Evangelicals have reached a critical impasse.
Advocates of more traditional roles for women say the heart of the matter is biblical authority. Those supporting more open roles say the crux is not biblical authority but biblical interpretation and application.
The twenty-six evangelical leaders represented here, all participants in the Evangelical Colloquium on Women and the Bible, ask the hard questions about women's roles. Not all of them agree on everything. But they do agree that we must begin with the question, "What does the Bible teach?" They also agree that too often poor exegesis has been used to advocate positions on either side. Here support for women's ministry allies itself with scholarly rigor in the effort to break new ground.
Essential reading for all concerned about women in the church.
I. Why Are We Here?
1. Why We?re Here - Patricia Gundry
Response - Gretchen Gaelbelein Hull
II. Biblical Authority
2. Biblical Authority Interpretation - Robert K. Johnston
3. Biblical Authority Feminist Aspirations - Roger Nicole
4. Biblical Authority the Issues in Question - Clark H. Pinnock
Response to Pinnock, Nicole and Johnston - Stanley N. Gundry
III. Biblical Views of Authority Headship
5. Authority, Hierarchy Leadership Patterns in the Bible - Richard N. Longenecker
Response - Willard M. Swartley
Response - Marianne Meye Thompson
6. What Does Kephale Mean in the New Testament? - Berkeley Alvera Mickelsen
Response - Ruth A. Tucker
Response - Philip Barton Payne
IV. Difficult Passages
7. Women, Submission Ministry in 1 Corinthians - Walter L. Liefeld
Response - Alan F. Johnson
8. Galatians 3:28--Conundrum or Solution? - Kylne R. Snodgrass
Response - Susie C. Stanley
Response - W. Ward Gasque
9. 1 Timothy 2:9-15 the Place of Women in the Church?s Ministry - David M. Scholer
10. 1 Timothy 2:12--A Classicist?s View - Catherine Clark Kroeger
Response - Walter L. Liefeld
Response to Scholer and Kroeger - Nancy Wiles Holsey
V. Changing the Church
11. Strategies for Change - Joan D. Flikkema
Response - Frances F. Hiebert
Response - Timothy P. Weber
VI. What Have We Accomplished?
12. Hearing the Cry - Nicholas Wolterstorff
13. Understanding the Differences - J. I. Packer
14. Turning Reality into Dreams - Jeannette F. Scholer