challenged to live with greater faith, compassion, and courage.

This beautiful book is a gift to the Church and an exceptional resource for Episcopal Church Women chapters, parish study groups, and anyone longing to encounter Scripture in a fresh and deeply personal way. I wholeheartedly commend Gospel Women to all who seek to know Christ more fully through the lives of the extraordinary women who knew, loved, and followed him.

Lisa Bortner, President, National Episcopal Church Women

Gospel Women — what a treat! Dive into these women’s lives and be prepared to have your soul sing. Lindsay Hardin Freeman's work is always exemplary, and this is her finest yet. I can't wait to pour over these stories with the women at St. Jude's.

Cordelia Burt, St. Jude's Episcopal Mission, Ocean View, Hawaii

"This evocative and accessible book is an invitation to encounter the life experiences and spiritual audacity of women found in the gospel narratives. After many years of personal and collective study, this new collection emerges through deep research and discernment to complexify the lives and witness of the women closest to Jesus. These women emerge from the texts as courageous disciples, with much to contribute to the emergent church, then and now. Lindsay Hardin Freeman once again has written a moving and powerful book for individual and group study."

The Rev. Dr. Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, EdD, PhD, Historiographer of the Episcopal Church, and Editor, Anglican and Episcopal History

Gospel Women is a gift—not just to preachers or Bible Study groups. This book is a godsend to those who think the scriptures have nothing new or relevant to teach doubters, questioners, seekers and reconnectors. This impeccably researched work is dedicated to women, but men have much to learn from these pages. Here the Bible is not a dead document or ancient HIS-story, but HER-story comes alive. Hardin-Freeman asks, “What if?” and “Why?” with a journalist’s precision. Most transformative is her story-writer’s skill in bringing all readers to a place where they can picture how these gospel women felt—those whom Jesus healed and those who helped his ministry succeed. We can truly imagine why these remarkable women did what they did. Extraordinary book. Fresh in its approach; engaging in the questions we are asked to ponder.

The Rev. Tom Garrison, Episcopal Priest, San Diego

“She is her own advocate.” In Gospel Women: Our Spiritual Ancestors Lindsay Hardin-Freeman becomes an advocate for paying attention to Scripture, for gospel women – those whose DNA ran in the veins of Jesus and those who met him on dusty streets, funded his ministry, sparred with him. She notes the woman who touched him was her own advocate. I applaud Lindsay for advocating for these women, for reminding us of the rich heritage and witness of women in the Bible. She uses biblical studies, theology, creative writing, and compelling questions to offer a generous, considered, and compelling vision of these women and the Messiah who made space for them. Let this book open The Book to you again – let it welcome you to a table with your ancestors of faith and let them introduce you again to the centre of the Gospel, to God come among us, to Jesus.”

 “Things don’t happen by accident in the Bible,” and they do not happen by accident in Lindsay’s world. Her careful exploration of these women reveals a tender, dedicated commitment to Scripture and to the lives and worlds of the women who inhabited the world of Jesus. Lindsay has dedicated years of work, study, prayer, and reflection to her work and the result is a legacy her foremothers – natural and spiritual - would honour. She is a woman of valour, let the recipients of her dedication of behalf of the Bible and the cause of Jesus rise and call her blessed.”

Miriam Jessie Fisher, theologian and lecturer Laidlaw College, poet, and textile artist

Thanks to Lindsay Harden Freeman for following up on her important book, Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter! In her new book, she moves from that beautiful symphony of women’s voices throughout all of scripture to zoom in on the gospels, highlighting Jesus’ encounters with women. Her book gives us a clearer picture of who Jesus is, noting his attention to the women he encounters. They often have something to teach him. Her book also sheds light on what it means to be a disciple. The stories of these women, wise and faithful and courageous, many pushed to the margins, help us all move forward in faith. Ms. Freeman invites us to see ourselves in those stories. As we take her up on that invitation, we will grow. Which is why this book is such an important gift.

Jay Sidebotham, Episcopal priest, cartoonist, founder of RenewalWorks, and author of Signs of Life: Nurturing Spiritual Growth in Your Church.

Gospel Women is a gift born of study, scholarship, imagination, prayer, and love. We owe a great debt to Lindsay Hardin-Freeman for bringing Jesus' female ancestors and the women he interacted with to life. By doing so, we also experience a more nuanced and intimate portrait of Jesus.

The Rev. Canon Blair Pogue, co-author of Embracing the Mixed Ecology: Inherited and New Forms of Christian Community Flourishing Together

If you think you know Lindsay Hardin Freeman’s Gospel Women from her groundbreaking book Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter, think again. Here she further engages us by revealing her vulnerability through stories of personal loss and heartache and relating them to the generational trauma and faith of our spiritual godmothers.

Barbara L. Dundon, AHC (Associate in the Order of Holy Cross), Philadelphia artist and author

I had the privilege of using Lindsay Hardin Freeman's book, Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter, for a number of years with residents at the state correctional center for women. It was met with awe as it opened new ways of understanding the words spoken by these ancient women. I'm looking forward to presenting her new book, Gospel Women, in which she has beautifully captured the heart and soul of these Bible women. Her thoughtful narratives and questions will present opportunities for the residents to glean spiritual insights to apply to their lives. Thank you for this new gift!       

The Reverend Diane Paulson   

Lindsay Hardin Freeman is a Biblical researcher and a master storyteller who brings Gospel Women to life, relevant today. She draws us into a greater understanding of each woman’s circumstances in the framework of their time. We see where their faith intersects with courage and bold action. Gospel Women reminds us of our ancestors and faces of women we have known or know who have lifted our spirits, offered encouragement, walked alongside us in faith. Women, past and present, with a story of courage to share that we can connect with and with a faith that makes miracles possible.

Danelle J. Wolf, Founder/Health Strategist, RxArtisans; Member, St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church,, Plymouth, Minnesota 

In Gospel Women: Our Spiritual Ancestors, Lindsay Hardin-Freeman asks us to connect with, and learn from, the women around Jesus who made his ministry happen. These are the women who also helped to make us happen and by learning about them, we are learning about our continued call to be the Good News.

Canon Sarah Louise Woodford, Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT) 

Gospel Women is real and raw and full of hope. So many of the girls I work with here in Kenya experience broken and battered hearts because of rape, rejection and abuse. Jesus not only loves and wants to heal them, but he has an important place for them. They are not second-class citizens. If Jesus can reach out and heal badly hurting women from centuries ago, he can do it for each of my girls here--and he can do it for all of us. This book deeply reminds us of that foundational truth. 

Carol Erickson, Founder and Executive Director of Imara International, Nanyuki, Kenya

Once again, Lindsay Hardin Freeman helps the women of the Bible jump off the pages of Scripture and into our own lives. With warmth, wisdom, and honesty, she reveals these women as our spiritual ancestors and shows us how their stories are still alive in us.

The Very Rev. Katherine Lewis, rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Minnetonka Minnesota

Lindsay Hardin Freeman has the gift of leading us into the stories of women that influenced Jesus—both from the Old and New Testaments—then takes us deeply into their stories and what they continue to teach us today.  Ten years in the making, Gospel Women takes us beyond her work in Bible Women to a new level of intimacy and insight. With her Midwestern down-to-earthness, she reveals these women as we never would have seen them without her guidance.

Sandra Squires, Ed. D., Year One Lead, Education for Ministry Curriculum Revision Task Force, EfM Mentor and EfM Diocesan Coordinator for Nebraska

In Gospel Women: Our Spiritual Ancestors, Lindsay Hardin Freeman masterfully weaves together story and theology, inviting readers into the lived experiences of the women in the life and ancestry of Jesus. Freeman’s thoughtful writing adds texture and emotional depth to their narratives and creates space for readers to connect with the universal human experiences of each woman. Story and emotion engage the heart, and Jesus used these to reach his listeners throughout the gospels. Freeman follows in his footsteps and offers us the invitation to engage our hearts – listening for how the Spirit speaks into our own stories through those of the gospel women. 

Mary Stahl, Mental Health and Trauma Therapist, CBE International Board Member

Lindsay Hardin Freeman has spent a lifetime helping readers encounter the people of scripture as living companions rather than distant figures. In Gospel Women: Our Spiritual Ancestors, she brings her gifts as a priest, scholar, and storyteller to illuminate the women whose lives shaped the story of Jesus and continue to speak to our own. 

The Rev. Dr. Lisa Tucker-Gray, VP Faculty Mgt & Training, Benefits Relationship Management, Church Pension Group

As I read Gospel Women, I could see the women of my childhood, talking over fences, leaning over the windowsill, sitting at the kitchen table, waiting at the bus stop. In each image, women are doing what their Gospel ancestors did: telling stories. Their stories. Our stories. God’s stories. They are teaching. Learning. Helping to shape identity. Setting the foundations for family and community. “Gospel women were the primary social media of their day.”  The brilliance of this book is that Lindsay Hardin Freeman invites us to delve into the stories of Gospel women so that we may connect with our spiritual ancestors, yes, but also to connect with the women in the stories of our own lives as well as with our own story. This book seems to follow Mary Oliver’s words: "Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." 

In Tamale, Ghana, the village women were celebrating a new well, donated by an American church. One woman turned to me and said, “Do you have such a well in your village?” I tried to explain to her the American system of wells and plumbing which delivered cold and hot water right into our homes. As I spoke, her face grew increasingly sad. “So, you do not gather at the well every day?” I shook my head. “Oh,” she said, her voice filled with genuine pity and compassion, “then, how do you tell your stories?” Lindsay Hardin Freeman’s book is a deep well where women may gather in small groups to quench our thirst for knowledge, creativity, and imagination, yes, but also to tell the stories of the women in our own lives as well as our own story as women. The pages hold the living water of Jesus, present to us in the lives of the women who were his ancestors, contemporaries, and disciples. Drink it in. Bathe in it. Celebrate it. It is a gift and a treasure that holds the hope of nourishment and transformation.

Maya Angelou wrote: “There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.” Lindsay Hardin Freeman’s book, Gospel Women, reaches in, touches the highly redacted and polished stories we have told about ourselves for so long that we have begun to believe them, and frees us to tell the stories we dared not tell about the women in our own family stories. In so doing, we discover that we bear in our very spiritual DNA the possibility of becoming like the Gospel women who come in “over the transom” and become God’s surprise agents of healing and transformation and hope. I cannot recommend this book more highly.

The Rev Dr. Elizabeth Kaeton

Among our deepest needs as humans is to be seen and heard, to tell our stories, and to be connected. But because "history is written by the victors”, those who are generally without power and influence are much less likely to be seen, heard, and remembered.

Enter Gospel Women, The Reverend Lindsay Freeman's follow up to Bible Women.

This is no exercise in dry, dusty facts and references. [As she has done previously,] Lindsay resurrects the women of the bible with an eye that doesn’t look away from scandal and discomfort, but without losing the message of the Gospels-- that the God who is love, loves you. 

The writers of the Old Testament did not reconcile different versions of a story to create a middle compromise, ignoring the friction of two opposite things living in the same person, or of different tellings of an event or people.

Likewise, Lindsay doesn’t pick up stories like stones, smoothing the surfaces so they fit softly in your hand. She walks us directly into the lives and experiences of these women, knowing that the prickly parts are there for a reason.

While the stories might feel prickly and hard at times, that is not a detraction, but the whole point. We all live with a level of trauma, those things that we have experienced, and those that have been passed down to us, generation after generation. So, their prickly parts find our prickly parts and in fundamentally radical ways, tell us that we are not alone, that we are seen and heard. And that reveals a powerful bond that has been there the whole time, but by covering up the parts we don't want or understand, we missed out on these powerful connections. 

I had the opportunity to sit under the stained-glass window that Lindsay writes about. We sat in the Nave/sanctuary and took in its beauty. But it didn’t stop there. By repositioning ourselves underneath it, the patterns and colors that fell on the woodwork came alive, like cloud formations. We distinctly saw the figures of two people, one older and larger, next to a smaller one, in a protective sort of way. Moving slightly, the reds and purples shifted hue and shape, and there was the figure of a dove. 

I will never forget those moments and the way my breath caught in my chest. There was gravity along with weightlessness. The abstract felt specific and then abstract again. 

As you begin to read this book, you will feel the danger of bringing these women out in the open, and the necessity of doing so. Allow Lindsay [Hardin Freeman]’s bravery and courage to compel you forward, to ask the questions that will arise. Allow the irrevocable love that Jesus has for these women to spill over onto you, to touch the places that have not felt love. And to know that it is real.

Although it may be true that history belongs to the victors”, it is also true that "the victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider herself so." May the truth and irrefutable power of Love set you free.

Mary Beth Farrell, Priest, Shared Ministry Team, Saint Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Minneapolis, MN