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Review Summary: A Good Example of A Bad Hermeneutic |
Date: 2007-02-21 |
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Details: It's always disconcerting when an author introduces a book with the assumption that unless one comes to the same view as the author, that person starts their examination of a topic prejudiced. We find this on page 12, in the third paragraph. To make that assumption of the reader is to commit the very error the author desires others to avoid. That's not a good starting point.
Rebecca Groothuis attempts, in 242 pages, to reason from Galatians 3:28, where the Apostle Paul asserts that all are one in Christ through faith, to a doctrine that allows in the formal roles of the church, equality between men and women. Much of her logic is solid (there is one rather large exception, see below), as far as it goes, but this works suffers from a common hermeneutical error: using implications from Scripture to interpret explicit didactic statements. This might also be excusable if Groothuis would confess a view of error in Scripture, but she does not (and to her credit). In fact, in numerous instances she appeals to the authority of Scripture. That being the case, one can only judge this work in that light.
Groothuis makes the inference that since men and women are one in Christ (Galatians 3:28), that they are equal in every role in the church and in the family. That implication might be fine, as far as it goes. But when Paul, using his Apostolic authority to speak for Christ, declares explicitly that women may not have authority over men in the church (1 Timothy 2:5-11) or explicitly states that women must submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22), then one has no right to "over-rule" those statements with a mere inference. Many people today will object of course, because to apply hermeneutics consistently to Scripture leads us to understand the text in a way that would compel us to change our own behaviors and desires. Heaven forbid!
By way of logical errors, I find a rather large one. Groothuis, in the later part of Chapter 1 (page 33) shows that the qualifications for the priesthood in the Old Covenant have been set aside in the New Covenant. However, in Chapter 8, (pp. 190 and following) Groothuis now proposes that the Old Testament example of Deborah provides justification for allowing women in formal ministry roles in contradiction to Paul. One could readily see how her own arguments from Chapter 1 can be turned against this argument.
There are many smaller examples of hermeneutical error, this review can not include them all. All in all, there is some material in the book that is quite useful, although it might be found in a work less presuppositionally biased, that uses better hermeneutical techniques and avoids such obviously flawed exegesis as Chapter 9. These good points include numerous examples from Scripture of women informally participating in teaching, evangelism and worship.
The binding of my copy from Baker is that horrid "linoleum" material. It seems to resist wear better than other materials, but easily takes on bends and crumples. The interior text is bright and easily readable, and the work has very thorough subject and Scripture indices.
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Review Summary: Good news, great scholarship, godly conclusions |
Date: 2005-11-16 |
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Details: For this PCA Presbyterian woman, happily married in an egalitarian marriage for 18 years, blessed with four children, this book was indeed good news. Not only is the scholarship excellent, but it has helped give me the tools to intelligently discuss this issue with my children, in helping them to understand who they are in God's image. Furthermore, in my region of the US, Groothius's work is pivotal in equipping godly PCA women who desire God's best for the denomination - full inclusion of women in leadership. This text, filled with outstanding biblical scholarship, has helped to open up discussion of full inclusion of women's ordination at high levels within the PCA church. |
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Review Summary: War of the gods |
Date: 2005-10-02 |
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Details: One must wonder since the author is so offended by the notion of a Father God with a male gender if she even knows the Christian God at all. She seems to have more comaraderie with the Wiccans and the liberal feminists than the Christians. Sure, when Jesus is referred to as a "door" that is a metaphor; God as a "hen" with feathers is a metaphor. But the author crosses the line when she claims that the gender of the holiness of the Father/God of the Jews and Gentiles is a metaphor. I have no use for this book. Satan can take on both masculine and feminine--as the "unknown god". My God is known and came in the form of a Man in Jesus Christ, and HE is not a metaphor. "God is a Spirit, and those who worship HIM must worship HIM in Spirit and in TRUTH." |
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Review Summary: A Reader in NY |
Date: 2005-10-02 |
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Details: This was not good news to me and does not represent who I am as a PCA Presbyterian woman, happily married and the mother of two sons. I resent how the author demeans women in her writing as if they are less intellegent than she is for choosing to submit to their husbands and staying home with their kids. There can only be one leader of a corporation, and one leader of a home; in a dance, one leads and one follows--two cannot lead in a dance, or there is no dance. The author has never studied Greek or Hebrew as far as the credentials state, and she is in no place to profess to be qualified in the exegesis of Scripture to prove her feminist agenda. I would not recommend this book to anyone. It is a waste of time. |
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Review Summary: A Disgrace to Womanhood |
Date: 2005-10-01 |
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Details: As a mother, a teacher of thirty-five years, and a woman who has walked with the Lord since the age of six, I am appalled that the writing of a woman who claims to be a follower of Christ would make womanhood look so disgraceful. (By the way, I have a Master's Degree from the University of TN). |
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out of 17 Reviews
