ESSAYS ON WOMEN IN EARLIEST CHRISTIANITY (A Review)

This book, authored by C. Leonard Allen and Danny G.

This is a massive two volume study edited by Dr. Carroll Osburn of ACU and published by College Press of the Independent Christian Churches. This review covers only Vol. I.

This book was designed with an agenda in mind. The editor is a proponent of the change movement.  His later book Women in the Church makes it clear that he embraces the views of Feminism and would like to see women filling roles of public leadership in the church.  The authors assembled for this project, with the exception of Everett Ferguson and possibly  John T. Willis seem to question the traditional understanding of public leadership of the church being restricted to Christian men.  While they labor to impress their readers that they are really neutral scholars in search of new light, each in his or her own way seeks to clear the road of obstacles so that women may assume roles hitherto closed to them.  To most of these scholars any scripture that might appear to limit women from filling public leadership roles is overcome by applying newly found methods of interpretation (The New Hermeneutic) or by declaring it a cultural matter.  To them contemporary Postmodern culture trumps the Biblical norms.

It is also noteworthy that those participants with connections to churches of Christ have a common bond.  They either received their education from or are presently teaching for Abilene Christian University, Harding Graduate School of Religion, David Lipscomb University, Pepperdine University and Harding University. All of these schools save Harding University have been in the forefront of the change movement that is plaguing the church.

The book does contain some interesting information on the role of women in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds by G. Sterling and Jewish women in the Greco-Roman era (by R. Chesnutt), but those looking for helpful exegesis of texts relating to women will be disappointed.  In their attempt to be scholarly they have produced a book that few will read and fewer will find understandable and profitable.