Heretics in Petticoats - A Sacred Story of Women Who Would Not be Silenced

– Testament of the Forgotten – A Sacred Story of Women Who Would Not be Silenced by Sidney St. James Book 3 of the Winds of Liberty Series In an era when women's voices were silenced from pulpits and their questions banished from theological circles, one woman dared to open the Bible—not to obey it blindly, but to wrestle with it. In The Woman's Bible: A Novel, Sidney St. James brings to life a bold, immersive reimagining of the 1890s battle to reclaim scripture, truth, and dignity for all women. Told in sweeping historical prose and enriched with vibrant dialogue, this 25-chapter novel follows the fierce and unrelenting vision of Elizabeth Cady Stanton as she challenges the male-dominated religious order with the publication of The Woman's Bible. But this isn't just Stanton's story—it's a chorus of voices, real and imagined, that echo across time. From the parlor rooms of Tenafly, New Jersey to the quiet hills of Seneca Falls, you'll walk alongside historical figures like Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and Olympia Brown, all brought to life with intimate emotional realism and historically accurate detail. Through their fiery discussions and aching moments of doubt, the novel explores the spiritual cost of rebellion—and the sacred liberation that follows. Threaded throughout is a modern-day storyline featuring Anna Monroe, a determined researcher uncovering Stanton's forgotten papers and igniting her own journey of faith and feminism. Anna's path intersects with a Bible study circle of questioning 19th-century women, a traditional pastor forced to confront his doctrine, and a young skeptic who must decide whether the God she was taught to fear might in fact be waiting to love her. Each chapter pulses with scripture from the King James Version, reinterpreted not with irreverence but with reverence reimagined. These sacred conversations bring forth a theology not of silence and subjugation, but of justice, equality, and holy reclamation. From Eve's burden to Mary Magdalene's erasure, the novel dares to ask: what if the women of the Bible were never meant to be footnotes? The Woman's Bible: A Novel is more than a retelling. It is a resurrection of buried truths and sacred stories told in the voice of the silenced. It is a spiritual, emotional, and literary journey across generations of daughters who dared to believe the Divine was never meant to belong to men alone. For readers of historical fiction, feminist theology, and literary epics alike, this novel is a love letter to scripture, to dissent, and to the women who made both holy. She was not rewritten. She was remembered.