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WOMEN, LEADERSHIP & THE CHURCH
Author: Jim Reiher. Publisher: Acorn Press.
Reviewed by Lynn Fowler.
A great deal has been said and written over the years about the role of women in the church and family. Unfortunately, much of the case for women has been presented by those most affected, the women themselves. This creates its own problems, a fact which is recognized by the author in his introduction. "When women speak or write about women in leadership in the church or raise issues concerning the treatment of women and suggest a need for change, they often come up against a brick wall. Their comments can be written off with throwaway lines like, 'Boy, does she have an axe to grind!' or 'Another feminist Christian woman - has she got a lot of problems or what?' "
In fact, a woman in ministry does not even need to write about women's roles to receive that kind of reaction. I recently had an e-mail from a fellow who had visited our ministry web site and had somehow gleaned from it that I was "transparently and obviously passionate" about the gender issue, and taking me to task about my "wrong theology" - even though the site contains not a single reference to it, other than the obvious fact that I am a woman! So, it is very refreshing to read this book from a man who is willing to take up the cause of women's equality and defend it from the Scripture.
It is also refreshing that he does so without in any way lessening the authority of Scripture. Many believe that the only way a case can be made for women in leadership is by taking a low view of the Word of God, but the author points out that it is the very authority of Scripture, and the fact that it does not contradict itself, that forces us to re-examine the traditional female roles. As I have often argued myself, if Scripture appears to be contradicting itself, then it is not the Word but our interpretation of it that is wrong.
He begins by pointing out that there are two "baskets" of verses, one affirming women in full equality and status with men, the second seeming to make women subordinate to men and oppose women in ministry or leadership. He then asks, which of these sets of verses is to be our interpretive centre? "Where do we start so that we can understand other verses in the light of that starting point?" He suggests that we need to establish "which verses capture timeless truth and which speak to local or temporal situations." He takes the verses from Genesis 1: 26-28 (at the creation of human beings), Acts 2:17-21 (at the beginning of the Church) and Galatians 3:26-29 (one of Paul's earliest letters, and representing the beginning of the expansion of the Church beyond Judaism) as foundational.
From there he deals with the arguments for women's inferiority and subordination falsely based on Genesis 2 & 3, looks at women in the Old and New Testaments, and particularly at Jesus' treatment of women.
He deals in some detail with Galatians 3, and demolishes the argument that it applies only in the spiritual and that men and women are "equal but having different roles": "If a person is forbidden to do certain functions through things beyond their control, while having the ability to do those functions - that is discrimination, not 'equality with different functions.' "
He goes on to look at the questions of headship and submission, and deals specifically with the oft-quoted Scriptures from 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2. He looks at 1 Corinthians 7 which, he points out, presents "radical equality" between men and women, visits the issue of women Bishops and ends with a roadmap to true equality.
For me there was little that was new in the book, but it is presented in a clear and easy style, and should challenge the concepts of some. It is a valuable resource, both for women and for the men who support them (and those who don't, if they are open minded enough to allow their preconceived ideas to be tested by Scripture.)
Of course, there will be those who, like my e-mail correspondent, will refuse to even consider reading such a book, because they are right, therefore it must be wrong.
This book was published in Australia, and may be a little difficult for those overseas to find, but it is well worth the effort.
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