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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is very helpful and comprehensive study of the historical, present and possibly future status of men and women in the church.
The author has a unique style which I found appealing and yet frustrating at the same time. Appealing, because as an egalitarian she is totally friendly, warm and most definitely NOT antagonistic towards the "other side" (complementarians). She is also humble, personable and easy to read.
(If you are already confused, egalitarianism is the view that God calls believers to roles and ministries in the church without regard to gender, and that male headship is not biblically-ordained either in the home or in the Church. Complementarians believe the opposite).
On the other hand Sumner is frustrating because she does hop about a lot! She realizes this and makes no excuses. But if you are expecting linearly developed arguments from A to B to C, you may be in for a surprise from time to time, as you go from A to S to Z and then to B before shooting off to X and Y before landing on C.
However, persevere and you will come across some extremely well-thought and at times creatively original ideas about the place of men and women in the church. And not only in the church - in marriage too. The Christian husband may be interested when Sumner writes that "nowhere in scripture is a husband told to lead his wife", or that "the words lead, leader, servant leader and spiritual leader cannot be found in any Bible passage on marriage."
Sumner concludes that "men and women should be leading the Christian community ... not to turn the church upside-down, but to turn the church right side up." She makes a convincing argument that deserves to be taken extremely seriously.
The author has a unique style which I found appealing and yet frustrating at the same time. Appealing, because as an egalitarian she is totally friendly, warm and most definitely NOT antagonistic towards the "other side" (complementarians). She is also humble, personable and easy to read.
(If you are already confused, egalitarianism is the view that God calls believers to roles and ministries in the church without regard to gender, and that male headship is not biblically-ordained either in the home or in the Church. Complementarians believe the opposite).
On the other hand Sumner is frustrating because she does hop about a lot! She realizes this and makes no excuses. But if you are expecting linearly developed arguments from A to B to C, you may be in for a surprise from time to time, as you go from A to S to Z and then to B before shooting off to X and Y before landing on C.
However, persevere and you will come across some extremely well-thought and at times creatively original ideas about the place of men and women in the church. And not only in the church - in marriage too. The Christian husband may be interested when Sumner writes that "nowhere in scripture is a husband told to lead his wife", or that "the words lead, leader, servant leader and spiritual leader cannot be found in any Bible passage on marriage."
Sumner concludes that "men and women should be leading the Christian community ... not to turn the church upside-down, but to turn the church right side up." She makes a convincing argument that deserves to be taken extremely seriously.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
35 reviews
30 of 33 people found the following review helpful
a challenging book, no matter what your position
17 Sep 2004
Format:Paperback
I loved this frustrating book, mainly because it challenged me. Our community worked through the issue of women in leadership and found this book an extreme help- I've bought it for my elders/pastors and recommended it to many people.
Sumner, with a high view of scripture, takes both the egalitarians (women can fill any role in the church/no difference whatsoever between the sexes) and the complementarians (women can fill any role in the church but pastor or elder/creation order determines roles) to task. Both sides have much to learn from this book.
Contrary to some reviews, it's not fuzzy. It's simply non-linear. I seriously doubt Sumner would consider herself a "postmodern," but in many ways she writes like one, introducing a subject, moving on to another relevent issue, circling back to the first subject... the book reads like a series of circles, but ultimately gets us where we need to be- a discussion of the biblical texts dealing with women in ministry. It was amazing to realize that something I was reading had been "set up" by something else 2 chapters earlier. I can see how if you want a straight-forward, scholarly approach this would be maddening, but it was one of the things that helped make this book so appealing to me.
This book was instrumental in helping me reassess my position on this issue. If you want a biblical framework for thinking through the issues of headship, women in leadership and interpretation of tough passages like 1 Timothy 2, this is an excellent book.
Sumner, with a high view of scripture, takes both the egalitarians (women can fill any role in the church/no difference whatsoever between the sexes) and the complementarians (women can fill any role in the church but pastor or elder/creation order determines roles) to task. Both sides have much to learn from this book.
Contrary to some reviews, it's not fuzzy. It's simply non-linear. I seriously doubt Sumner would consider herself a "postmodern," but in many ways she writes like one, introducing a subject, moving on to another relevent issue, circling back to the first subject... the book reads like a series of circles, but ultimately gets us where we need to be- a discussion of the biblical texts dealing with women in ministry. It was amazing to realize that something I was reading had been "set up" by something else 2 chapters earlier. I can see how if you want a straight-forward, scholarly approach this would be maddening, but it was one of the things that helped make this book so appealing to me.
This book was instrumental in helping me reassess my position on this issue. If you want a biblical framework for thinking through the issues of headship, women in leadership and interpretation of tough passages like 1 Timothy 2, this is an excellent book.
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Sensitive to biblical metaphors
10 Oct 2004
Format:Paperback
I require all my students taking "The Role of Women in Ministry" at Dallas Theological Seminary to read eight books on the subject from a variety of viewpoints. Whether or not they agree with all Sumner says, most have ranked this book as their favorite on the list. Its greatest strength, in their collective opinion, is Sumner's treatment of the husband as head of the wife (not of the family or the home) in Ephesians 5. This flows from her respect for the apostle Paul's head/body metaphor, which emphasizes oneness rather than an org-chart metaphor, which emphasizes hierarchy. Head/body; sacrificial love/submission. Sumner soundly argues that the wife is not told to submit to her husband's headship any more than the husband is told to sacrificially love his wife's bodyship.
S.L. Glahn, co-author, The Infertility Companion
S.L. Glahn, co-author, The Infertility Companion
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
A Happy End to the Spin
23 Dec 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Normally, when a book has 26 reviews, I am content to let writing a review pass. However, this one is special. I was dragged into the gender debates a few months ago kicking and screaming. I am a seminary graduate, though I don't pastor. The church leaders sought my opinion because of my training and experience. Hence, I got introduced to the fight. The theological vertigo that I experienced was only surpassed by the vertigo I got when I decided to find the definitive answer to the theories of the second coming, while in seminary.
This book is different. She interacts with both sides. Unlike the shallow belaborings and "interpretations" of the chief spokespeople for both sides, she has obviously read some theology. Although she doesn't flaunt it, she has apparently read the Church Fathers more than she indicates. She is comfortable to go in new directions and respectfully bow and put her hand over her mouth in the presence of mystery. This is something that both sides fail to do. What really impressed me was her handling of the headship subject. This has been a big and heated debate that has drug the Trinity into the fray and sought to confirm various models of hierarchy and equality. She acknowledges the mystery while giving, in my opinion, a very excellent alternative.
Her thinking is called fuzzy in earlier reviews, but I find that difficult to understand. When you are dealing with the immanent Trinity as revealed in the Incarnation, what you can't say is much more extensive than what you know. She says what is appropriate (metaphor, she calls it) and recognizes the limits of knowledge and expression.
This is the one book we need. I wish I had found out about it 4 or 5 books ago. I have left it with an appreciation of what God has done in Creation and Redemption and what my responsibilities are towards my wife as head. Thanks muchly.
This book is different. She interacts with both sides. Unlike the shallow belaborings and "interpretations" of the chief spokespeople for both sides, she has obviously read some theology. Although she doesn't flaunt it, she has apparently read the Church Fathers more than she indicates. She is comfortable to go in new directions and respectfully bow and put her hand over her mouth in the presence of mystery. This is something that both sides fail to do. What really impressed me was her handling of the headship subject. This has been a big and heated debate that has drug the Trinity into the fray and sought to confirm various models of hierarchy and equality. She acknowledges the mystery while giving, in my opinion, a very excellent alternative.
Her thinking is called fuzzy in earlier reviews, but I find that difficult to understand. When you are dealing with the immanent Trinity as revealed in the Incarnation, what you can't say is much more extensive than what you know. She says what is appropriate (metaphor, she calls it) and recognizes the limits of knowledge and expression.
This is the one book we need. I wish I had found out about it 4 or 5 books ago. I have left it with an appreciation of what God has done in Creation and Redemption and what my responsibilities are towards my wife as head. Thanks muchly.
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