The person who recommended this book to me described it as ‘an interesting read’ and it surely is that. The second half of the title says “Compelling stories from Prominent Evangelicals” and this indicates that each section is argument based on personal testimony and experience, not the best ground for good doctrine. Some of these authors were instrumental in the formation of an organization called ‘Christians for Biblical Equality’ in the late eighties and which probably helped provoke another organization the “Counsel for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood” to come into being. These two have been ‘at it’ somewhat ever since as each seeks to promote its point of view. Words describing people as ‘egalitarian’ or ‘complementarian’ are now commonplace in this debate. I always sense that they all too easily put people into little boxes; yet, this whole matter needs be examined humbly, prayerfully and carefully. Some of the contributors to this book are a little strident and edgy and virtually all of them have come from Christian backgrounds that have rigidly kept women silent in the church or from a background that has witnessed awful abuse both racial and based on gender in the secular realm. By far the best testimony comes from I Howard Marshall, there is no ‘ire’ in what he writes nor the way he writes it whilst subtle annoyance with any contrary view is present with several others, notably some of the other male contributors. Obviously there are various analyses given on the main controversial passages of the New Testament and plenty of consideration given to the argument based on the cultural norms of the day. I could not help but think that I Howard Marshall had captured something profound when he closed his essay by indicating that in his view perhaps there was little dissimilarity between a beneficent patriachalism and the egalitarian position. However, we must confess with shame that there has been little ‘beneficent patriachalism’ in the history of mankind and in the churches for that matter and we must labor to rectify that in our relationships. One matter that is conspicuous by its absence in this book, and often in the argumentation engaged in by proponents of both sides is thoughtful consideration of the mystery of the relationships that exist in the Persons of the Godhead. There seems to be a key to the whole matter here. Mutual submission is essential to the Three Persons, and yet, in certain respects there is complement and even hierarchy (that horrible world rejected so by many holding the egalitarian view). Well, I have been glad to read this book, it provokes me to consider again the whole matter with self-examination although it does not convince me sufficiently to become an ‘egalitarian’ as yet.
