Review: “Evangelical Feminism: A new path to Liberalism?”

Evangelical Feminism: A new path to Liberalism?

Wayne Grudem

Crossway, Wheaton, 2006, 272pp.

Writing or even reviewing a book about the Bible’s teaching on male and female responsibilities within marriage or the church is a task fraught with difficulty. The issue is more emotionally charged than most doctrinal or church practice issues because it reaches to the very heart of what it means to be human. In addition, it is an area that is alien to our culture and a possible impediment to the spread of the gospel in the world. So how important is it to get the role of women in the church right? Is it a so-called ‘gospel’ or ‘first order’ issue, or is it fine for Christians to have a wide range of views on the subject?

Wayne Grudem, in his book Evangelical Feminism: A new path to Liberalism?, argues that the stakes are very high indeed. He is deeply concerned that those who think that “there are no unique leadership roles for men in marriage or in the church” (p. 15¹) are undermining the authority of Scripture in the arguments they use to support their position (p. 11). In Grudem’s view, this will inevitably lead the church into theological Liberalism, which he defines as “a system of thinking that denies the complete truthfulness of the Bible as the Word of God and denies the unique and absolute authority of the Bible in our lives” (p. 15). This is a serious charge indeed.

Grudem seeks to demonstrate the validity of his concerns by analyzing the arguments used by proponents of evangelical feminism in their treatment of biblical texts, as well as by highlighting some social trends in the history of Protestant denominations over the past 40 years or so. The result is a book that comprehensively, but simply, summarizes the arguments and evidence used by evangelical feminist scholars. If you are looking for more detail, you will have to go elsewhere, but Grudem helps you out with a lot of footnotes. Indeed, if you would like to investigate the arguments and evidence more fully, it’s worth purchasing a copy of his tome Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth: An analysis of more than 100 disputed questions as a companion volume.²

But back to the book at hand. I found that Grudem covered all the pastoral questions or objections you are likely to come across, as well as a few more. Here are some examples: can a woman teach with the approval of the senior minister under his authority (pp. 103-105)? Historically, were the women of Ephesus particularly uneducated and the women of Corinth particularly disruptive (pp. 171-178, 159-163)? Does God approve of women teaching and exercising an authoritative ministry if their ministry is blessed by many people coming to Christ through it (pp. 119-129)?

The other great feature of the book is that Grudem works hard to present the material in a way that allows those who are not experts in the field to access it. He restates the arguments using other examples (pp. 61-63, 104), he presents evidence without using ancient biblical languages,³ and he interacts with many of the arguments found in William Webb’s Women, Slaves and Homosexuals: Exploring the hermeneuetics of cultural analysis, an egalitarian book that seems to be doing the rounds at the moment (pp. 65-80). In contrast to Grudem’s accessibility, Webb has 18 criteria for evaluating the Bible’s commands with the aim of developing an ultimate ethic toward which, he argues, the New Testament was heading. These criteria are so complex, they could not be implemented by most scholars in biblical studies, never mind everyday Christians!

I found Grudem’s arguments and evidence very compelling on a factual level. However, in what is an emotionally charged issue, I was not convinced that this is a good book to give to an egalitarian friend. Grudem warns his readers to be kind and loving when differing with brothers and sisters, to report their positions truthfully, and to avoid being cowardly or silent about the issue (pp. 251, 253). But this is where my discomfort with the book lies: I don’t know if it is simply my cowardice, but I suspect that this book could have been written in a more winsome and ultimately more persuasive way.

For example, I wholeheartedly support Grudem’s introduction: “This book is… an expression of deep concern about a widespread undermining of the authority of Scripture in the arguments that are frequently used to support evangelical feminism” (p. 11). But then in the following sentences, Grudem restates his concern in a more combative way:

And it is also a way of posing a question: can a movement that espouses this many ways of undermining the authority of Scripture possibly be right? If God had wanted to teach us an egalitarian position, would he have made it so hard to find in Scripture that it would require this many incorrect methods to discover and defend it? (pp. 11-12)

You get the impression that Grudem is frustrated with the lack of scholarly rigour demonstrated by many of the people responsible for developing the egalitarian arguments. Furthermore, he seems bewildered by the fact that some of his friends defend the authority of Scripture while being blind to the danger of where their egalitarian arguments are heading. Grudem certainly does not claim that all egalitarians are liberal, but he contends that the kinds of arguments they use to interpret the Scriptures are the first step along the path to Liberalism. That is where the real peril lies, for as the next generation take up the same arguments, the foundations of biblical authority are inevitably eroded.

One possible corrective would have been to focus a little more on the equality between men and women before God as well as on the differences. Grudem does refer to places in his other writings where he elucidates some of the breadth of ministries open to women (p. 19; cf. Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, pp. 84-101). And he does urge us not to become more conservative than the Bible, thereby restricting godly and gifted women from rightful ministries (p. 22). By the end of the book, I was convinced of the goodness of upholding the authority of Scripture (which is a great thing too), but I would have also liked to have been further convinced of God’s good purposes in creating us male and female—equally loved, valued and gifted to serve God and his people. To be fair, this is not something egalitarians deny, so perhaps it was not within the scope of the book.

Finally, I really don’t want to quibble, but I didn’t think Grudem’s definition of theological Liberalism was very fair. In addition, I didn’t agree with his arguments regarding female missionaries (pp. 120-21; unfortunately the material in Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth on this matter is even less compelling⁴).

But in the end, you can’t help but be impressed by the quality and the extensive nature of Grudem’s research as he seeks to understand what God has to say about the differing responsibilities of men and women in the church, to describe the historical context in which the Scriptures were written, and to present his research in an accessible way so that you can make your own evaluation. Although I wish he had written his material in a more winsome way, maybe doing so would have been negligent when there is so much at stake. Grudem quotes Mark Dever on just this point:

Of course there are issues more central to the gospel than gender issues. However, there may be no way the authority of Scripture is being undermined more quickly or more thoroughly in our day than through the hermeneutics of egalitarian readings of the Bible. And when the authority of Scripture is undermined, the gospel will not long be acknowledged.⁵

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If you would like to think further about gender issues from a biblical perspective, why not consider subscribing to Equal but Different, a journal about the responsibilities of men and women in church and family written from a complementarian framework? Visit www.equalbutdifferent.org for further information.