Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood examines Giles book, violence against women, other gender issues

In a guest editorial, Russell D. Moore opens the JBMW with an article provocatively titled, "O.J. Simpson Is Not a Complementarian: Male Headship and Violence against Women." After defining male headship, Moore calls on the church to hold the line on church discipline against wife beaters. Moore is dean of the School of Theology and senior vice president for academic administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

"Male violence against women and children is a real problem n our culture—and in our churches," he writes. "Our first responsibility is not just at the level of social justice but at the level of ecclesial justice. We must teach from our pulpits, our Sunday school classes, and our Vacation Bible Schools that women are to be cherished, honored, and protected by men.

"Church discipline against wife beaters must be clear and consistent. We must also stand with women against predatory men in areas of abandonment, divorce, and neglect. We must train up men, through godly mentoring as well as through biblical instruction, who will know that the model of a husband is a man who crucifies his selfish materialism, his libidinal fantasies, and his wrathful temper tantrums in order to care lovingly for a wife."

Jason Hall gives a thorough review to egalitarian scholar Kevin Giles’ book Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity. Giles’ 2002 work, published by InterVarsity Press, argues that arguments in favor of the eternal subordination of Jesus Christ the Son to God the Father, is akin to the Arian heresy.

Hall shows that Giles understates the nature of the Arian heresy in applying it to contemporary arguments, made by many complementarians, that there exists an asymmetrical relationship between the Father and Son within the Godhead. Hall serves as director of communications at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

"Giles believes that the most fundamental characteristic of an Arian is one who subordinates the Son in role, authority and being," Hall writes. "This (view) betrays a stilted view of Arianism that is rhetorically designed to advance his book’s argument, rather than designed to be most true to historical theology. The most fundamental characteristic of the Arian heresy, the one that the Nicene Creed was crafted to dismiss, is the notion that the Son is a creature and therefore unlike the Divine Father in substantial ways."

The journal includes several other articles and an annotated bibliography for Gender-related articles published in 2006. Other essayists include Bruce Ashford ("Worldview, Anthropology, and Gender: A Call to Broaden the Parameters of the Discussion"), Wayne Walden ("Ephesians 5:21 in Translation"), P.G. Nelson ("Inscription to a High Priestess at Ephesus"), Robert Bjerkaas ("And Adam Called His Wife’s Name Eve: A Study in Authentic Biblical Manhood") and Andrew M. Davis ("Fathers and Sons in Deuteronomy 6: An Essential Link in Redemptive History").

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