The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth

I doubt I am the target audience for this book (male, married, retired, currently attending an evangelical church). I couldn't put it down. It taught me a lot about the history of women in the evangelical branch of Christianity and the shocking lack of knowledge within evangelicalism about the history of Christianity. I've never been comfortable or confident with the explanation of Complementarianism (the idea that men and women have unique roles) that my church defends with some interesting exceptions. The linkage to Patriarchy as explained by the author seems very clear. Her explanation of the historical (Greek/Roman culture) context within which St. Paul wrote about relationships within a household are very helpful and thought-provoking. As most people have discovered in the age of email and social media, the tone, sarcasm, humor and overall tone of written text is not easily expressed or discerned. And we have emojis and punctuation marks! St. Paul's actual intent and tone for those verses has long been debated and could easily be misconstrued. The author relies heavily on her historical expertise in medieval history, illustrating her views with many solid historical facts about women in ministry. The current policy of complementarians on women preaching and teaching and in roles of power and influence is contradicted by so much church history. I've been aware of some of the women she discusses, while others were entirely new to me. I greatly appreciated her discussion of these bold, courageous, faithful women. The real bombshells in the book are: (1) the origins and intentions of the ESV translation of the Bible (now I have to find a more honest translation wherever nouns involving masculine or feminine pronouns) and, (2) waiting for you near the end of the book, when she points out a clear alignment of Complementarianism with the Arian heresy. I am very reluctant to use the word heresy, but church doctrine regarding the Trinity has been pretty settled for over 1600 years. One powerful question in the book for those who advocate Complementarianism requires a very thoughtful response that I've yet to see: What if you are wrong? We are all paying a very high price for this interpretation of Scripture. I'm not a theologian or in any kind of paid position in a church. I'm sure there may be reasons why the egalitarian view (positioned by many as the opposing view) is inadequate in some way. I'll do more reading about this subject, but my lived experience and evidence in the Bible suggests that women have more to offer the church today than some in positions of power are willing to allow. I wasn't looking for a book on this topic. I stumbled across the author on a podcast where she spoke, along with Scott McKnight with the show hosts. Deciding what to do with what I've learned from the author is going to require cunning and wisdom to keep my conscience clear as I seek to follow Jesus.

This is a really helpful book for people who have grown up in sexist, misogynistic, patriarchal churches AKA complementarian churches. I was fortunate to grow up in more egalitarian churches, but I heard about some of these arguments for and against women in leadership and about women being silent in churches, while I was in Bible college. This book is even more thorough than what I learned at college, and I found it very illuminating. Beth talks about the history of patriarchy in the church and in the cultures surrounding Christian churches. She addresses why complementarianism is a misinterpretation of Scripture and that Christian churches have copied patriarchal culture, when originally Christianity was leading the way in freeing women from sexist norms. She delves into the Biblical context in which Paul and other Biblical writers have written; what was happening in the churches and the culture. She addresses Corinthian slogans which Paul may have been quoting in Corinthians. She proves that Paul affirmed women in leadership multiple times across many letters and churches. She talks about how his teachings can actually be interpreted as feminist in comparison to the surrounding culture. She goes on to talk about medieval history as that is her sphere of expertise. I know very little of this era and found this quite interesting. She writes about the reformation and how Christian culture changed from praising women for remaining single and chaste (nuns for example) to praising women for being wives and mothers when, really, we need to recognize all of these positions as valid, good and healthy. She talks about the limited options for women in terms of work and being able to provide for themselves and their families. She also talks about the Industrial revolution and how things changed again. There is a chapter about writing women out of the Bible in terms of the language used by scholars who have translated the Bible for common use. I found this a particularly powerful argument that was also touched on in Bible college. It is crucial that we realize that no translation of the Bible is literal, none is without error, and especially none can eliminate the interpretational bias of the translator. She talks about the “heresy” of Arianism in which the Son of God is subordinate to God the Father. This has been rejected by the Christian faith time and again, but when preachers talk about women in subordination to men, they have sometimes made this grave mistake of relating this back to the Trinity. Yet another truth I studied at Bible college, that should be taught within churches. Beth shares her own experiences which are poignant and relevant. I did, however, think that the editor could have moved a couple of the stories around (in terms of where they occur in the book) to provide slightly better flow. But overall I found this book well researched and intelligent. I whole-heartedly agree that women are equal to men and equally permitted to lead, teach and not be silent in churches. I pray that complementarian denominations will wake up to this truth and start leading the way toward healthy gender equality!

She loves Jesus and history! It’s such a fun and yet sobering read.

One of the author's central premises is that evangelicals don't know their church history - and so they aren't able to think critically about some of the norms accepted today as 'gospel truth'. This book does just that. The author starts by taking us back to biblical times to exegete the most controversial texts used by complementarians to prop up the modern conservative view of biblical womanhood. She draws on scholars' different interpretations of these texts to show that there are many ways of understanding and applying them, and that in fact a complementarian position is harder to maintain than an egalitarian reading. She then traces the history of women's role in the church, from the early church right through to the present day. The author's approach is reasoned, powerful, and very rigorous. Highly, highly recommended. -- On a personal note: this book has opened my eyes to the many ways in which my identity and mindset as a Christian woman has been formed in myriad implicit ways, and at times it's felt like a real betrayal. For example: I was recommended Wayne Grudem's 'Systematic Theology' in university by a male mentor - who positioned it as a neutral encyclopedia of orthodox theology. He never mentioned that Grudem was a hard-line complementarian; I'm only learning that today. It's like learning that all the books I read on race actually have racism baked into them all along, but that was never called out by any of my mentors/teachers. For example, the ESV Bible Translation was published as a response to the more gender-inclusive TNIV, and the text itself emphasises complementarian thinking. (Grudem was influential in its publication.) While this book has certainly roused my anger and sense of injustice, it's also educated me as to the story of the church, and the influence of outside patriarchy on damaging and destructive theology.

It wasn’t sighs of relief I made when I read the 1st chapter of The Making of Biblical Womanhood. The book had just arrived in the mail after I had pre-ordered it on Amazon months ago after reading a few intriguing online articles by the author. The promise that the book would trace back to when the idea of Biblical Womanhood started in history had me hooked. As a Christian, I’ve seen women treated as if they were second-class citizens or spiritual inferiors in the church most of my life. This has always confused me because when I read my bible this notion is not remotely expressed in any bible verses nor did Jesus treat women that way (in fact the opposite!) Over time I’ve come to understand that the concept of diminishing the power and voice of women came outside the bible I just never sure where from. I hoped this book would help me to pinpoint where it came from in history. I opened the paperback the same evening it arrived and within the first few pages, I noticed my breathing start to quicken. There were so many disturbing historical truths written in the book I was letting out audible sighs. “Good book, eh?” my husband asked. “No-- I mean, yes! I mean, yes, it’s a good book but the stories it tells are so, so bad. It’s horrifying, really.” The sighs were sighs of disgust. The first story the book tells is the idea of Biblical Womanhood and manhood came from patriarchy. Yep, the same patriarchy that has littered our history textbooks for millennia. It just goes by different names- like what some in the churches call "complementarianism". Patriarchy historically takes power from women and places it in the hands of men. It’s subjugating women under men’s rule and authority. The author, a professor of history, shows examples throughout ancient texts - outside of the bible- of how women were portrayed by the secular world. In these stories from a patriarchal world, women were always supporting and subsidiary, not taking the lead and written in as characters whose main role was to provide comfort for the men. This book points out that patriarchy is the way the world has been mainly operating throughout history. Patriarchy is not the message of the bible but rather a practice Christians should turn away from. The author rightly reminds us that Christians are called to be radically different from the world in how we uphold the dignity of all people, including women. You can see why even in just reading the first chapter I was feeling disturbed. Throughout secular history, women have been put in the same categories as slaves, children and cattle. The imbalanced way the world views women has seeped into what is supposed to be a place of refuge, hope and freedom- the church. Some churches teach the exact thing that patriarchy does: that women play a supporting role in the work of their male leaders. Patriarchy isn’t dead, it’s alive and well in 2021 in Christian churches. Throughout Making of Biblical Womanhood, the author uncovers that patriarchy is about power, not about Jesus. In the Bible, Jesus sets all of us free. Meanwhile, in our churches, we are detained within the confines of a man-made hierarchy. <<Sigh>> For this reason, the book was a quick read. I kind of wanted to read it with my eyes closed. I had a hard time staying away from it. I finished it in about 2 days. The author's area of expertise is medieval history so she really gets into examples and ways women were viewed and treated in the church setting in the Middle Ages in England. She also details the more recent evangelical history of the concept of biblical womanhood newly coined as complementarianism. [Spoiler alert: it was influenced by the secular world and a desire for power and status, not scripture.] It was hard for me to see this particular delve into history as relevant. I don’t align with evangelicalism and I am looking for unambiguous biblical truths. But when I got to the chapter about bible translation I saw how the history she was laying out plays in my everyday spiritual life. Turns out, the dominant masculine-oriented way my bible reads today is not from the original text but from the biases from the English translators. This section in the book made me sigh again. But this time a sigh of relief. It was all making sense why I often felt like perhaps God’s word was somewhat more male-centred than his overall message seemed to be. If you’ve ever been confused about why God seems to direct his message to men you should know that he doesn't. It’s just what some influential people over many years of history have wanted us to think. I was glad that the author in addition to mainly taking a look into the historical records she also dove into some biblical study. The book addresses the difficult bible verses that some use to silence and subjugate women from 1 Corinthians 11, 1 Timothy 2, Ephesians 5 etc. The author shows that these verses were written in a context of a Roman culture where women were treated as property and not thought of as equal in humanity as men. Roman patriarchy was explicitly written in their laws and in their household codes. The author details how instead of bowing to this culture of oppression, Paul (the author of many of these contentious verses) was telling us that a life in Christ means to behave in the exact opposite way! These verses often seem like a contradiction to the overall message of the bible and the life of Jesus but The Making of Biblical Womanhood carefully lays out how these verses weren't intended to contradict the messages of freedom we all have - men AND women - in Christ but rather to amplify and celebrate it. This book is a useful resource if you’re looking for historical evidence of the origins of Christian patriarchy (which is what I’m going to correctly begin to call it thanks to reading this book). When reading it you will see that sadly some people’s idea of what it is like to be a woman in Christ only mimics the sinful ways of the secular world. When you read it you’ll learn that the subjugation of women is not a “timeless Godly principle” as some may claim. Christian patriarchy changes over history to suit the prevailing politicals, understanding of science or to support a prosperous lifestyle of a given time. One thing this book lacks is what the bible actually says about women. If you’re looking for a guide to reading scripture outside the filter of patriarchy you won’t find too much here. It’s less of a book that gives a full answer to what the bible says but is more of a book that makes a strong case for Christians to stop supporting Christian patriarchy. I will recommend this book to anyone who is willing to re-think that the Bible teaches male headship. It is my hope and prayer that one day Christians will breathe a huge sigh of relief when women are no longer left out of the church’s narrative and leadership and are treated the way Jesus and to the same extent, Paul, treated women rather than how the church’s history has treated them.

This has been a particularly helpful book in understanding why most churches view women and specific scriptures in an unbiblical way. It shows how worldly values and traditions have infiltrated the church and have caused harm both to women and created a lack of understanding of scripture and roles in the church. A must-read for anyone who has felt that complentarianism and church roles based on Paul's writings just don't seem to make sense when one looks at the rest of the Bible and the character of God.

Eu gostei bastante, o resgate histórico q ela faz sobre o patriarcado e o complementarismo é muito interessante. Eu realmente desconhecia a história medieval desta perspectiva, tantos argumentos, tantos entendimentos sobre traduções enviesadas e tantas mulheres liderando na história da Igreja. É um apagamento real q fazem conosco e o cristianismo apenas reproduz o patriarcado secular. A questão da inerrancia foi então a cereja no bolo, algo q desconfiava muito, de maneira bem superficial, mas ela explica a conexão muito claramente.