By Beth Allison Barr
Women are leaders too!
This is a really helpful book for people who have grown up in sexist, misogynistic, patriarchal churches AKA complementarian churches. I was fortunate to grow up in more egalitarian churches, but I heard about some of these arguments for and against women in leadership and about women being silent in churches, while I was in Bible college. This book is even more thorough than what I learned at college, and I found it very illuminating.
Beth talks about the history of patriarchy in the church and in the cultures surrounding Christian churches. She addresses why complementarianism is a misinterpretation of Scripture and that Christian churches have copied patriarchal culture, when originally Christianity was leading the way in freeing women from sexist norms.
She delves into the Biblical context in which Paul and other Biblical writers have written; what was happening in the churches and the culture. She addresses Corinthian slogans which Paul may have been quoting in Corinthians. She proves that Paul affirmed women in leadership multiple times across many letters and churches. She talks about how his teachings can actually be interpreted as feminist in comparison to the surrounding culture.
She goes on to talk about medieval history as that is her sphere of expertise. I know very little of this era and found this quite interesting. She writes about the reformation and how Christian culture changed from praising women for remaining single and chaste (nuns for example) to praising women for being wives and mothers when, really, we need to recognize all of these positions as valid, good and healthy. She talks about the limited options for women in terms of work and being able to provide for themselves and their families. She also talks about the Industrial revolution and how things changed again.
There is a chapter about writing women out of the Bible in terms of the language used by scholars who have translated the Bible for common use. I found this a particularly powerful argument that was also touched on in Bible college. It is crucial that we realize that no translation of the Bible is literal, none is without error, and especially none can eliminate the interpretational bias of the translator.
She talks about the “heresy” of Arianism in which the Son of God is subordinate to God the Father. This has been rejected by the Christian faith time and again, but when preachers talk about women in subordination to men, they have sometimes made this grave mistake of relating this back to the Trinity. Yet another truth I studied at Bible college, that should be taught within churches.
Beth shares her own experiences which are poignant and relevant. I did, however, think that the editor could have moved a couple of the stories around (in terms of where they occur in the book) to provide slightly better flow. But overall, I found this book well researched and intelligent. I whole-heartedly agree that women are equal to men and equally permitted to lead, teach and not be silent in churches. I pray that complementarian denominations will wake up to this truth and start leading the way toward healthy gender equality!