This new article is insightful:

Laughlin, Bryan, and Doug Ponder. “Complementarians and the Rise of Second-Wave Evangelical Feminism.” Sola Ecclesia, 26 February 2024.

Here is one of my takeaways from the article (the below table is my own synthesis but in line with the article by Laughlin and Ponder):

Four Views on Hierarchy and Complementarity

	Hierarchy	Complementarity
1. Biblical patriarchy / broad, thick, or natural complementarianism	✅	✅
2. Narrow, thin, or ideological complementarianism	✅*	❌**
3. Egalitarianism / evangelical feminism (initially)	❌	✅**
4. Egalitarianism / evangelical feminism (increasingly now)	❌	❌

*barely (see below)

**in a sense (see below)

Some explanations: [Read more…] about Four Views on Hierarchy and Complementarity

John Piper and Wayne Grudem edited Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in 1991, and now Aimee Byrd has written Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood some thirty years later.

I just reviewed Byrd’s new book:

Andrew David Naselli. “Does Anyone Need to Recover from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood? A Review Article of Aimee Byrd’s Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.” Eikon: A Journal for Biblical Anthropology 2.1 (2020): 109–51. PDF | web version

Here’s what I argue:

1. Summary: The gist of Byrd’s book is that biblical manhood and womanhood—especially as John Piper and Wayne Grudem teach it—uses traditional patriarchal structures to oppress women.
2. Context: On the spectrum of views on men and women, Byrd’s position overlaps partly with the far left side of narrow complementarianism and partly with egalitarianism.
3. Evaluation: Byrd’s book is misleading because she misrepresents complementarianism, and it is misguided because she shows faulty judgment or reasoning.

Here’s the outline:

1. Summary: What Is the Gist of Byrd’s Book?

2. Context: Where Does Byrd’s Book Fit on the Spectrum of Views on Men and Women?

3. Evaluation: Is Byrd’s Book Fair and Sound?

3.1. Misleading: Byrd Misrepresents Complementarianism

• • • Byrd Asserts That Complementarianism Teaches That All Women Must Submit to All Men
    • Byrd Asserts That Complementarianism Teaches That the Key Aim of Discipleship Is Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
    • Byrd Presents a Particular View of the Trinity as Essential to Complementarianism
    • Byrd Implies that Complementarianism Inevitably Leads to Abuse
    • Byrd Argues against Broad Complementarianism without Substantively Engaging Its Strongest Exegetical and Theological Arguments
      • (1) Genesis 1–3
      • (2) 1 Corinthians 14:29–35
      • (3) Ephesians 5:21–33 and Colossians 3:18–19
      • (4) 1 Peter 3:1–7
      • (5) 1 Corinthians 11:7–9 and 1 Timothy 2:8–15

3.2. Misguided: Byrd Shows Faulty Judgment or Reasoning

• • • Byrd Focuses on Stories (While Largely Ignoring Direct Teaching on Men and Women)
    • Byrd Constructs Overimaginative and Unlikely Scenarios
    • Byrd Supports Her Conjectures by Citing Evangelical Feminists
    • Byrd Does Not Specify How Men and Women Are Different
    • Byrd Uses the “Biblicist” Hermeneutic She Denounces

4. Conclusion and Four Exhortations

• • 1. Study this issue for yourself.
  • 2. Beware of the ditches on either side of complementarianism.
  • 3. Discern which ditch you are more prone to fall into.
  • 4. Love and celebrate how God has designed men and women.

My article is more than a book review. I attempt to orient Christians to the current conversation. For example, this table from §2 compares narrow and broad complementarianism: [Read more…] about Does Anyone Need to Recover from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood? A Review Article of Aimee Byrd’s Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

9Marks just published my review of Rebekah Merkle’s Eve in Exile: And the Restoration of Femininity (Moscow, ID: Canon, 2016).

It’s not so much a critical review as it is a case for Christians to read it. I suggest four reasons:

1. Her book is timely.
2. Her book is wise.
3. Her book is witty.
4. Her book is motivating.

When my eleven-year-old daughter, Kara, was reading the book, I asked her what she thought of the author. [Read more…] about Four Reasons to Read Rebekah Merkle’s “Eve in Exile”