5 Key Teachings: THE MAKING OF BIBLICAL WOMANHOOD, by Beth Allison Barr

I first read about this book in a story in The New Yorker by Eliza Griswold that was tangentially about Chip & Joanna Gaines and the evangelical church to which they belong. (I'm fascinated by Chip and Joanna, could watch them all day.) More specifically, the story was about "complementarianism," which is the theological view that suggests the woman's place is in the home, while the man's place is outside of it. Griswold profiled history professor Beth Allison Barr, the author The Making of Biblical Womanhood, who left her church when her husband, a youth pastor, was fired for challenging church leadership on the issue of women preaching. Her book is fascinating and beautiful. She writes of her 40-years in the church: "This was my understanding of biblical womanhood: God designed women primarily to be submissive wives, virtuous mothers, and joyful homemakers. God designed men to lead in the home as husbands and fathers, as well as in church as pastors, elders, and deacons. I believed that this gender hierarchy was divinely ordained. Elisabeth Elliot famously wrote that femininity receives. Women surrender, help, and respond while husbands provide, protect, and initiate. A biblical woman is a submissive woman." In the following pages, she deftly creates how this idea of biblical womanhood was crafted from bits of the New Testament taken out of historical context, misinterpreted, and misunderstood. As she explains, "Evidence shows me how Christian patriarchy was built, stone by stone, throughout the centuries. Evidence shows me how, century after century, arguments for women’s subordination reflect historical circumstances more than the face of God. Evidence shows me that just because complementarianism uses biblical texts doesn’t mean it reflects biblical truth. Evidence shows me the trail of sin and destruction left in the wake of teachings that place women under the power of men. Evidence shows me, throughout history, the women who have always known the truth about patriarchy and who have always believed that Jesus sets women free." If you're interested in the history of religion and patriarchy, this is a fascinating read.

5 KEY TEACHINGS:

1. Today’s world doesn’t look all that different from Babylonian law, which doesn’t say that much for the benefits of patriarchy.

As Barr writes: “My modern students balk at how Babylonian law allowed husbands to drown their wives for alleged adultery, but my students are also living in the state of Texas in which women make up 94 percent of the victims in domestic partner murder-suicides—not to mention the United States in which almost 25 percent of women have experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner. This evidence shows not only the continuity of patriarchy from ancient Mesopotamia to modern America but also the continuity of its dark underbelly. Instead of being a point of pride for Christians, shouldn’t the historical continuity of a practice that has caused women to fare much worse than men for thousands of years cause concern? Shouldn’t Christians, who are called to be different from the world, treat women differently?

            “What if patriarchy isn’t divinely ordained but is a result of human sin? What if instead of being divinely created, patriarchy slithered into creation only after the fall? What if the reason that the fruit of patriarchy is so corrupt, even within the Christian church, is because patriarchy has always been a corrupted system?

            “Instead of assuming that patriarchy is instituted by God, we must ask whether patriarchy is a product of sinful human hands.” (p. 25)

2. Evidence of women’s subordination via the Fall is pretty flimsy—in fact, some theologians argue that Eve’s decision to subordinate herself to Adam instead of God is actually her primary offense.