Annotated Bibliography for Gender-Related Books in 2008

In this issue of the journal we profile some of the most significant gender-related books from 2008. Here is a brief reminder about the categories we are using and our intent in using them. Complementarian designates an author who recognizes the full personal equality of the sexes, coupled with an acknowledgment of role distinctions in the home and church, as articulated in the Danvers Statement (see back cover of JBMW). Egalitarian classifies evangelicals who see undifferentiated equality between men and women—i.e., they see no scriptural warrant for affirming male headship in the home or the church. Under the Non-Evangelical heading, we have classified important secular works that address the subject of biblical gender issues from a religious, albeit, nonevangelical point of view. This category also serves as our classification for liberal scholars wanting to retain some sort of Christian identity. Finally, under the Undeclared heading, we have listed those authors who do not give sufficient indication of their fundamental stance for us to classify them more specifically, or authors whose position is too ambiguous to classify in light of the category descriptions above.

Complementarian

Bond, Douglas. Fathers and Sons., 2 vols. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008.

Douglas Bond offers a two-volume set of exhortations for fathers and sons on the task of pursuing biblical manhood, subtitled Stand Fast in the Way of Truth (vol. 1) and Hold Fast in a Broken World (vol. 2). Solidly rooted in Scripture, Bond provides clear application of biblical truth to such topics as leadership, sports, and masculinity. Bond's intention is to stir up a generation of men who will lead courageously, both in the church and in the home. The chapters are accessible enough for a young man to read, while also providing helpful questions for fathers who wish to distill the truth for young boys. All in all, these two-volumes are a valuable resource for both fathers and sons in the fight to live winsomely as men in a fallen world that is increasingly hostile to biblical teaching on manhood.

Chanski, Mark. Womanly Dominion: More Than a Gentle and Quiet Spirit. Merrick, NY: Calvary, 2008.

In 2004, Chanski released Manly Dominion, which helpfully outlined biblical manhood for both the church and home. In the same respect, Chanski now offers Womanly Dominion, a book designed to help women understand and live out biblical womanhood. Chanski skillfully unpacks biblical womanhood through a thorough theological explanation, along with a survey of womanhood through the OT and NT. Following this exposition, Chanski applies biblical womanhood to such topics as child rearing, martial life, church life, and involvement in the public square. Those seeking help in both understanding and applying biblical womanhood will find a valuable resource in this volume.

Easley, Cindy. What's Submission Got to Do With It? Finding Out from a Woman Like You. Chicago, IL: Moody, 2008.

In this book, Easley's intention is to offer helpful teaching on submission by examining how submission works out in a variety of different marital contexts. She includes stories from her own experience, as well as the experiences of other women. The unique aspect of this book is that it attempts to clarify what submission looks like in often overlooked marital contexts, such as a chronically ill husband. Easley's advice in each of these unique situations is rooted in the fundamental assertion that role differences were part of God's good creation. So, as wives submit to their husbands, Easley affirms that they are living in accord with God's original, good design.

Farrar, Steve. God Built: Forged by God ... in the Bad and Good of Life. Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2008.

Farrar contends that men are not naturally born as spiritual leaders in the church and home. Rather, they must be shaped by God and built into such leaders. Drawing on the life of Joseph, Farrar demonstrates how God's process of building men of integrity and leadership is a slow and sometimes difficult process. He helpfully deals with topics such as God's providence in difficult events and how we should relate to those in authority over us. In the end, Farrar concludes that God is using the varied events of life in order to shape men into godly, spiritual leaders.

Köstenberger, Margaret Elizabeth. Jesus and the Feminists. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008.

Köstenberger surveys the work of feminist scholars regarding the person of Jesus Christ. Her analysis includes the entire spectrum of feminist scholars, from far-left radicals to those who would call themselves evangelicals. Köstenberger's work is not limited to surveying the landscape. She also offers helpful critiques along the way, pointing out how feminist reinterpretations of Jesus fail to square with the biblical picture in the Gospels. She concludes her work by offering a non-feminist interpretation of the Gospels concerning the person of Christ. This final section is helpful in that it acknowledges the counter-cultural effects of Jesus' ministry upon women, but it does so without rushing to the conclusion that this must mean Jesus removed all distinctions between the genders. All in all, Köstenberger's work is a valuable resource for navigating the varied and often muddled waters of feminist interpretations of Jesus.

Mahaney, C. J., ed. Wordliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008.

In this edited volume, the contributors offer helpful chapters on worldliness by relating it to a variety of life contexts. While each chapter is helpful, the chapter dealing with the topic of modesty is particularly helpful for those concerned with biblical manhood and womanhood. As Mahaney points out, this chapter is primarily intended for women, although there are certainly applications for men. The key thought in this chapter is that modesty is integral both for biblical womanhood and for a faithful witness to the gospel. The strength of this section on modesty is that it demonstrates the practicality and wisdom of biblical womanhood for all areas of life.

Martin, Jaye, and Terri Stovall. Women Leading Women: The Biblical Model for the Church. Nashville, TN: B&H, 2008.

Martin and Stovall offer a comprehensive guide to women ministering to other women in the church. Their work is thorough, covering the biblical foundations for women leading women and the characteristics of a godly woman leader. The book is also practical, offering their perspective on what this kind of ministry looks like and how it should be carried out. The strength of the work is that Martin and Stovall write from a convinced complementarian perspective. This provides their work with a solid foundation, one that seeks to encourage women in ministry and to honor the teaching of Scripture. The result is a significant contribution to the issue of women ministering in the church.

McCully, Carolyn. Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World. Chicago, IL: Moody, 2008.

Speaking from both personal experience and extensive research, McCully dispels the myths and deceptions of feminism regarding what it means to be a woman and clearly articulates a biblical vision of womanhood. McCully's presentation of biblical womanhood is winsome and appealing. She highlights that God's design for women is the wise and good way to live, an evidence of God's grace. Running throughout McCully's work is the theme that biblical womanhood is the radical way to live as a woman in this culture. Adopting feminist models of womanhood is both unbiblical and following the standard paths of secular culture. Living a life modeled on the biblical teaching, however, is a radical departure from what culture declares regarding women.

Egalitarian

Beach, Nancy. Gifted to Lead: The Art of Leading as a Woman in the Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008.

Beach, a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, offers her guidelines for women leading in the church. At the outset of the book, Beach notes that she does not intend to offer an exegetical or theological defense for women leading in the church. Rather, her work is intended as something of a handbook for women who will lead and teach within the church. Unfortunately, Beach's work suffers from the assumption that those who hold to complementarianism do not advocate women serving alongside men within the church. Repeatedly, Beach makes statements implying that egalitarianism is the only way in which women can be completely integrated within the church. She fails to recognize that complementarians do not advocate a male-only approach to ministry within the church.

Haddad, Mimi, Aida Besancon Spencer, and William David Spencer, eds. Global Voices on Biblical Equality: Women and Men Serving Together in the Church. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2008.

In this edited volume, egalitarian authors and scholars offer a compilation of stories and perspectives concerning men and women serving together. The volume is intended to represent a global voice and, in pursuit of that goal, contains articles from authors from each continent. The result is that the volume reads as something of narrative for the movement of so-called biblical equality across the globe. From the outset, egalitarianism is presented as a reform movement in the church, designed with bringing helpful and needed change to the church. This reform motif for egalitarianism is supported by an appeal to the abolitionist movement and its effects on the church. Regrettably, this volume continues to perpetuate many myths often used to misrepresent the complementarian position. For example, egalitarianism is presented as the position that soundly rejects and seeks to deal biblically with abuse and domestic violence. The complementarian position, by implication, is presented as somehow advocating such abuse, despite repeated clarifications and resolute statements against abuse from complementarian authors and leaders. In light of such misrepresentations, it is questionable how "global" the perspective of this volume actually is.

LaCelle-Peterson, Kristina. Liberating Tradition: Women's Identity and Vocation in Christian Perspective. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2008.

LaCelle-Peterson provides an in-depth study of women from a Christian perspective, covering topics such as female identity, body image, and vocation. Much of her analysis reflects standard egalitarian readings of Scripture, including feminist re-interpretations of Jesus' ministry. This leads her to many conclusions concerning the relationship between men and women both in the church and home that complementarians would reject. However, at points, LaCelle-Peterson's work does offer helpful critiques of the predominant cultural views of women, particularly regarding issues of body image. Unfortunately, even at these points, she tends to associate complementarians with those who seek to subjugate and exploit women. Whether due to the fact that she misunderstands the complementarian position or for some other reason, LaCelle-Peterson's work misses the fact that complementarians advocate and promote a view that honors the dignity and worth of women as co-bearers of the divine image.

McKnight, Scot. The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008.

Noting that too often evangelicals are forced to choose between ideological extremes, McKnight attempts to offer an alternative, middle option for biblical interpretation. Specifically, McKnight hopes to provide Christians with a hermeneutic that avoids both the theological-right of fundamentalism and the theological-left of liberalism. As such, the book reads as something of a hermeneutics manual for the layperson. For example, McKnight covers such topics as the nature of Scripture, how we should approach the text, and what benefit the Bible can provide to Christian lives. In each case, McKnight approaches the topic in an unconventional way, eschewing traditional terminology in favor of more contemporary lingo. The result, in McKnight's opinion, is a "Third Way" of reading the Bible that avoids the pitfalls of other theological perspectives. The unique aspect of this work is that McKnight closes the book by applying his "Third Way" of reading Scripture to the issue of women in the church. He contends that both complementarians and egalitarians seek to avoid certain texts regarding women in ministry, while emphasizing others that fit their particular agenda. McKnight contends that his "Third Way" deals honestly with all of the texts in Scripture. Interestingly, when

McKnight comes to his conclusions regarding women in the church, his answers are firmly egalitarian. So, rather than reach his so-called "Third Way," McKnight has actually offered the usual fare of egalitarian hermeneutic presuppositions. For a full review of McKnight's book, see Thomas R. Schreiner's article in JBMW 14.1 (Spring 2009).

McLeod-Harrison, Susan. Saving Women from the Church: How Jesus Mends a Divide. Newburg, OR: Barclay, 2008.

McLeod-Harrison begins her work by noting that a significant and unnecessary divide exists within the church concerning women and ministry. In her understanding, the church has denigrated women and denied them full-inclusion in ministry. Her book, then, is an attempt to use the ministry of Jesus as a paradigm from bridging this divide. The format of the book involves contemporary fictional stories concerning women in ministry, followed by McLeod-Harrison's fictionalized accounts from Jesus' ministry. In pursuing this format, McLeod-Harrison hopes to demonstrate that Jesus transcended his culture's biases concerning women, and if we would follow his example, the church in our culture could also transcend biases and move towards the full inclusion of women in ministry. McLeod-Harrison's work suffers from caricatures and misrepresentations of the complementarian position. For example, she states that the phrase "equal but different" implies that women are not made fully in the image of God. Furthermore, many of positions betray the influence of feminism, such as advocating feminine God-language.

Stouffer, Austin H. 95 More for the Door: A Layperson's Biblical Guide to Today's Gender Reformation. Winnipeg: Word Alive, 2008.

Stouffer's work is a compilation of ninety-five theological statements drawn from across the entire canon. Stouffer offers his theses in order to prove that there are at least ninety-five places in the Bible that call for men and women "to be treated, gifted, appointed, or ordained in exactly the same way" (xiii). He proceeds through the canon, commenting on a wide range of texts. Commendably, Stouffer offers his view on most of the texts crucial to the gender debate. So, his work is not uninformed as to the significant areas of interpretation. However, his interpretations of these texts often seem to be driven by presupposed egalitarian conclusions.

Sumner, Jim, and Sarah Sumner. Just How Married Do You Want to Be? Practicing Oneness in Marriage. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2008.

This volume, authored by a husband and wife team, seeks to offer a third perspective on marriage. The other two perspectives, though never explicitly named, are clearly those offered by selfidentified egalitarians and complementarians. As such, the authors present their work as something of a corrective to both sides of the gender debate. The book is written from the personal experience of the Sumners. The reader is invited to listen as the Sumners describe how they have come to see marriage as essentially related to the idea of oneness. In fact, oneness is the overriding theme of the work. The Sumners spend two chapters dealing with Ephesians 5 and the topic of headship. Ultimately, the authors conclude that headship has no leadership connotations, but rather is a relational term that denotes oneness. In this regard, they reject the notion that a husband is called by God to be the spiritual leader of his wife. The Sumners are clear that in their minds there is no scriptural command for husbands to lead their wives, especially not in Ephesians 5. Rather, the biblical model of marriage is centered on oneness. What makes this volume intriguing is that the authors are difficult to pin down. They seemingly reject typical egalitarian readings of the text, such as mutual submission. Yet, they also reject clear complementarian interpretations of Ephesians 5. In the end, this results in little more than egalitarianism, albeit an egalitarianism that is clothed in different terms.

Undeclared

James, Carolyn Custis. The Gospel of Ruth: Loving God Enough to Break the Rules. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008.

In an engaging look at the book of Ruth, Carolyn Custis James attempts to answer the question of whether or not God is good for women. To answer that question, James walks through the events recorded in the book of Ruth regarding the lives of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz. In the end, James affirms that God is indeed good for women. Unfortunately, along the way, she seems to misinterpret key points of Ruth's story in an attempt to justify some egalitarian sympathies. For a more detailed consideration of this work, see Jennifer Naselli's review in JBMW 13.2 (Fall 2008).

Hallman, Janelle. The Heart of Female Same-Sex Attraction. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2008.

Lamenting a lack of resources for counseling women who struggle with same-sex attraction, Hallman, a licensed professional counselor, offers her volume as a potential remedy to the situation. Her work is intended to both correct and prevent certain misunderstandings and presumptions regarding female same-sex attraction. Broadly, Hallman notes that women who struggle with same-sex attraction often have deep longings for love, safety, companionship, and femininity. The book seeks to provide counselors with both the information and training to help women move from same-sex relationships to healthier lives.

James, David E. God's Truth about Gender: Unraveling the Lies of Modern Human Sexuality, Behavior and Identity. Sisters, OR: VMI, 2008.

Drawing on his own life experiences, James offers his perspective on gender and sexuality. His work deals primarily with gender identity and sexuality and their relationship with homosexuality. One of James's conclusions is that homosexuality is a distortion of God's design for gender.