Whence Evangelical Feminism?: A Review of Pamela D. H. Cochran, Evangelical Feminism

The Chicago Declaration, adopted at the first meeting of Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA) in 1973, included several statements on women's rights. The Evangelical Women's Caucus soon grew out of these ESA meetings, and the evangelical feminist movement was born. Pamela D. H. Cochran's Evangelical Feminism: A History tells the story of this movement, focusing on evangelical feminist theology, leaders, and institutions. The book attempts to place the evangelical feminist movement within the wider contexts of evangelicalism and American religion more generally. Cochran writes that questions "over the nature, meaning, and scope of biblical authority" were at the heart of evangelical feminism, and argues that the movement resulted from and contributed to a weakening of biblical authority, which characterized American evangelicalism during the last quarter of the twentieth century (2).

Cochran explains that two important developments led to the rise of evangelical feminism in the 1970s. First, evangelical scholars like Bernard Ramm, Edward J. Carnell, and Daniel Fuller had been working to reconceptualize the doctrines of inspiration and inerrancy. Their modified definition of inerrancy and use of modern hermeneutical and theological methods, though fervently contested within evangelicalism, resulted in the expansion of evangelical, theological, and hermeneutical boundaries. At the same time, feminism and women's rights were a hot topic. Betty Friedan's Feminist Mystique was published in 1963; NOW was founded in 1966; Ms. magazine began publication in 1972; and the Supreme Court handed down their decision on Roe v. Wade in 1973. Progressive evangelicals like those at ESA meetings, concerned to speak out on contemporary social issues, began to apply the progressive hermeneutical tools of evangelical scholars to the issue of women's roles.

In 1974, Nancy Hardesty and Letha Scanzoni wrote All We're Meant to Be: A Biblical Approach to Women's Liberation. This was the first evangelical book to advocate egalitarian interpretations of the Bible, and was the most influential book in launching the evangelical feminist movement. The authors utilized new hermeneutical methods of evangelical scholars like Paul Jewett to reinterpret passages in order to show that the Bible liberates women from oppression in the home, church, and society. Cochran points out that the book received favorable reviews in evangelical publications, and that no one criticized the authors for moving beyond evangelical boundaries on the issue of biblical authority. This would not have been possible twenty years earlier, before shifts within evangelicalism on the issue of biblical authority (29).

In 1975, the first conference of the Evangelical Women's Caucus (EWC) drew 360 women. In 1978, the EWC held its second conference at Fuller seminary, where faculty members like Jewett, Jack Rogers, and David Hubbard led seminars for the one thousand participants. Cochran explains that through 1978, the goal of most evangelical feminists was to prove that traditional interpretations of passages on women's roles were wrong and that Paul was misunderstood. However, in the late 1970s and 80s, two different methodological approaches began to appear within the movement.

"Conservative" evangelical feminists, like Pat Gundry were committed to a "strict definition of biblical authority that did not allow them to ignore certain of Paul's statements on women" (45). Gundry and others thought that by examining the historical and cultural context of the pertinent passages, the real meaning could be brought out—a meaning that would support evangelical feminism. "Liberal" evangelical feminists such as Virginia Mollenkott claimed to be committed to biblical authority, but argued that some of Paul's pronouncements were simply mistaken.

Conservative and liberal evangelical feminists maintained unity in the EWC through the early 1980s, though tensions were mounting over the issue of homosexuality. In 1978 Letha Scanzoni and Virginia Mollenkott, two evangelical feminists, published Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, which argued that homosexuality is consistent with biblical Christianity. To do so, they reinterpreted passages like Romans 1, but they also leaned heavily on science and the personal experience of lesbians to make their argument. Many evangelical feminists disagreed with their position, arguing that the Bible forbids homosexual behavior. After years of tension, the issue of homosexuality eventually split the movement. At the EWC conference in 1986, progressive members of the EWC passed a resolution affirming homosexual people as children of God and recognizing the presence of lesbian members in the EWC. Conservative leaders promptly withdrew from the EWC, and in August of 1987 formed Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) with Catherine Kroeger as the organization's first president.

The second half of Evangelical Feminism traces the theological and organizational developments in the two branches of the evangelical feminist movement after 1986: the traditionalist CBE and the progressive EWC. Cochran argues that the core difference between the two groups was their view of biblical authority. Progressive evangelical feminists relied on science, reason, and experience as equal and sometimes higher authorities to the Bible and used nonevangelical methods of biblical interpretation such as liberation theology. By contrast, traditional biblical feminists (like those in the CBE) continued to affirm the unique authority and infallible nature of the Bible and used evangelical hermeneutical methods. The doctrinal views of progressives also evolved in nonevangelical ways. For example, they rejected evangelical views of the atonement, sin, the Trinity, and the uniqueness of Christ, while traditionalists retained orthodox views on these doctrines. While progressives began using gender inclusive language related to God, traditionalists supported gender inclusive language related only to humans. Progressive members of the EWC became strong supporters of homosexual rights and abortion rights, broadening their agenda until it was "less bibliocentric . . . and consequently, more accepting of secular feminist social and political agendas" (148). Members of the CBE, on the other hand, opposed abortion and samesex relationships, remaining inside the evangelical boundaries on these controversial social issues. As a result, "the feminists in [the CBE] played a significant role in the continuing boundary debates of the postwar evangelical coalition," while the EWC became more of a "prophetic voice from outside evangelicalism" (150).

Cochran demonstrates growing support for egalitarian views of gender roles in large segments of evangelicalism, and traces what she calls the "backlash" to evangelical feminism, led by evangelical groups like Focus on the Family, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Cochran makes the case that a "shift in emphasis from inerrancy to hermeneutics as the symbolic boundary for determining evangelical identity" (163) helped traditionalist evangelical feminists receive acceptance within an increasingly fragmented evangelicalism. Many evangelicals, tired of inerrancy battles, were willing to accept a group like the CBE with their mostly traditional hermeneutics and moderate social agenda. While evangelicals would continue to debate the issue of biblical authority throughout the 1980s and 90s, the increasing presence of egalitarians in those debates assured that appeals to strict inerrancy, as an evangelical boundary, could not gain traction in evangelicalism as a whole.

This book also argues that evangelical feminism demonstrates the encroachment of America's individualist, therapeutic, and consumerist culture on evangelicalism. The impact of American culture appears in "the way traditionalist evangelical feminism focuses on using the Bible to meet the perceived needs of the individual and in its reliance on individual reason to judge the truth of scripture, without the assistance of an institutional and historical church" (193). This trend shows that "modern ideals of pluralism and individualism have made a greater impact on American religion than previously acknowledged, thereby reducing the scope and force of religious authority in American society." While evangelicalism is growing, "pluralization is now the dominant fact of American religion," and evangelicalism, as demonstrated by the story of evangelical feminism, has contributed to its dominance (194).

Cochran, in writing the first history of evangelical feminism, has produced a clear summary of this movement's primary leaders, institutions, and development. Most importantly, she has written a helpful outline of its theology. Historians often fail to take seriously matters of doctrine when writing about religion, instead opting to interpret religious people and events through sociological, psychological, and cultural grids that are foreign to the subjects of the study. Cochran has rightly judged that theological issues, especially questions of biblical authority, were at the heart of the evangelical feminist movement. As a result, she details the theological arguments of evangelical feminists, tracing their influences and evolution, and giving special attention to questions of biblical interpretation. Cochran explains how evangelical feminists have reinterpreted key passages, such as Genesis 1-3, 1 Timothy 2, Ephesians 5, 1 Corinthians 11, and Galatians 3. The author's detailed attention to exegesis and interpretation makes this a resource for those wanting to understand some of the ways evangelical feminists have argued for their position from the Bible.

While the book's attention to theological matters is its greatest strength, at times, its theological assessments are flawed. For example, when explaining how Wesleyan theology influenced some feminist theologians, Cochran contrasts Wesleyan concern for social change with the Reformed tradition's failure to advocate social change. Her characterization of the Reformed tradition is not consistent with the evidence provided by the Dutch Reformed, the English Puritans, or Calvin's Geneva, among others.

In several places, Cochran fails to explain adequately the complementation position. For example, in a discussion of functional subordination within the Trinity, Cochran summarizes Rebecca Merrill Groothius's egalitarian argument. She then states that in response, "heierarchalists" began to argue that eternal ontological subordination exists within the Trinity (115-16). She offers a brief quote from Wayne Grudem, but the note indicates she is quoting Grudem from Groothius's book, not the original source. In fact, Cochran's bibliography does not include any of Grudem's writings. Cochran's failure to read Grudem's arguments in their context results in her parroting false claims, which were made by evangelical feminists, as the complementarian position. In another place, when discussing the meaning of kephalē in Eph 5:23, Cochran presents the egalitarian argument of Berkeley and Alvera Mickelsen, who claim that the word means "source," or "origin." She fails to present counterarguments, not even acknowledging the many articles that complementarian theologians have written, arguing that kephalē means "authority over."

Cochran's research is almost exclusively in the papers, journals, and books of the evangelical feminist movement. Her failure to interact more broadly with complementarian writings results in an incomplete and, at times, inaccurate account of the evangelical resistance to evangelical feminism after 1987. Though the readers should keep these weaknesses in mind, they do not negate the central contribution of the book. Cochran has provided something that exists nowhere else: a lucid, wellsourced, theologically centered, historical account of the evangelical feminist movement. Evangelical Feminism is a helpful resource for those wanting to understand more fully the theology, personalities, and institutions of evangelical feminism.