On Wednesday, March 26, I'll be speaking about my year of
biblical womanhood at Wingate University near Charlotte, North Carolina at 8:00 p.m. at the George A. Battle Fine Arts Center in the McGee Theater.
Not exact matches
My goal with the project was to create something of a second naivety in order to open «
biblical womanhood» up for further discussion, to, in a sense, start
at the beginning again.
It sounds crazy, but I spent three days
at St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama as part of my «
biblical womanhood» project last year, and it was one of the most meaningful times of prayer and contemplation I've ever experienced.
What is less clear to me is why complementarians like Keller insist that that 1 Timothy 2:12 is a part of
biblical womanhood, but Acts 2 is not; why the presence of twelve male disciples implies restrictions on female leadership, but the presence of the apostle Junia is inconsequential; why the Greco - Roman household codes represent God's ideal familial structure for husbands and wives, but not for slaves and masters; why the apostle Paul's instructions to Timothy about Ephesian women teaching in the church are universally applicable, but his instructions to Corinthian women regarding head coverings are culturally conditioned (even though Paul uses the same line of argumentation — appealing the creation narrative — to support both); why the poetry of Proverbs 31 is often applied prescriptively and other poetry is not; why Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob represent the supremecy of male leadership while Deborah and Huldah and Miriam are mere exceptions to the rule; why «wives submit to your husbands» carries more weight than «submit one to another»; why the laws of the Old Testament are treated as irrelevant in one moment, but important enough to display in public courthouses and schools the next; why a feminist reading of the text represents a capitulation to culture but a reading that turns an ancient Near Eastern text into an apologetic for the post-Industrial Revolution nuclear family is not; why the curse of Genesis 3 has the final word on gender relationships rather than the new creation that began
at the resurrection.
My quest for
biblical womanhood led me to these stories late
at night, long after Dan had gone to sleep, and I conducted my nightly research by his side in bed, stacks of Bibles and commentaries and legal pads threatening to swallow him should he roll over.
More often than not, appeals to «
biblical womanhood»... or «
biblical» anything for that matter... represent an oversimplification, a reductive approach to
biblical interpretation that fails to
at least acknowledge its own hermeneutical biases.
We had more than 300 people apply to be part of the launch team for A Year of
Biblical Womanhood, and because I absolutely hate not including everyone — especially when just about everyone had amazing ideas and meaningful words of encouragement — I've left the selection process to my team
at Thomas Nelson.
On the Council on
Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood Web Site, Wayne Grudem warns that if Christians accept egalitarianism, «we will begin to have whole churches who no longer «tremble»
at the Word of God (Isaiah 66:2), and who no longer live by «every word that comes from the mouth of God» (Matthew 4:4), but who pick and choose the things they like and the things they don't like in the Bible.»
Then I'm off to Greenville College in Greenville, IL, where I'll be sharing about my faith and doubt in convocation on Thursday night
at 9:30 p.m. and about my «Year of
Biblical Womanhood»
at Friday chapel
at 9:30 a.m.
It reminds me a bit of my days as a student
at Bryan College, when I first bumped into the concept of «
biblical womanhood» after some students questioned whether women should be allowed to run for president of the student body.
This week is release week for A Year of
Biblical Womanhood, and we're kicking it off in style with a visit to the ladies
at The View!
I'll be sharing about my «Year of
Biblical Womanhood» on Tuesday
at 1:30 p.m. and about cultivating spaces of wilderness on Wednesday
at 10 a.m.
I'm only a month into my year of
biblical womanhood, but already I've deemed myself a bit of expert on the topic, so I have some advice for the students
at Houghton College:
After that I'll be spending Sunday (October 6) with the good people of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Louisville, Kentucky, speaking
at the 10 a.m. service and then sharing about my «year of
biblical womanhood»
at a 7 p.m. for their Dimensions of Faith series.
So I'll be in Wilmore, Kentucky on Wednesday, February 20, speaking in chapel
at Asbury University about my year of
biblical womanhood.
This morning, I'll be sharing some pictures and stories from my year of
biblical womanhood with the students
at Baylor University.
On Saturday evening,
at 6:30 p.m., I'll be sharing about my year of
biblical womanhood, and on Sunday morning,
at 10:30 a.m., I'll be speaking on «the wilderness» in the morning service.
So I'll be speaking
at Calvin College tonight (April 10)
at 7 p.m. in the Chapel about my Year of
Biblical Womanhood.
[It should be noted here that complementarian notions of manhood and
womanhood tend to be based on culturally — influenced stereotypes, many of which project idealized notions of the post-industrial revolution nuclear family onto
biblical texts rather than taking those texts on their own terms — a topic we've discussed
at length in the past and will continued to discuss in the future.]
So we've rescheduled my chat about A Year of
Biblical Womanhood with the ladies of The View for Thursday, November 1
at 11EST / 10Central on ABC.
He believes
biblical manhood and
womanhood requires sticking to traditional gender roles in the home, and has said that stay -
at - home fathers and men who take on domestic duties are «man fails.»
When I was doing my research for A Year of
Biblical Womanhood, I encountered the stay -
at - home daughters movement within fundamentalist Christian circles.
And the response by complementarians to these questions as posed in A Year of
Biblical Womanhood, with a few exceptions (Mary Kassian has been very kind to engage), has essentially been: «Look
at this silly woman who thinks you have to make a sign and literally praise your husband
at the city gate!
The Council on
Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood particularly took aim
at the frequent removal of male pronouns and «man.»
Remarkably, I am still here as a pastor
at Calvary Grace Church in Calgary and international director for the Council on
Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood.
At some point Dan and I flew into New York City during a hurricane, got interviewed on The Today Show and The View, and celebrated the release of A Year of
Biblical Womanhood, which you helped catapult to the New York Times Bestseller list for ebooks.
While I'm there, I'll be speaking
at one of Lipscomb University's breakout chapels about my «year of
biblical womanhood.»
So yesterday I pushed back a little bit
at Tim Challies and those in the
biblical womanhood movement who teach that the Bible speaks against women «letting themselves go.»
After she read A Year of
Biblical Womanhood, Grandma called me up to tell me about a time when she was demoted from an administrative position
at a Christian school because the new pastor of the associated church believed women should be forbidden from leading in any capacity.
I'll admit that I am
at once fascinated, infuriated, and intimidated by the notion of «
biblical womanhood» for it implies that the Bible contains a sort of blueprint for what it means to be a woman of God.
Hey Midwesterners: I'll be sharing about my year of
biblical womanhood as part of the Morningside College Wright Lecture series on Monday, February 17
at 7 p.m..
I also have ten advance review copies of A Year of
Biblical Womanhood to give away, so if you don't win the ticket, you may
at least get an advanced copy of the book.
I'll be speaking about my «year of
biblical womanhood» in chapel
at 9:30 a.m. and reading / speaking from my new book, Searching for Sunday,
at 7:00 p.m.. Both events are free and open to the public.