Review of Evangelical Feminism: A History by Pamela D. H. Cochran
Oren Martin and Barak Tjader
This book review appears in the Annotated Bibliography for Gender-Related Books in 2005, JBMW Volume 11 No. 2.
Category: Non-Evangelical - important secular works and books that addrss the subject of biblical gender issues from a religious, albeit, non-evangelical point of view. This category also serves as our classification for liberal scholars wanting to retain some sort of Christian identity.
According to the author, this book follows "the story of the emergence and theological development of biblical feminism, why the members of the movement split, the results, and what all this reveals about conservative Protestantism and religion generally in contemporary America." Cochran rightly centers the debate on the nature, meaning, and scope of biblical authority and how presuppositons and methods affect the way the Bible is interpreted. She focuses on the two leading evangelical feminist organizations-the Evangelical Women's Caucus and Christians for Biblical Equality-and chronicles not only their beginnings, growth, and struggles, but also their theological development and progression.
