At a time when egalitarian theology was viewed with suspicion at best or, worse, a distortion of biblical truth, imagine the exhilarating freedom of finding an author who centered biblical and historical facts on women. The author I refer to is none other than the egalitarian pioneer, Patricia “Pat” Smith Gundry. Representative of the “come, let us reason together” (Isa. 1:18) approach, her titles include Heirs Together: Mutual Submission in Marriage; Neither Slave nor Free: Helping Women Answer the Call to Church Leadership; The Complete Woman: Living Beyond Total Womanhood at Home, On the Job, and All by Yourself; and Woman be Free: A Call for Responsible Evaluation of the Place of Women in the Church. With unshrinking courage and unassailable logic, it was thrilling to observe the impact of her sincere curiosity and thoughtful inquiry on a crucial topic: Are women fully human? Are women fully redeemed in Christ? Are women fully remade in Christ’s image and gifted by the Spirit? If they are, then are they not all fully heirs in Christ without distinction beside men? If this is true, why do we limit, squander and demean God’s purposes for the female half of humanity?
These questions deserve integrity and not spin; they deserve excellence in research, not thin, outworn assumptions; they deserve all God has promised and revealed in Scripture and supremely in the life, death and resurrection truth of Christ. Pat’s books provided this treatment and more. Not only were they biblically and historically factual, but they were accessible to all educational levels. They embraced common-sense logic and were fearless in spirit, confident that truth would set us free. Digging under every rock, Pat polished the sterling facts of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, that had been tarnished and obscured by longstanding, pervasive assumptions of male authority, institutionalized as orthodoxy. Assiduously, persistently, and aligned with critical thinking, Pat assumed that all truth is God’s truth, giving readers permission to ask heartfelt, sincere questions, regardless of where they might lead. Herein lay her superpower! She merely asked, “Who’s afraid of truth?” Over half the world’s women stood in her shadow wondering the same—including me. She was the Charlotte Brontë of her day, proposing that “to pluck the mask from the Pharisee is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns.”[1]
On a more personal note, after I became President of CBE, Pat and I spoke often. Her range of skills included strategies for difficult conversations, and she was instrumental in advising CBE on new ways to navigate and address cultural patriarchy as it shaped theological restrictions for women in many Christian denominations. Over and over again, I was the beneficiary of her logical approach to problem solving. Loading me up with books, examples, and her precious time on the phone, Pat guided CBE around sinkholes and landmines to gain allies and egalitarian “converts” among academics, pastors, and people in the pew of all ages.
Slowly, Patricia Smith Gundry’s published works and her intuitive, Spirit-led gifts helped to bring God’s liberation to over half of the church worldwide. She was in so many ways God’s humble but tenacious solicitor, helping the church question, convict, and upend an ancient enemy—a significant heresy known as male headship to Christians, and to the world as patriarchy: the root of enormous damage and abuse to women and men alike throughout human history. In the end, Pat always coached the egalitarian movement and its leaders through her faith in the loving person of Christ Jesus. God gives what God’s beloved children need most, not stones or snakes but bread and fish (Matthew 7:9–11).
Patricia departed this life on July 31, 2024, at age 87. But while she has left us all—and supremely, her beloved husband and life partner, Stanley Gundry—her legacy remains. The truth that sets us free was a truth Pat sought with confidence and light-hearted humor. She knew how to have fun on the road to Zion, and it was a joy to walk beside her. We love you so much, Pat. Thank you for your friendship, your tenacity in seeking truth, and the joy it was to know you in this world. I trust those gifts will continue in the next one too.
[1] Charlotte Brontë, “Preface,” in Jane Eyre, 2nd edition, The Victorian Web, https://victorianweb.org/victorian/authors/bronte/cbronte/janeeyre/preface.html
Photo used by permission of Stanley Gundry.