Catalyzing Conversations on Women & the Church
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In a lecture on the book of Ephesians, one of my seminary professors described Artemis of the Ephesians as a goddess of fertility. Except she wasn’t. Artemis, whose temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was “nobody’s mother.”
I fell down an escalator, at a recent Evangelical Theological Conference (ETS), to get Nijay Gupta’s newest book, Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. I’d seen a Twitter announcement about this forthcoming book and couldn’t wait to read it. A word of caution, if you drop something while on an escalator DO NOT bend over to pick it up! When my feet hit the bottom step, I rolled like a bowling ball and landed in a splat. Fortunately, though rattled (and bruised), all my limbs worked. Two gentlemen kindly helped me to my feet. I immediately turned to see if I could recover my lost item. Behold, a guy with a twinkle in his eye handed me the postcard he had seen me drop and perilously attempt to recover. “Thank you,” I said and sheepishly added, “It’s for a free book!” All three men laughed uproariously. They weren’t so much laughing at me (well maybe a little), as with me. ETS conference attendees are book nerds, and we especially appreciate free books! With my feet on firm ground, I redeemed my rock-and-roll postcard for a complimentary advance copy of Tell Her Story. The book’s official release day is March 14th and I’ve written a review for you.
Misunderstood No More. It reminds me of the long-standing admonition, “Begin with the end in mind.” The last chapter of Mary DeMuth’s new book, The Most Misunderstood Women of the Bible is aptly titled, “Misunderstood No More.” Through the Bible stories of ten women, DeMuth illustrates the value of enduring the tension and hostility of being blatantly maligned, dismissed, and misunderstood. She writes, “I believe we can grow in our understanding of misunderstanding and, through that learning process, begin to act as Jesus did—with perseverance.” To learn more, read my new book review on The Most Misunderstood Women of the Bible.
For forty years, Beth Allison Barr (Ph.D.), associate professor of history and associate dean of the Graduate School at Baylor University, agreed with the complementarian theology of women, often described as “biblical womanhood.” Complementarians believe God divinely ordained men as leaders; therefore, men lead, and women follow (or help) men. The majority prescribe a husband’s “headship” over his wife and restrict women from serving in the church as an elder or lead pastor. But, they draw different lines in the sand on what context and to whom women may teach or lead. They hold a wide range of views on whether a woman may baptize, serve communion, hold the position of deacon or pastor, or be ordained. Read a concise description of evangelical views here.
Philip Payne\'s wife promised in her marital vows to submit to her husband\'s leadership. But, then Philip Payne\'s assumption of the validity of male headship was deeply challenged. A New Testament scholar who emphatically stated that a proper, contextual understanding of the Bible uncovers no passage affirming the exclusion of women from any Christian ministry. This prompted Payne to embark on a years-long study and to write his book, Man and Woman, One in Christ.
Widows were not only a class of people in need of defending. Bonnie Thurston asserts that certain women in the early church were organized into a clerical order of widows—an order of women established in the church within the second century. Thurston\'s book was the first to focus exclusively on ancient widows in the Christian church, with scholarly research on the order of widows.
