Elizabeth Johnson embarked on bringing feminine language into God-talk through her book She Who Is thirty years ago. As she explained, though theologically all agree God is Spirit and beyond gender, the language of God is male in preaching and instruction, which supports “an imaginative and structural world that excludes or subordinates women” (5).¹ Through both classical tradition and theology, Johnson uncovered the ancient use of wisdom/Sophia as a feminine description of God, which she appropriated toward a new naming of God, Sophia.

Editor’s note: This article was presented at the 2021 meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) and then published in slightly revised form by Fathom Magazine (https://fathommag.com/) under the title, “The Need for a Third Way Between Egalitarianism and Complementarianism.” It is reprinted here with permission from the author and from Fathom. Dr. McKinley is not egalitarian, and we are grateful for his contribution to Priscilla Papers. ~Jeff Miller

A major part of the ministry of CBE International is providing resources—blog, journal, magazine, podcast, book reviews, curricula. . . . CBE, however, does not shy away from promoting resources produced by other authors, even other organizations. As an example, my summer 2021 editorial listed five books and five articles or chapters published by members of our Peer Review Team, none of which were published by or reviewed by CBE. The previous editorial, spring 2021, listed nine books of interest to our readers.

Still Side by Side (available in English and twenty other languages) is an introduction to biblical gender equality. Designed with a simple question and answer format, it is a valuable resource for individuals or groups who are seeking answers to the questions surrounding gender and the church. View or download the digital version of the English Still Side by Side or any of our twenty non-English versions below.

Permissions

Gender inequality in various forms has been a problem in society and the church for centuries. In contemporary North American evangelicalism, beliefs on whether women should have leadership roles in church and home have been framed in terms of complementarianism and egalitarianism. The first claims that, although men and women are equal, they are created for different roles according to Scripture. Specifically, women should submit to their husbands and are not permitted to teach men in Christian contexts.

The Problem

Decades after many denominations first ordained women, there is still a dearth of women pastors, especially those serving at senior levels of leadership in the church. This is true, in fact, in churches that espouse egalitarian theology and employ female pastors. Many churches have yet to proactively identify and address the barriers that women clergy still encounter.

The unifying theme of Judges 19–21 is the dismal failure of Israel to care for their most vulnerable, ultimately contributing to the demise of the nation. This theme is the culmination of two different agendas within the story. The first and more obvious is the backstory of a devastating civil war due to the collapse of hospitality, a value central to Israel’s national identity. The second is an illustration of Israel’s moral degeneracy that could only be reversed (or so they thought) through a new form of government, a monarchy.

Cara Quinn created and graciously provided the artwork displayed on the cover of this issue of Priscilla Papers. Cara runs Know Your Mothers, a project seeking to empower women in the church by uncovering buried stories of women from the past (see https://knowyourmothers.com and @Knowyourmothers on Instagram).

There was something different at this year’s Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) Annual Meeting. I could feel it almost immediately. Rather than a tightening in my shoulders as ETS launched, they relaxed.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make a human being in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”