Sliding the Slippery Slope: A Review of Wayne Grudem, Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism? Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006.

Just over three decades ago, a well-known evangelical Christian leader wrote a book about what he considered to be the most important theological topic of the day: biblical inerrancy. Carefully and meticulously detailing the abandonment of inerrancy by certain scholars in various denominations, this man's particular concern was- ultimately- for the Christian faith itself. After all, he reasoned, if the full inspiration and authority of the Bible is abandoned, how long can it be until evangelicals leave behind the evangel, as well?

More recently, Wayne Grudem has penned an immensely helpful work of scholarship examining what he discerns is the latest challenge to biblical authority- as well as a near certain segue to eventual theological liberalism: egalitarianism. In Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism?, Grudem, Research Professor of Bible and Theology at Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix, Arizona, writes out of a "deep concern about a widespread undermining of the authority of Scripture in the arguments that are frequently used to support evangelical feminism" (11). He examines the commonly employed methods of biblical interpretation and exegesis that time and again drive evangelical feminists, in addition to documenting developments in denominations and other Christian organizations that seem to prove his "slippery slope" argument about egalitarianism- that is, that "[o]nce an evangelical feminist position is adopted, the development only goes in one direction, again and again" (12).

Grudem divides this book into four parts. In the first part (13-30), Grudem documents a telling pattern: that endorsing women's ordination nearly always results in- or is itself the product of- a denomination's capitulation to theological liberalism. Christians reading Evangelical Feminism, Grudem hopes, will be convinced that egalitarianism- through various avenues- leads to an overall undermining of the truthfulness and authority of Bible.

In the second part of Evangelical Feminism (31-150), Grudem examines the scholarship of specific egalitarian authors such as-among others- Rebecca Groothuis, William Webb, Gordon Fee, Sarah Sumner, and Kevin Giles, and demonstrates the different ways that these egalitarians espouse views that undermine or even deny the full authority of the Bible. Examples of these kinds of claims include asserting that Paul was wrong in his views on gender, that later theological and cultural developments trump Scripture's teaching on gender, and that contemporary circumstances win out over the Bible. Anticipating the question as to whether the scholars he has discussed are representative of evangelical feminists, Grudem asserts that the claims he has pointed out "are promoted by prominent egalitarian writers and published by leading evangelical publishers" (150). His chapter dealing with Webb's "redemptive-movement hermeneutic" in this section is particularly helpful (65-80).

The third section in Grudem's work (151-220) includes the dissection of various egalitarian views that are based on untruthful or unsubstantiated claims. "This category does not concern a direct denial of the authority of the Bible," he writes, "but it nullifies the authority of the Bible in another way, through promoting untruthful or unsubstantiated claims about what certain words in the Bible 'really mean,' or about some historical facts that change our understanding of the situation to which a book of the Bible was written" (153). Examples of these kinds of claims include the assertion that women deacons had governing authority in the earliest Christian churches, that the Greek word for "head" often meant "source" and not "authority" in the Bible and other ancient sources, and that the Bible never teaches the eternal functional subordination of the Son to the Father.

In the fourth and last part of Evangelical Feminism (221-263), Grudem points out the different places that egalitarianism will eventually take evangelical feminists and the churches and organizations that they lead-a denial of anything uniquely masculine, worship of "Mother in heaven," and the approval of homosexuality as a legitimate Christian lifestyle. In the concluding chapter of the book Grudem declares, "As I have spent more and more time analyzing egalitarian arguments, I have become more firmly convinced that egalitarianism is becoming a new path to liberalism for evangelicals in our generation" (261). Charitable and evenhanded throughout his work, Grudem states, "I am not saying that all egalitarians are liberals, or are moving toward liberalism. But I am saying that the arguments used by egalitarians actually undermine the authority of Scripture again and again, and in so doing they are leading the church step by step toward liberalism" (262). Ultimately at stake in the gender debate, according to Grudem, is the truthfulness and authority of the Scriptures.

The strengths of this book are its ample documentation, both in terms of Scripture references and contemporary scholarship; its accessibility and usefulness for any Christian who is either quite familiar with the current complementarian-egalitarian debate or any believer in Christ who is just coming into contact with the discussion, and is in need of a faithful primer on the subject; and the tone in which Grudem writes, which is clear and forthright. Grudem does not caricaturize evangelical feminists, but rather deals with the best of their scholarship, showing it to be lacking when viewed up against the biblical material.

At times, Grudem appears to have some misunderstanding of how certain denominations operate. For example, resolutions passed at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention- or merely the Convention's inaction, as was the case in 1964- are not binding on its churches, as Grudem seems to imply (24). Though it is somewhat tangential to the overall point he is making that parachurch organizations should follow the scriptural mandates for the local church insofar as they are performing the tasks of the local churchn- Grudem's apparent suggestion that a parachurch organization such as The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood could observe the Lord's Supper together (113) may be a bit confusing to some readers.

In all, Evangelical Feminism is an excellent resource for showing the liberal outworking of the presuppositions upon which egalitarianism is based. In a fairly succinct manner, Grudem has discovered, discussed, and dismantled common egalitarian arguments. In fact, Grudem's thesis is so powerfully convincing that perhaps future editions of this book will contain a different subtitle than the one it has at present. For it may be true that Grudem is wrong when he asserts that evangelical feminism is the new path to liberalism; surely Grudem and his fellow complementarians would admit as much. Instead, it may be time for Christians to continue to examine anew the presuppositions upon which evangelical feminism is built. Perhaps the movement has so distorted the clear truths of Scripture that the biblical evangel to which Christians have witnessed for nearly two millennia has become distorted, as well.

If that's the case, perhaps at that time Christians may stop and exclaim, "Evangelical feminism is no slippery slope toward theological liberalism. Rather, the slope has already been slid."