The Making of Biblical Womanhood Review

A few years ago I was apart of a 1689 Reformed Baptist Church. This church was steeped into the theological and ecclesiastical views of the Reformed Baptist tradition. But as the years went by I was starting to question tenants of the faith that I thought were the foundation for my faith.

The doctrines that I thought I should build my life and family on were starting to look suspicious to me and I started pulling the string unraveling the yarn tower I had built.

What became interesting to me during this time as I unraveled the yarn tower so to speak was how even seemingly “secondary” issues were viewed as and treated like foundational issues for the faith. So like when you pull on yarn stacked together, the figure you had constructed with it, also falls apart. The whole structure crumbles. Why? Because it was all connected even if it should not have been.

For me one of the views I had in secret been questioning for a while was the role of women in the local church.

These questions started to come up around the time I read “What Is A Girl Worth” by Rachel Denhollander. It started to come up when I realized how godly of a woman my mother is. It started to grow as I looked at specifically two women in that Reformed Baptist church who I believed to be more faithful to God and others than a lot the male Christian leaders I had come to know. Noticing these women felt like a whole new world had been opened up. A world full of voices, thoughts and contributions to society that I had never considered before.

I still identify as a complementarian as of this moment. Even after reading ‘The Making of Biblical Womanhood’ by Beth Allison Barr; I am not convinced that in marriage that I should not apply what Ephesians 5 sets up with the household codes. But I have been deeply challenged.

In Beth’s interview with Preston Sprikle on the Theology in the Raw Podcast, Beth said her goal with this book was to disrupt, and if that was her goal like she said it was, then I would say she succeeded. I now have many unanswered questions thanks to Beth and the work that she has done.

One of my huge hangups with many Egalitarians was always the arrogance they had when dealing with this issue of the role of women in the local church.

For instance, one of my favorite preachers to listen to is Rich Wilkerson Jr. and I remember one sermon he preached in particular maybe last year where he made this sly comment about how it is ridiculous that we are still arguing about whether women can preach today or not. Obviously he continued, they can because thats what we see with the women after they see the empty tomb. Now, my problem with his comments was the fact that it was lacking humility or understanding that some people are raised in environments where it is taught that the Bible is very clear in its command for women to be silent and not to hold authority. But to give him credit and the rest of egalitarians; if you really believe that beliefs like complimentarianism oppress women. Then to me it makes sense why you would be so harsh. My pushback would be though that the reality is reading the Bible, an ancient Jewish book with a lot of history and context that needs to be dealt with can be challenging if the way you were taught to read your Bible is in a particular way. As a Southern Baptist kid it was “just read you Bible and interpret Scripture with Scripture.” As a I got older and moved into more reformed circles it was “read your Bible, interpret Scripture with Scripture, and have a good systematic theology textbook beside you, also your ESV study Bible and maybe the MacArthur Bible Handbook.” None of which is terrible, it just will definitely lead you into a certain direction of understanding. But, these are people and books you are taught to trust because they are smarter than the average Christian and they sound like they know what they are talking about.

What I appreciated about Beth’s conversation with Preston was her grace in the conversation. Preston seemed to have many of the same questions I did specifically when it came to the stretch that seemed to be made when it came to calling what the women did by telling the Disciples that Jesus has rose from the dead: “preaching.”

Beth makes the point in her conversation to explain that one; the early church viewed what Mary did as preaching because she was a public witness, proclaiming the good news. And two; often what we think of as preaching today is not what the early church thought of as preaching. Our idea of church and the idolatry of the pulpit is very different than what the early church focused on with their gatherings. Understanding this distinction and clarification makes me way more comfortable saying that Mary Magdalene is the first preacher in Christian history. One of my other struggles I actually had with Beth’s book itself is that of what seemed to be the devaluing of being a wife and mother. In her book Beth has a line that goes:

“I wonder what the speaker would think of women like Saint Paula, who abandoned her children for the higher purpose of following God’s call on her life.”

Beth in this moment of her book came off as saying that Saint Paula should be honored for abandoning her children for ministry, and my immediate reaction to this was disgust. I’ll be so honest to say I even took a picture and sent it to a friend saying how bonkers this line was. The reality is, I am disgusted with men who think like this. This idea makes me think of the story of Billy Graham being on the road so much that after a revival one night, a woman brought a baby up to him and he asked “who’s is this?” And the women responded “it’s yours.” Billy had been so consumed by ministry he could not even recognize his own child. But here’s another moment Preston Sprinkle helped bring clairity on. Beth said her goal was not to say that we should honor Saint Paula for these actions but that we should just take note that the early church thought differently than we do today. There is an evolution of thought. Which I happily agree with because even in my own personal study of the Desert fathers and mothers, it is very clear that they viewed discipleship to Jesus radically different than how we do today. That is not a critique on either or but rather an acceptance that the church thinks through subjects differently than they have previously.

Which brings me to one of the parts in her book that I found very interesting which was her chapter on the reformation. Beth in this chapter talks about the shift that took place with the role of women in the reformation. Before the Reformation women’s most honored roles would have been to be a virgin, and then a widow and then a married woman. But after the reformation this was flipped on it’s head. After the reformation the honor for women would be first as a wife/mother, and then a widow, and then a virgin. For me this just showed me the reality that the church has not always thought consistently about women throughout history.

Also what was interesting to me was that before the reformation women had a clear place they could serve in the church. They could fulfill their calling in the church as a nun, but after the reformation there was not a place for them to fulfill their calling except as maybe a receptionist. The role of women in the church is basically non existent in complementarian churches.

There were more points in her book that stood out to me, and I will be honest that I did not enjoy reading this book. It pissed me off, it felt like a waste of time at moments. Sometimes I felt misrepresented, I felt like my complementarian mother would have been misrepresented, but as I have reflected back and gave Beth the benefit of the doubt by listening to her excellent interview with Preston Sprinkle, I must say: “I am glad I read and bought this book.”

Beth has experienced the pain of being overlooked and under appreciated in the church. She has dealt with what we call “church hurt.” But Beth is incredibly brilliant, and I do think she is on to something. Her book has made me really ask the questions:

1. Where do women fit into everyday church life?
2. Why do we not give the women of the Bible more attention?
3. Why are we scared to call female servants deacons in our translations of the Bible(reference to her challenges to the ESV translation)?
4. Why are we harder on women temperament when talking about these issues than we are on men?
5. What is the history of female preaching?
6. Why do women have less of a voice in our churches than they did in the Bible?

These are just some of the questions that I am wrestling through now.

Beth has not fully convinced me, but after hearing her explained, I must say Beth makes sense. I am thankful for her and her work now in my life.