Book Review: The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Alison Barr
Book Review: The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Alison Barr
21 January 2023
Are the origins of Biblical Womanhood as we know them in 2023 actually Biblical? Historian Beth Allison Barr gives us a comprehensive look at the history, reasoning and fruit of Complementarianism.
Biblical womanhood isn’t biblical. In fact, according to historian Beth Allison Barr, the current Evangelical complementarian attitudes towards biblical womanhood stem from patriarchy, the Reformation and attempts to prioritise the nuclear family system.
In her thorough and exceptional book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, Barr provides more than just a point of view about women in ministry. She uses her story as a former complementarian Southern Baptist and mixes it with her years of academic research, lecturing and understanding to comprehensively argue why the Church needs to work against the traditional view of biblical womanhood. Most poignantly, because its fruit is abuse. And as a female, I couldn’t be more thankful for such a rich and theologically sound resource.
Barr is thorough in her research. Her personal experience, every argument, reason and fact is grappled with. And her entry into the interpretation of Scripture (particularly Paul’s apparent problematic statements about female submission) is precise and unbiased. And while she does look at the cultural factors that went into Paul’s letters, she also details how the translation of the Bible through history has impacted the way we read it, changing his intentions.
Beyond this, we are given a vast look at the role of women in the Church. We observe their key roles in Scripture and learn about the medieval stories of women who were preachers, truth-tellers and dragon slayers (just wait until you learn about Elizabeth of Constantinople). According to Barr’s research, biblical womanhood wasn’t always about getting married, staying at home, never saying no to your husband, producing children and doing housework.
Instead, this was enforced following the Reformation for various reasons and has been further established by the Evangelical Church. We see it most recently in the hazardous breakdown of personal identity and relationships due to the purity culture in the 1990s and the continued notoriety of domestic abuse in marriages, romantic relationships, church leadership positions (or lack of) and a spate of sexual abuse cover-ups in churches and ministries across the globe.
As a denomination where males and females are viewed as equal partners in marriage and ministry, Barr’s interpretation of the historical origins of biblical womanhood won’t be as paradigm-shattering for many Salvationists. Whilst we cannot neglect to mention the patriarchy that still exists culturally within The Salvation Army today, over the years, we have worked towards egalitarianism, identifying Catherine Booth as a founder alongside William, commissioning females (and single females at that!), and eventually addressing female officers by their first name, rather than just so-and-so’s wife.
These choices still make us a unique entity in the global Church but give us a seat at the table in a culture that is steadily working against patriarchy and the oppression of genders. And while we don’t possess egalitarian views for the sake of cultural conformity (they are biblical), this privilege cannot be minimised.
In a world where patriarchy, sexism and oppression exist, it is our individual and corporate responsibility to address our biases, call out unbiblical behaviour and advocate for those who cannot yet do so for themselves.
The Making of Biblical Womanhood is a necessary and compelling read that has the potential to re-educate us so we become more like Christ.
Available now at Christian bookstores, on Audible and online.
Comments
Money is the god of the human world. Man made money is the god of this world. God does not make money. The greatest sin of modern man is the worship of money. Money is ungodly. Money is a man made tool of enslavement. Even though the Bible preaches against money..Timothy 6 and Matthew 6...Luke 16... Christians are forced to handle pagan money in order to buy survival. Look at your dollar...paganism all over it. God made everything to sustain man and women but God did not make money. Money is the great divider..the great unequalizer. All men are created equal and endowed by their creator..except for money. If God has created us all equal in His sight then why do we not all have equal amounts of money?? The people who control the money supply control the people and the activities of the people. Man has put a number and a price on every true blessing from God Almighty. God made the fish in the sea. God made the fruit on the trees. God made the earth and the trees. God made the cattle and the sheep. God did not make money. Your thoughts?