Theological Theology: Rescuing the Baby from the Bilgewater

Guest blogger Peter Bolt, the Head of New Testament at Moore College, presents the second of his postings responding to recent publications on women preaching to mixed congregations of men and women.

As a second partial and preliminary response to the Christmas day released e-books from Kathy Keller, Mike Bird, and John Dickson, it is clear that the New Testament sense of gospel freedom for women comes through in each of these works. Although they are certainly not the first to draw attention to this evidence, they each catch up the wider NT portrait of‘women’s liberation’, as they focus on their task of understanding Paul’s prohibition of women teaching men in our present day context.

When you think about it, with our gospel-centered glasses on, God’s grace even raises a question about how we should even refer to this ‘thing’ staring us down over there in 1 Tim 2:11–12. Grammatically, it is indisputable that it is a ‘prohibition’, because Paul clearly says he does not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. But—theologically— how should we refer to this? It is easy in grasping after synonyms to find some with fairly negative overtones: ‘restriction’, ‘ban’, ‘limitation’, ‘exclusion’, ‘curtailment’,‘inhibition’, ‘stricture’, ‘subordination’, ‘injustice’, and so on. In contemporary Western culture, which lauds the (absolute?) freedom of the individual to do exactly as they please, these damning overtones are felt severely. Perhaps even more so when the ‘ban’ is hurled against the freedom of women.

But it is not just the culture ‘out there’ that rouses this sense of disquiet. What of the liberation of women brought about by God himself through the work of Christ? ‘There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither is there male-and-female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Gal 3:28–29). For sure, this relates to the new identity that is found in Christ, who freely gives salvation to any kind of person who believes, but doesn’t this also have implications for other aspects of life —and ministry?

How do you talk about a ‘prohibition’ in God’s good economy in which he always commands what is good for us? Grammatically, a prohibition is simply saying ‘don’t do it!’, but what is the force of this‘No!’ when it comes from our loving Creator who has graciously redeemed us in Christ in order for the universe to ring out with his ‘Yes!’? Read more