Evangelical Feminism & Biblical Truth: An Analysis of More Than One Hundred Disputed Questions

I've read a number of books by Grudem and John Piper, as well as Groothius, Fee and others. Having done my share of debating the subject of "evangelical feminism," I can only say that while Grudem appears clearly to go to the Scriptures to determine exactly what they say (exegesis), evangelical feminists (also known as "egalitarians"), go to Scripture to prove their point (eisegesis). The reality is that Scripture must be allowed to speak for itself and Grudem shows that this is absolutely possible. As much as God has created humanity - "male and female He created them - God has also ordained different and specific roles for each gender, while not impinging upon the true equality that both genders share. Grudem's points are clear, concise and Scripturally based. He has done his research and it shows. Evangelical feminism - a true oxymoron if ever there was one - seeks to replace what God has ordained into something that is humanistic at best and sinful at worst.

Don't let the title or the author scare you. I have read much larger tomes of Grudem's and what I have found with this book is that it is surprisingly accessible, straight to the point, and fairly quick to read. I highly recommend this book to EVERY Christian. The underlying concern that drives Grudem is that followers of Christ are in danger of slipping into the subtle error of "Theological Liberalism" (the undermining of the authority and truthfulness of the Bible). He begins the book with a few examples in history where this has already happened, pointing out both the cause of the shift and the ease with which it happened. Thus Grudem states his deep concern for the church, that "Evangelical Feminism" (AKA "Egalitarianism"), which is saturating our seminaries and church bodies more and more today, is leading and will lead many believers down the path to theological liberalism. The reason why, according to Grudem, is that developing and supporting the egalitarian position requires undermining God's Word in frightingly outrageous ways. There are some outrageous examples of undermining Scripture that sadly and surprisingly, are being successfully propagated by well-known and well-respected theologians to those who don't know better or haven't been careful to test their words with God's Word. Some examples include denying the historical account of Genesis 1-3 with the absurd notion that Adam was not created before Eve, or suggesting that the Apostle Paul spoke wrongly in some passages as he was tuning his theology, or that the New Testament did not present an ultimate ethic, but that it was merely pointing us to a better way of life that the Bible does not explain because it was written in a patriarchal culture. The frightening thing is that some of these views are becoming mainstream in several denominations and Christian circles. Other examples look at situations where egalitarians change the meaning of Scripture by inventing situations around the writing or untrue word meanings. For example, in regards to some of Paul's teaching to those in the churches at Ephasus or Corinth regarding men's and woman's roles, some have proposed that women were being loud or they were uneducated or they were teaching specific heresies. All of these situations are pure invention for the purpose of explaining why none of those commands apply to Christians today. So, for example, when Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:34 that "As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says," the egalitarian argument says that the women were being loud so this was only talking about loud women in Corinth, and isn't relevent to us today. Never mind that Paul says "As in ALL the congregations" or appeals to "as THE LAW SAYS." Rather than looking at the context of the passage which is clearly discussing who has authority to weigh prophesies in the gathered asse

This is my favorite book find of the year. As Walter Martin said (founder of the Christian Research Institute) in his sermon "The Cult of Liberalism" the Christians in the pews are defenseless. If they say something against another movement within Christianity that goes against the correct exegesis of Scripture, they are labeled divisive, unloving, and bigoted. Well, so be it when you care about the Bible and the reputation of the truth. The author, Wayne Grudem, has presented to us answers to feminist claims, based on what the Bible says with the correct exegesis of the Scripture. It is an excellent work. And by the way, every thinking Christian who is a member of Christians for Biblical Equality should read the documentation presented in this book about the outrage of CBE calling God "Mother", and how that blasphemy is promoted on their web site. I was especially revited to that bit of information. Excellent research! I will be buying many copies to give away to others. Dwayna Litz

This large but very readable book is a well-researched, interesting and helpful treatment of the Bible's teaching concerning women's roles in marriage and in the local church. Grudem is pro-woman, pro-church and pro-Scripture. The book's logic is compelling, though some will naturally be offended because certain conclusions go against our culture's grain--particularly the pervasive assumption that equality of person demands sameness in role. If readers give it a chance, and for some that will be a BIG "if," I think they will find Grudem to be fair and accurate in conveying what the Bible itself actually says, what evangelical feminists say and what gaps do and do not exist between those two. Among other things, in his treatment of the difference between prophecy and teaching, Grudem offers an understanding of 1 Cor. 11:6 and gives a compelling contextual interpretation of 1 Cor. 14:33-35, resolving its apparent (but not real) contradiction with the previous passage (women free to prophesy and pray in church, yet not free to "speak"). His treatment of the often maligned and misinterpreted 1 Timothy 2 is also excellent, as is his handling of Galatians 3:28. This book is an example of and a reminder of the importance of careful scholarship in building a case. Grudem cites jaw-dropping instances of evangelicals misquoting church fathers and other ancient authorities, and sometimes even citing them to defend exactly the opposite point the original authors were actually making. Of course, the average reader will not go to the library and look these up, and even if they were willing to resort to Google, some can't be located on the internet. (Indeed, as Grudem points out, some "quotations" do not even exist and therefore can't be found anywhere!) Readers who think they can trust an author's accuracy will therefore end up believing what is untrue, and if they teach from these books, as many do, they will perpetuate inaccurate and even nonexistent citations. Those who assume evangelical authors and editors always carefully check citations to confirm their accuracy are sadly mistaken. The book also demonstrates the contradiction between claiming belief in biblical inspiration, on the one hand, but subtly or not-so-subtly affirming Paul and the apostles were wrong, misguided or at best impoverished in their understanding of issues on which we moderns presume we have a superior viewpoint. (Hence our tendency, though rarely stated and often disguised, to consider ourselves and our culture-not Scripture--our TRUE authority.) Grudem puts forth the best arguments made by evangelical feminists, and weighs them in light of Scripture, sound interpretation and logical consistency. It would be interesting to take Grudem's chapter 2, "A Biblical View of Manhood and Womanhood in the Church" to any pastor, scholar or teacher and ask, "What specifically would you take issue with in this chapter?" It's easy to dismiss any work in general when we don't agree with

For those who have read "Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood," this is a fabulous and highly recommended upgrade. For those who are new to the gender issues storming through the church, this is essential material. Grudem's treatment of key passages is careful and precise, but the layout and content of the book makes it a fabulous resource for those who want to wade slowly through the whole tome or use it as a reference to quickly find answers to more than 100 major questions and arguments that are now at the forefront of the manhood-womanhood controversy. Speaking as someone who has read about this issue extensively, I can still say that Grudem's new book had questions and answers I either had no answers to before, or didn't even realize were major points of controversy. In addition to this meaty section of questions and answers, Grudem spends many pages giving a practical, easy to follow explanation of the whole Biblical manhood-womanhood debate as well as a foundational explanation of the complementarian and egalitarian perspective. Further, this is all done on the backbone of scripture with solid exegesis and integrity. One final note: while this will be a pleasing and meaty read for the scholarly, this is extremely accessible to the layman.