Discovering Biblical Equality

Biblical, Theological, Cultural, and Practical Perspectives

Ronald W. Pierce, Cynthia Long Westfall, Ronald W. Pierce, Cynthia Long Westfall

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780830854806
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Sexuality & Gender in Religion

"There is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."The conversation about the relationship between women and men and their roles in the Christian life and the church has evolved, but the topic continues to inspire debate and disagreement.The third edition of this groundbreaking work brings together scholars firmly committed to the authority of Scripture to explore historical, biblical, theological, cultural, and practical aspects of this discussion. This fresh, positive defense of gender equality is at once scholarly and practical, irenic yet spirited, up-to-date, and cognizant of opposing positions. In this edition, readers will find both revised essays and new essays on biblical equality in relation to several issues, including the image of God, the analogy of slavery, same-sex marriage, abortion, domestic abuse, race, and human flourishing.Discover for yourself God's vision for gender equality.

History Matters

Evangelicals and Women

Mimi Haddad

IN HIS 1949 NOVEL, George Orwell observes that those in power perpetuate their dominance by misrepresenting the facts of history. According to Orwell, “He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.”1 The persistence of patriarchy is due, in part, to a distorted representation of history. Those committed to male authority secure their ascendency by marginalizing, omitting, and devaluing women’s accomplishments throughout history. The gender bias among evangelicals not only diminishes their own history; it also furthers a trajectory of marginalization and abuse.

Paige Patterson, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention—the largest Protestant denomination in the United States—was denounced in 2018 by thousands of Southern Baptist Convention women for his comments objectifying a young girl and for counseling an abused woman to remain with her violent spouse.2 When she returned with two black eyes, Patterson said he was happy because her faithfulness led her husband to church.3

These events prompted scholar Beth Allison Barr to consider how patriarchal ideas might be complicit in demeaning women. Since Patterson was also the former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Barr analyzed the priority of history in the school’s curriculum. She found that only 5 percent of the 2018 fall courses offered were specifically on history. In “the primary source reader [Story of Christianity], 98% of the entries were written by men . . . [who] comprised 94% of the narrative.”4 Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s biased curriculum not only damages the credibility of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary as a center of higher education, but it reinforces the Southern Baptist Convention’s sexism. Given the prominence of Southern Baptist Convention faculty in the leadership of the Evangelical Theological Society, and its journal, the dearth of historical inquiry at Evangelical Theological Society is telling.

Research suggests that women’s experience at Evangelical Theological Society meetings is often one of hostility, suspicion, or ambivalence, with women reporting being ignored, heckled, and presumed the spouses of male scholars.5 As of 2018, women comprise less than 6 percent of its members, yet the society explores gender in its journal and at annual meetings. In recent years, there has been an effort to include history among the hundreds of papers presented at each conference—though these frequently concern just a few prominent (male) figures who reappear often. At the 2017 annual meeting there was a commendable session, including four lectures on Reformation women, all presented by female scholars. However, in thirty years of quarterly journals (1988–2018), only 38 percent of the issues had one church history article, and 24 percent had none. Of all the church history articles published in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society since 1988, 2 percent concern women or women’s issues, a figure that shows remarkable consistency across the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society book reviews concerning history (2.7 percent about women), and the Evangelical Theological Society’s history-related conference workshops (2.1 percent on women) and plenaries (0 percent on women). In all formats combined, women’s history accounts for 2.3 percent of the Evangelical Theological Society’s output since 1988. Of these articles, book reviews, and presentations, 80 percent are from an egalitarian perspective. In thirty years of scholarship, not a single complementarian has published an article in their journal concerning women in church history.6

The question is whether this neglect is due to ambivalence, ignorance, or something more intentional. Women played a more significant role in Christian history and the development of theology than presentations or published content by the Evangelical Theological Society acknowledge. If women have been, as this chapter will argue, incisive theologians, courageous reformers, and prophetic leaders since Christianity began, the notion that women’s shared leadership is a liberal innovation—one that dismisses the teachings of Scripture—proves untenable.

To redress the distortion of history, this chapter will explore lesser-known women leaders from the early church to the modern era and the theological ideals that not only inspired their service but also characterized evangelicals as a whole. The neglect of women leaders in history reflects the theological distance between evangelicals today and those of the past.

WHO REPRESENTS EVANGELICALS?

As the president of CBE (Christians for Biblical Equality) International, I often speak on women’s history at evangelical schools. When invited, I research the institution’s female founders and leaders. Through this process, I have deepened my knowledge of women who have shaped denominations and institutions around the globe. Yet, whether through bias or neglect, this history is not well-known by the very schools that prepared women as global leaders. Once, as I preached on the first class of graduates of an evangelical college known today for its complementarian posture, the chair of Bible—after introducing me—walked out of the chapel. I learned later that he did so because he does not believe Scripture permits women to preach, even while thousands embraced the gospel through the school’s female graduates. Given the neglect of history among evangelicals today, the legacy of women pioneers seems radical, or radix in Latin—“a return to the root.”7

In recounting the history of early evangelical women, I articulate a theology of women that seems imported and offensive because it challenges precisely where some have become biblically and historically feeble. The radical women of the 1800s believed that Calvary makes everything new. It is not gender but new life in Christ that equips every Christian for service. To condemn as unbiblical in women what we exalt as the work of Christ in men is not only inconsistent; it is also at odds with the facts of history and the teachings of Scripture. Compelled by Christ to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mk 16:15 NIV), women have advanced Christianity and shaped a Christian or evangelical identity since Easter morning.

Historian Mark Noll notes that the term evangelical, when first used by the early Christians, referred to the good news of Christ’s “life, death and resurrection.” During the Reformation, Luther appropriated the word evangelical to elevate Christ’s atonement above the indulgences sold by the late medieval church. Repeatedly, the term evangelical was associated with renewal movements because they too prioritized Christ’s victory over sin and death. Philipp Spener’s Pia Desideria called for spiritual and social renewal, as did the revivals of the eighteenth century: these events were not only “intense periods of unusual response to gospel preaching . . . but also . . . linked with unusual efforts at godly living.” Embedded in the early evangelical teachings were theological convictions that, as Noll observes, guided the faith and lives of adherents.8 To be renewed by the gospel meant that one had crossed life’s sharpest line—from spiritual death to new life in Christ. As such, one was expected to become a markedly new person in service to others.9

The theological distinctives of the early evangelicals reflect four qualities, summarized by “Bebbington’s quadrilateral”:10

conversionism: the “belief that lives need to be changed”

biblicism: a high regard for the Bible

activism: evangelism in word and deed

crucicentrism: a stress on Christ’s atonement

Neither Bebbington nor Noll adequately acknowledges the many women leaders who shaped both the evangelical movement and the theological priorities that have characterized Christians throughout history.

EARLY CHURCH WOMEN: MARTYRS, MONASTICS, AND MYSTICS

Women martyrs, Bible scholars, and monastic leaders deepened the gospel’s impact in communities throughout the ancient world.

Martyrs. The earliest, most extensive text by a Christian woman—the Acts of Perpetua—was written by a young mother martyred in Carthage in AD 203. A noblewoman still nursing her child, Perpetua was arrested with five others including her pregnant slave, Felicitas. Like Jesus, they endured a cruel mob, abusive guards, and a despairing family, aware that their battle was against Satan alone. Despite fierce opponents, Perpetua said, “I knew that victory was to be mine.” Her biographer tells how Perpetua faced death glowing as the “darling of God.” When “the right hand of the novice gladiator wavered, she herself guided it to her throat.”11

Blandina was a slave arrested with her master. Refusing to renounce Christ, she too endured brutal torture. Like Perpetua, Blandina exhausted the gladiators in 177. Whipped, burned, tossed by wild animals, Blandina was finally killed by a gladiator’s dagger. The amphitheater where she died in Lyon, France, remains largely intact.

Refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods, Crispina from North Africa said, “I shall not do so save to the one true God and to our Lord, Jesus Christ his Son, who was born and died. . . . I refuse to sacrifice to these ridiculous deaf and dumb statues.”12 Crispina’s head was shaved—a humiliation to her gender. She was beheaded in 304.

United to Christ as martyrs and heirs of God’s kingdom, women ignited a faith more powerful than Rome, one that challenged cultural expectations for them.

Monastics. During the late third century, affluent Christians fled city life and its comforts to live in the deserts. Here Christians mastered their appetites and discovered a vitality that comes from feasting on God. Many joined the desert movement, led by the ammas and abbas (mothers and fathers).

Wealthy and beautiful, Syncletica moved to the desert outside Alexandria in the fourth century. Her life of simplicity and prayer attracted a community of women, whom she taught that the path to holiness is filled with “many battles and a good deal of suffering for those who are advancing towards God and afterwards, ineffable joy.” If one is able, a commitment to poverty is “a perfect good. Those who can sustain it receive suffering in the body but rest in the soul.”13

Brilliant and wealthy, Macrina the Younger (330–379) turned her home in Turkey into a Christian community where all possessions were held in common and the poor were treated like the wealthy. She was the sister of bishops Gregory and Basil, known for their defense of the Nicene Creed, and both credit her for their education. A lover of knowledge, she insisted that humility and love are the aims of philosophy. Macrina was referred to as “the teacher,” even by her bishop brothers.14

Leaving wealth and children in Rome, Paula (347–404) moved to the deserts of Palestine. Spending her fortune building hospitals, monasteries, and churches, Paula also purchased the ancient texts for a Latin translation of Script...