While evangelicalism dukes it out about who can be church leaders, the rest of the 98% of us need to be well equipped to see where we fit in God’s household and why that matters. Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is a resource to help church leaders improve the culture of their church and disciple men and women in their flock to read, understand, and apply Scripture to our lives in … in the church. Until both men and women grow in their understanding of their relationship to Scripture, there will continue to be tension between the sexes in the church. Church leaders need to be engaged in thoughtful critique of the biblical manhood and womanhood movement and the effects it has on their congregation.
Do men and women benefit equally from God’s word? Are they equally responsible in sharpening one another in the faith and passing it down to the next generation? While radical feminists claim that the Bible is a hopelessly patriarchal construction by powerful men that oppresses women, evangelical churches simply reinforce this teaching when we constantly separate men and women, customizing women’s resources and studies according to a culturally based understanding of roles. Do we need men’s Bibles and women’s Bibles, or can the one, holy Bible guide us all? Is the Bible, God’s word, so male-centered and authored that women need to create their own resources to relate to it? No! And in it, we also learn from women. Women play an active role as witnesses to the faith, passing it on to the new generations.
This book explores the feminine voice in Scripture as synergistic with the dominant male voice. Through the women, we often get the story behind the story–take Ruth for example, or the birth of Christ through the perspective of Mary and Elizabeth in Luke. Aimee fortifies churches in a biblical understanding of brotherhood and sisterhood in God’s household and the necessity of learning from one another in studying God’s word.
The troubling teaching under the rubric of “biblical manhood and womanhood” has thrived with the help of popular Biblicist interpretive methods. And Biblicist interpretive methods ironically flourish in our individualistic culture that works against the “traditional values” of family and community that the biblical manhood and womanhood movement is trying to uphold. This book helps to correct Biblicist trends in the church today, affirming that we do not read God’s word alone, we read it within our interpretive covenant communities–our churches. Our relationship with God’s word affects our relationship with God’s people, and vice versa. The church is the school of Christ, commissioned to discipleship. The responsibility of every believer, men and women together, is being active and equal participants in and witnesses to the faith–the tradents of faith.
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Well. HERE is an interesting book to review. I should start by saying that I decided to read it basically because there was so much controversy over it. I listen to a lot of different Christian podcasts, and the book was mentioned (along with another book “Worthy”) by at least 3 different people I listen to in a very short period of time. And they all had vastly different opinions on it. One podcaster recommended it, another criticized it (politely, not viciously), and a third seemed inclined to dismiss it without reading it at all.
So naturally, there was only one thing for it. I had to read it myself and find out what all the fuss was about.
Overall, I found it an intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking read. I think the title, though provocative (and therefore probably good for selling books) is a bit misleading. It gave me the impression that the author was trying to say there was no such thing as biblical manhood or womanhood at all. But having read the book, I would say that is NOT her stance.
She definitely still affirms that God made men and women different, and deliberately so. What she seems to be arguing is: A) That the church’s primary mission should be promoting the gospel, not arguing viciously over exactly what biblical manhood and womanhood looks like. B) That many churches prevent women from holding positions that they are scripturally allowed to hold and C) That a lot of the teaching about EXACTLY what biblical manhood and womanhood look like is very light on real scriptural support and heavy on questionable extrapolation from a few verses (while downplaying other verses), cultural norms imposed onto scripture, and even, in some cases, a non-orthodox view of the nature of the Trinity.
These are things that are worth serious consideration, and I appreciate her bringing them forward. I think she made many very good points, and I agree with her that scripture shows women being more active in church “leadership” than many conservative churches seem ready to admit. (Like praying and prophesying aloud during the service, and participating in the Deaconate. I put “leadership” in quotes because Deacons are technically servants, not leaders, and praying or prophesying out loud at a church does not not make you a leader of the church necessarily, although our modern churches have a tendency to let only “leaders” do that kind of thing.) I also really appreciated her massive amount of footnotes. (There’s several dozen at the end of every chapter). Very helpful for a researcher like me.
I was not particularly impressed with the structure of book, however. Particularly in the second half. I just had some trouble following it. She seemed to go off tangents which I had trouble connecting to the main points. And sometimes it felt more like a serious of related essays rather than a cohesive whole. Maybe I was just tired.
But at any rate, I still think it is well worth the read. Whether you agree with everything she says or not, she makes some very important points that should not be written off without at least some serious consideration. And she has definitely motivated me to study the scriptures and the history of the the early church carefully to make sure the views I hold are grounded in Truth, not just my own cultural experience.
(P.S. Some people seem to assume she is advocating for female pastors. I didn’t think she made a strong statement one way or another. But from reading some other things she has written, I’d say she was not intending to address that issue at all, at least not directly. Rather she was focused on general discipleship and other ways of participating in the church.)