I’ve talked before in this blog about Wayne Grudem’s excellent and massive work on Evangelical Feminism. Inter-Varsity Press has an extract from the preface and the TOC on-line here.

Highly recommended and a superb reference. Wayne doesn’t shy away from the difficult questions.

Bob
Fides Quaerens Intellectum

Evangelical Feminism & Biblical Truth (Wayne Grudem)
An Analysis of More Than One Hundred Disputed Questions

Preface extract

In 1991, John Piper and I published a collection of essays by twenty-two authors titled Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991). We are grateful to God for the positive response it received: It was named Christianity Today’s “Book of the Year” in 1992 and it continues to be widely read. It remains the standard defense of the complementarian position on manhood and womanhood.

Yet for some time I have thought that another book was needed to supplement Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in several ways

1. to answer new arguments made by evangelical feminists since 1991
2. to summarize the results of new scholarly research in one place and in a form that can be understood by non-specialists
3. to adopt a user-friendly format that would enable readers quickly to find a fair summary of egalitarian arguments from the last thirty years, references to the best egalitarian literature supporting each argument, and clearly written answers to each of those arguments
4. to provide an updated assessment of where the evangelical world is heading on this issue, along with actual policy statements about men and women in leadership from dozens of denominations and parachurch groups; and
5. to warn about troubling trends in the evangelical feminist camp that indicate increasing movement toward theological liberalism through various types of interpretation that imply a rejection of the effective authority of Scripture in our lives.

For these reasons, I have written this book.

The first two chapters contain a positive view of men and women in our similarities and differences as created by God. They can be read on their own, even if someone does not read the rest of the book. Chapters 3–12 then answer 118 arguments that evangelical feminists have made in an attempt to deny that any unique leadership role is reserved for men in marriage or in the church.

In chapter 13 I argue that many of these egalitarian arguments reveal a dismaying trend to deny the full authority of the Bible. This makes evangelical feminism a new path into liberalism as it leads to an increasing rejection of the authority of Scripture in our lives. I am troubled that even those egalitarian authors who do not explicitly deny the Bible’s authority still refrain from renouncing the approaches of those who do, and that the influential egalitarian organization Christians for Biblical Equality promotes on its website all of the authors that I quote who deny the authority of Scripture in the ways I list in that chapter.

In chapter 14 I survey the current positions of many evangelical denominations and para-church organizations on this issue and attempt to explain why many have adopted an egalitarian position. My conclusion at the end of the discussion is that evangelicals who believe the Bible will ultimately have to choose between evangelical feminism and biblical truth.

The appendices contain important material that cannot easily be found elsewhere …

I intend this book to be useful for all Christians who are wondering what to believe about biblical manhood and womanhood. It should especially be useful for college and seminary students, church study committees, and pastors and Bible study leaders looking for a summary of arguments on both sides of this issue. It will also provide a useful handbook for Christians to consult when they seek answers to arguments from their egalitarian friends.

But I think the book will also be useful for those who are not engaged in any controversy but who simply want to understand more deeply what the Bible teaches about men and women and about our similarities and differences as created by God in His infinite wisdom.

Controversy is never easy, but God in His grace often allows controversies to bring us to deeper understanding of His Word and deeper love and trust for Him. This has been true throughout history as Christians have grown in their understanding of the Bible when they had to ponder and seek to answer controversial viewpoints on topics such as the Trinity, the person of Christ, justification by faith, the inerrancy of the Bible, and so forth. And so it has been in this controversy as well. As I have taught and written and debated about this topic for the past twenty-seven years, I know that God has given me a deeper love and appreciation for my wife, Margaret, a deeper respect for the wisdom that God gives to both women and men, a deeper desire to see women as well as men using all the gifts God has given them for the good of the church, and a deeper appreciation for the amazing wisdom of God in creating men and women so wonderfully equal in many ways, yet so delightfully different in many other ways.

One danger of controversy is that it can overwhelm us to the point that we lose our joy. With regard to this issue, there is a risk of being so entangled in controversy that we lose the joy of being men and women. I hope this book will enable women to rejoice once again that God has made them women, and men to rejoice once again that God has made them men. I hope that we will be able to look at each other once again as brothers and sisters in God’s family and feel something of the joy that God felt just after He first created us male and female: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good ” (Genesis 1:31).

Another danger of controversy is that we can lose our tempers or lash out in anger at those with whom we disagree. When we do this we forget what the New Testament teaches us about how we are to disagree with others:

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 2:24–25)
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom…. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (James 3:13, 17–18).

I have tried to follow these principles even when I disagree very directly with my egalitarian brothers and sisters in this book. I hope others who read this book will seek to obey these verses as well, and I hope readers will call it to my attention if I have been unfaithful to these verses in anything I wrote in this book.

Another danger of controversy is the temptation to passivity and to avoidance of an important issue that the Lord is asking us to deal with in our generation. I have been saddened to hear of churches and institutions that decide not to take any position regarding roles of men and women in marriage and the church. “It’s too controversial,” people have told me.

But this was not the practice of the apostle Paul. …
__________________________
Bob Pratico
Fides Quaerens Intellectum
(my Sojourn blog)