Next Friday I'll post some photos / video updating
you on the biblical womanhood project — specifically my afternoon on the roof doing penance over the jar of contention (scheduled for tomorrow) and my first official etiquette lesson (scheduled for Monday).
In fact, one of the more constructive criticisms I've heard from the complementarian camp is that, in the book, I did not make clear enough distinctions between how various complementarian organizations differ in their positions
on biblical womanhood.
(I got a little taste of these «fantastic and highly speculative theories» when I was doing research on historical interpretations of Song of Songs for my upcoming book
on biblical womanhood.
Not exact matches
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.
Owen Strachan of the Council
on Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood may characterize this shift in his priorities as a «man fail,» but for us, it's working beautifully.
They are also concerned that I presented and explored a variety of divergent perspectives
on what «
biblical womanhood» means (from Jewish, Catholic, Amish, feminist, polygamist, Christian fundamentalist and complementarian viewpoints, to name a few), including some viewpoints with which they do not agree.
A Year of
Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting On Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master by Rachel Held Evans — A disarmingly funny, wise, honest exploration of what makes a woman «biblical» and the danger of reducing the Bible to an ad
Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting
On Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master by Rachel Held Evans — A disarmingly funny, wise, honest exploration of what makes a woman «
biblical» and the danger of reducing the Bible to an ad
biblical» and the danger of reducing the Bible to an adjective.
Piper expands
on this idea in his book, Recovering
Biblical Manhood &
Womanhood, in which he advocates for what he calls «non-directive leadership.»
I suspected I'd get a little pushback from fellow Christians who hold a complementarian perspective
on gender, (a position that requires women to submit to male leadership in the home and church, and often appeals to «
biblical womanhood» for support), but I had hoped — perhaps naively — that the book would generate a vigorous, healthy debate about things like the Greco Roman household codes found in the epistles of Peter and Paul, about the meaning of the Hebrew word ezer or the Greek word for deacon, about the Paul's line of argumentation in 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 11, about our hermeneutical presuppositions and how they are influenced by our own culture, and about what we really mean when we talk about «
biblical womanhood» — all issues I address quite seriously in the book, but which have yet to be engaged by complementarian critics.
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.&raqu
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.&raqu
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.
(I was under the impression that the Council
on Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood was considered a mainstream representation of complementarianism, but perhaps I am mistaken.)
Mary has expressed disappointment that her organization's vision of
biblical womanhood was not presented alongside some of the other complementarian groups I feature in the book, like The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, The Vision Forum, The Danvers Statement, Debi Pearl, Dorothy Patterson, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, the contributors to Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and
biblical womanhood was not presented alongside some of the other complementarian groups I feature in the book, like The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, The Vision Forum, The Danvers Statement, Debi Pearl, Dorothy Patterson, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, the contributors to Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, an
womanhood was not presented alongside some of the other complementarian groups I feature in the book, like The Council
on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, The Vision Forum, The Danvers Statement, Debi Pearl, Dorothy Patterson, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, the contributors to Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and
Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood, The Vision Forum, The Danvers Statement, Debi Pearl, Dorothy Patterson, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, the contributors to Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, an
Womanhood, The Vision Forum, The Danvers Statement, Debi Pearl, Dorothy Patterson, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, the contributors to Recovering
Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and
Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood, an
Womanhood, and others.
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.
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.
[By the way, A Year of
Biblical Womanhood is STILL just $ 1.99
on Kindle, a pretty great deal for readers
on a budget!]
After a year of split - ends and frizz, all in the name of «
biblical womanhood,» I FINALLY got a much - needed haircut
on Tuesday!
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:
Piper is one of the founders of the Council
on Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood — a flagship organization for the complementarian movement in America — which is now led by Owen Strachan.
So I'll be in Wilmore, Kentucky
on Wednesday, February 20, speaking in chapel at Asbury University about my year of
biblical womanhood.
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 servic
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 servic
on Sunday morning, at 10:30 a.m., I'll be speaking
on «the wilderness» in the morning servic
on «the wilderness» in the morning service.
No, the cover you see for A Year of
Biblical Womanhood on Amazon is not the final cover.
I touched
on this important connection in my post about submission in context and in A Year of
Biblical Womanhood.]
Now, today's example comes from the leader of the Council
on Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood, which I (and many others) consider to be a mainstream expression of complementarian values.
For a LIMITED TIME both A Year of
Biblical Womanhood and Evolving in Monkey Town are just $ 2.99
on Kindle and Nook!
We were scheduled to appear
on The View Monday morning to talk about A Year of
Biblical Womanhood, and had lined up multiple media appearances throughout the week, so we changed our flights around and just barely made it into the city
on one of the last flights into LaGuardia.
Melissa Hatfiled (@melissahatfield) with «I don't normally LOL while reading but @rachelheldevans's «A Year of
Biblical Womanhood» made me that person
on the plane.»
[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.
(See some of my past posts
on the subject to learn more, especially «Better Conversations About
Biblical Womanhood Part 1 and Part 2» and «Complementarians are selective too.»)
Earlier this week, the Council
on Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood released the declaration with signatories including President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Russell Moore and Founder of Focus
on the Family, James Dobson.
I can not wait for her next book A Year of
Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting
on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband «Master» to release this fall.
I thought it would be interesting to use a format like Jacobs» to comment
on the contemporary «
biblical womanhood» phenomenon in a fresh way.
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.»
On page 203 - 204 I examine John Piper's views on women's submission from Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and on pages 207 - 214, I examine Debi Pearl'
On page 203 - 204 I examine John Piper's views
on women's submission from Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and on pages 207 - 214, I examine Debi Pearl'
on women's submission from Recovering
Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood, and
on pages 207 - 214, I examine Debi Pearl'
on pages 207 - 214, I examine Debi Pearl's.
(A Year of
Biblical Womanhood is finally
on its way!)
Owen Strachan is the president of the Council
on Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood.
One of my goals in taking
on a year of
biblical womanhood is to encourage Christian women to cut themselves and one another some slack because none of us are practicing
biblical womanhood 100 %!
I'd probably flunk his course
on biblical manhood and
womanhood.
For folks who claim to have the corner of the market
on «
biblical womanhood,» complementarians have been surprisingly unwilling to engage in conversation with me
on what the Bible actually says.
On page 254, I quote again from Recovering
Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood to share what John Piper and Wayne Grudem say there about women teaching and leading in the church.
All of these people have different perspectives
on life and faith and the Bible, but what they all have in common is a commitment to some idea of «
biblical womanhood.»
I sacrificed them
on the altar of
biblical womanhood, fervently believing that the only way I could be blessed by God was to follow the clear guidelines laid out in Scripture.
On page 22, I quote Dorothy Patterson's statement in Recovering
Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood that «keeping the home is God's assignment to the wife — even down to changing the sheets, doing the laundry, and scrubbing the floors.»
Now in the past, I've always made a distinction between the complementarianism of groups like The Gospel Coalition and the Council
on Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood and the hard patriarchy of groups likeVision Forum and the FIC Movement, assuming that the latter was much more legalistic and patriarchal than the former.
Strong - willed and independent, Rachel Held Evans couldn't sew a button
on a blouse before she embarked
on a radical life experiment — a year of
biblical womanhood.
The Council
on Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood describes complementarianism as the view that «God has created men and women equal in their essential dignity and human personhood, but different and complementary in function with male headship in the home and in the Church.»
I've heard or read varying degrees of that same attitude when it comes to some of the conversations about «
biblical»
womanhood as people heap guilt
on mothers or fathers for everything from choosing public school education to relying
on babysitters or daycare, from Sunday School to family structures.
Chip is just the newest adventure brought
on by my year of
biblical womanhood.
People often ask me what
on earth was going through my mind when I decided to try a year of
biblical womanhood.