Seven Transforming Gifts of Menopause

February 10, 2020
Johns (Pentecostal Formation), a professor at Pentecostal Theological Seminary, takes a theological approach to menopause in this encouraging study. She argues that menopause is a developmental process that opens the door to the later stages of a woman’s life, bringing what she calls “gifts” and opportunities for growth and fulfillment. She weaves together findings from science about the biochemistry of menopause with observations from such thinkers as Christiane Northrup and Carol Gilligan. That forms the backdrop for the stories she tells about herself and other women going through the “storm of perimenopause” and all that ensues. She recommends “leaning into the storm” of hormones and emotions by opening the door to repressed memories, allowing oneself to grieve, enlisting support of others, acknowledging any feelings of depression, allowing oneself to ask “what if?” questions, and finally forgiving oneself and others. Johns’s strength is her candid and pastoral storytelling, making this powerful book stand out as a treatment of the spirituality of menopause among the many medical manuals that describe this time of life. The author’s frame of reference will be most familiar to more conservative evangelical Christian readers, but any Christian reader confronting menopause will find much in Johns’s reassuring advice.