Theological Theology: The Preaching Question

There has, it seems, been quite a flurry of publishing activity on the question of preaching lately, especially by those seeking to make a case for the propriety of women preaching to mixed congregations. I have not read all of it, but I have certainly worked carefully through some of it and I have to say that it is quite unconvincing, despite the hype the authors and their friends have tried to generate surrounding the release of this material.

In what I've read, the exegetical work done on 1 Timothy 2 and other key passages, does not, in the end, allow the text to stand on its own terms, sometimes imposing a historical reconstruction of one kind or another (including a seriously reductionist account of what is meant by 'teaching'). The employment of larger theological categories sometimes fails to take into account very significant discussions about these terms and concepts in almost two thousand years of Christian theology. At the point of application further difficulties emerge, most commonly with attempts to distance today's practice from that of the churches of the New Testament (very obviously some things have changed but that does not mean that in principle the activities are necessarily different, that must be established not just asserted).

It is important that we keep testing our conclusions both on theology and practice by the teaching of the Bible. I am always willing to read more or read again, aware that I can too easily allow my own conclusions to ride roughshod over the text of Scripture. I need the challenge of those who think differently to expose my blind spots as I read the Bible. My culture, whether in the larger sense of Western culture or the more narrow sense of my own ecclesiastical or theological culture, always has the potential at least of being a distorting lens. The proper posture before Scripture is that of one willing to be taught, reproved, corrected and trained in righteousness. So, in one sense, I'm glad of the challenge these recently published pieces present to me. Read more