Women, Authority & the Bible

An essential women's roles essay collection, even if you are not a feminist like me. This varied collection will help you see all the weaknesses and strengths of the feminist and patriarchal positions ... raising new questions. Filled with many extensive thoughtful essays, showing many different perspectives of the issue of women's role(s) in the church. It is highly intellectual and goes into great depth with the original Hebrew and Koine Greek of the Bible. Very understandable, though, since I myself have never studied Hebrew or Greek formally. I was really excited to find this book; I first checked it out from my library and after having it around my house for a few days, I knew I wanted to own one. The essays are well-sourced, and so this book could lead you to hundreds of other valuable books and essays. The book quickly rose into my top 5 books written in the last 40 years.

"How can we speak of a necessary subordination of status without implying a necessary inferiority of person?" This is the challenge raised and addressed in this collection of essays.Traditional Christianity supports such a view, that though women are fully redeemed by Christ, they are unfit to participate in some teaching and preaching roles.Women, Authority & the Bible is a collection of essays by several scholars of varying backgrounds. There are articles about the meaning of the Greek word for head ("man is the head of woman"), the meaning of authority under Christ, the culture and mythology of the day, and the relevant passages.Though the views of a traditionalist are represented in one article, it is mainly a multipronged study on why women should be allowed full participation in ministry. It does so, however, with a respect for the Biblical texts that wouldn't offend a conservative evangelical.Your interest in the various topics will determine how readable you find each chapter. I found most of them to be very well written. Most of the arguments put forth are also very well thought out and consistent.By the end, I was in full agreement with one of the contributors who said that (paraphrased) "the burden of proof is now on those who would support the traditionalist position rather than on those who support women's full participation in ministry."