Book Review: Tears on the Altar by Maturu Milly Erema

In Tears on the Altar: The Controversy Over the Clergywoman’s Ministry in Biblical Perspective, author Maturu Milly Erema gives an astoundingly concise overview of biblical texts that support women in ministry leadership, as well as passages that are used to prohibit women’s giftings. The work is an understandable and biblical view of women in ministry leadership and, as a shorter read, is more accessible to a general audience.

At its heart, the book is written with the Ugandan church in mind which, according to the author, has been both the seed of women’s ordination and the agony of its female leaders. The author frequently states that the church in her country of origin ordains women but also propagates teachings against the spiritual leadership of women in the church. She also expresses her gratefulness for the Ugandan church’s biblical stance in its ordination of women. In her mind, however, these women have “courageously endured resentment from the very church that recruited them for ordination” (Acknowledgements). Erema hopes her work will encourage her own church to change its rhetoric.

Rather than beginning with woman or man as sinful or sinless, Erema begins with their humanity. Women and men are to represent the imago Dei. Through this approach, the author flips the script from the leadership of women being either a primary or secondary issue. Instead, leadership is an imperative element of humanity, as originally designed, meant to lovingly reign over creation in relationship with and under God. In other words, Erema asserts that the superiority of any human over another dehumanizes the imago Dei, or “denies our humanity” (20–21). She refreshingly writes that humans’ reign over the earth is an act of worship and subverting this for women (or men) stifles right relations with God (22).

Erema then considers Eve, Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Junia, Prisca, and others as leaders commended by Scripture. In particular, she writes that Scripture often commands mothers as well as fathers to lead their children in the faith. Erema also makes an excellent case that the prophetess Huldah was the first individual trusted to affirm or authorize God’s word in 2 Kings 22:14–20 and 2 Chron. 34:22–28 (37–43). In this way, Erema notes that Huldah lead both the spiritual leaders (as represented by the high priest Hilkiah) and the secular leaders (as represented by King Josiah) of her time.

The author then addresses women in spiritual leadership in the early church, including discussions of 1 Corinthians 12–14 and 1 Timothy 2:11–15. Here, Erema challenges historic interpretations of authenteo by noting how new technology has helped theologians uncover clearer understandings of the word, which may not have been available to earlier interpreters. For instance, she wrote that the ability to compare large amounts of text through various software helps to establish the rarity of the word authenteo (67). She also writes that there may have been some female priests who were not mentioned in Scripture and that some secular writers of the time mentioned or commended the female leaders of the church. The author skillfully uses these arguments to make a strong case for the existence of women in spiritual leadership within Scripture.

Erema also attempts to refute the argument that because there are more men in leadership in the Bible, males are more trustworthy for leadership, or that smaller numbers of female leaders in the Bible discredit women’s leadership. Her argument—that the range of positions is more of a basis for leadership than the number of women among the leaders—is somewhat weak. She could have expressed how God often uses small numbers for his glory, so having smaller numbers in God’s economy may be a mark of approval rather than the opposite. Erema hints at this several times but never draws a clear conclusion.

In general, while the author claims an egalitarian perspective, she does not always indicate egalitarianism in her writing. For instance, she states several times that sometimes women are called due to the absence or inability of men (25, 36–78). However, she also writes that women are called due to their giftings. It was unclear if she believes the order of creation in Genesis 2 to have created male headship in families (26, 28). Furthermore, she noted that there is “no difference between man and woman” (43), without qualifying that statement with an acknowledgement of sexual differences. Finally, some of the text is slightly disjointed or repetitive, and some of her arguments have often been used in other works. Erema also uses terms such as “man” or “mankind” for “human” or “humankind” rather than more egalitarian terms.

In the end, however, Erema’s assertion that “it is time [for the church] to assume responsibility (or liability) for excluding women from ordained ministry” (68–9) rings throughout the text as a refreshing call to move forward with the priesthood of every believer.