dealersocket

Overall a good book, but I really wish I'd read it about 15 years ago when I was young Bible school student trying to figure out what I believed about how to read the Bible and what I believed about the role of women in the church. This book is really written for those who either don't admit that they "pick and choose" which parts of the Bible to follow (and I doubt the book will convince many staunch traditionalists to change their views), or those who are questioning how to read the Bible (for whom this book is an excellent choice). There really are two books here - one on how to read the Bible, and one on the role of women in the church. The last third of the book is dedicated to the question of the role of women in the church, and is presented as a way of demonstrating the Bible-reading principles presented in the first part of the book. It does a suitable job of demonstrating those principles, and McKnight makes a very convincing case for his reading of Paul's (seeming) admonishments against women speaking and teaching in church, but ultimately it comes off as an overly long case study that feels out of place in a book that, on it's cover, doesn't profess to be about the issue of women in ministry. So I would recommend the book to those who really need some clarity on how do we honestly and intelligently approach a book that we believe is the word of God, but was written by people thousands of years ago in different cultures. I would also recommend it to anyone particularly grappling with issues of the place of women in ministry. I wouldn't recommend it to those who are already comfortable with approaching the Bible as a Story that bears adapting from culture to culture and age to age, and those who are already comfortable with women in leadership in ministry.

2022-11-14 13:44