It’s all over bar the shouting… so why are we still discussing it?

It seems from various discussions I’ve had recently, the debate about women in ministry is still raging.

I thought I’d do a bit of a survey on this issue of serious theologians (the ones that write books other working theologians footnote, not the ones who write popular books for Word). If that sounds snobby, so be it.

Theological luminaries such as Jurgen Moltmann,  NT Wright,  and important writers like Scot McKnight, Craig Keener, Thomas C Oden, Walter Liefeld, Gordon Fee, FF Bruce  Stanley J Grenz, Ben Witherington, William J Webb… indeed virtually all important living theologians…. are egalitarian. It seems to me the one working theologian of any note is Wayne Grudem: other voices for the Complementarian cause are mostly local church pastors who are also populist writers.

I was told recently the World Council of Churches commissioned their best theological minds onto the subject of women in ministry, and came to the conclusion that the grounds for excluding women from ministry was not biblical, but because it was the tradition of particular denominations (an argument expected to carry more weight in the Catholic and Orthodox tradtions than in Evangelical traditions such as my own).

Curiously, at the level of the local church you would think that this was an issue where the evidence was on some kind of theological knife-edge... or in some cases, that the overwhelming biblical evidence was Complementarian!

As someone who is pretty passionate about women being free to use any of their gifts and talents in the service of others, this disconnect between the world of theology and some local churches is exasperating to say the least. When are we going to get over this? If ever?

Sigh…

Comments

AbiSomeone said…
Janet, have you been following Ed C's "Women In Ministry series on Fridays? Good stuff. My contribution is supposed to come up in two more weeks, I think.

Some of these people/churches/cultures are just invested too deep into this idea to be able to step back and look with more objective eyes. I don't know how else to wrap my brain around it.

...kinda like some folks and political or social topics. I have to be careful not to get sucked in and trust that Father knows how to deal with the while thing....

by the way, I am having fun Tweeting about cHesed and perichoresis. one of these days I will do an summary at my blog.

Be blessed, sister!
Janet Woodlock said…
I confess I haven't been following much on the internet at all. And I'm not sure who Ed C is! Sounds like I'd better look it up!
AbiSomeone said…
Janet,

http://inamirrordimly.com/category/women-in-ministry/

This link should get you there ... lots of catching up to do, but the posts are not too long. Mine is scheduled for the 27th of July, I believe.

You will be interested...

:-)

Peggy
David said…
There's nothing wrong with a hot chic running a church. Like to see more of that.
David said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Janet Woodlock said…
Thanks for your edifying insights as every David. Hope you're going OK.
Anonymous said…
What is theology but merely describing God from a distance?
Janet Woodlock said…
Theology is always personal... even the bible is the record of people's personal experience with, questions about, wrestling with God.

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