A New Book Analysis Series: Beth Allison Barr’s “The Making of Biblical Womanhood” (Part 1)

Earlier this year, I did a book analysis series on The Deconstruction of Christianity by Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett. In their book, they included a brief discussion of Beth Allison Barr’s book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood. It was one of the parts of their book that I chose not to comment on in my posts, simply because it was just a brief discussion on Barr’s book and, heck, I can’t comment on everything.

Fast forward to a number of weeks ago. Several of my Facebook friends that I’ve made ever since my dabbling in the whole “Creation/Evolution debate” and my publishing The Heresy of Ham started posting pictures from the recent ASA (American Scientific Affiliation) conference. One of the speakers at the conference was Beth Allison Barr, speaking about her book. If you’re wondering, “What does the issue of biblical womanhood have to do with science?” well, you’ve got me. I wasn’t at the conference! Nevertheless, since a number of my Facebook friends posted about her, I thought, “What the heck? I’ll get her book.” The fact that I had read Childers’ and Barnett’s book earlier this year and that they were a bit critical of Barr’s book, while a number of my Facebook friends spoke approvingly of her piqued my interest.

And that takes us to this short book analysis series on Barr’s book. I don’t imagine it will be more than three posts, but we’ll see how it goes.

A Quick Summary of the Book
Beth Allison Barr is a professor of history and associate dean of the Graduate School at Baylor University. She also is a life-long Baptist. She begins her book with a brief autobiographical story about how her husband, who was one of the pastors at their church, got fired because his view of women in leadership conflicted with the other pastors. In a nutshell, it was that event that caused Barr to really dive in and tackle this issue in depth. Much like my experience of losing my teaching job because of an overzealous young earth creationist headmaster led to my eventually writing The Heresy of Ham (which should be coming out again in a revised edition either later this year or early next year, thank you very much!), it was that experience of her husband getting fired from that Baptist church that eventually led to The Making of Biblical Womanhood.

Now, the basic thesis/argument of Barr’s book is that the patriarchy and misogyny within the Church, particularly seen in those who insist on biblical inerrancy and complementarianism, is not really biblical at all. In fact, they are just propping up the very pagan and unchristian view ancient Greece and Rome regarding women and their proper roles—hence the subtitle of Barr’s book: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth. Also, on the back cover, there is the statement: “It is time for Christian patriarchy to end.” Tied into all of this is the question of women in Church leadership. Given the current toxic political partisanship in many segments of the Church in America today (let alone our nation as a whole), one would have to be brain dead not to realize that this can be quite a volatile issue.

Let me say right of the bat that I agree 100% with a good majority of what Barr says in her book. She convincingly shows that there were women in places of leadership in the early Church, and that throughout the Middle Ages there were women teachers in the Church. This should not be surprising to anyone who knows anything about Church history—particularly Orthodoxy and Catholicism. From the very beginning, there were women religious orders, nuns, abbesses, etc. She also provides a very insightful analysis of various passages in the New Testament, particularly Paul (who many today have accused of being a misogynist) and shows that the early Church was offering a radically different view of women that went against the truly patriarchal and misogynist attitudes of the Roman Empire.

 The only real criticism I have of the book is that I feel sometimes Barr paints with a bit too broad of a brush. As I go through the book, I’ll take time to tease these instances out.

My Past Experience with the “Women in Leadership” Issue
Having grown up within the Evangelicalism of 1980s Wheaton, Illinois, I grew up in a subculture that believed women shouldn’t be head pastors at churches. That being said, there were what I would call “prominent women” at the large Assemblies of God church my family attended—not pastors, but still (I felt) in positions of leadership to some degree. Not only were there female teachers at the Christian high school I went to, but the main Bible teacher for my entire high school career was a woman named Ms. Ferguson. Being a kid who went to an Assemblies of God church, I knew virtually nothing about all other Protestant denominations, but I think she was a pretty hard-core Calvinist. I could be wrong, but I do know that there were conservative Christians, and then there was Ms. Ferguson a few degrees to the right.

For a time in and after college, I went to Willowcreek Community Church—they had female deacons, and many times women speakers.

When I was at Regent College in Vancouver in the mid-90s, I discovered the Compline Service at Christ Church Cathedral, and Anglican church downtown. That Sunday evening service changed my life. I remember the first time I stepped into that church, just as the Compline service was starting. I vividly remember thinking, “This is the first worship service I’ve ever been to”—and I had been going to church my entire life. In any case, Christ Church Cathedral had female priests. That church also was extremely liberal. One time I decided to attend a Sunday morning service—the guest speaker was none other than John Shelby Spong. Not my cup of tea (but I continued to go to the Sunday evening Compline services).

Also, while at Regent College, I took a number of classes under Gordon Fee, who clearly argued for women being in ministry and leadership.

In all three Christian schools I have worked at in my teaching career, I’ve had women superiors, either vice-principals or academic deans. For those who know my story regarding getting booted from an Evangelical school over the issue of YECism, the headmaster who got rid of me was eventually forced to resign a little over a year later, and my best friend at the school, a female English teacher, became the headmaster.

During my time living in Alabama, for about eight years I attended a Methodist church, and for a few of those years they had a woman head pastor. While it was pretty clear our political views didn’t necessarily perfectly align, we got along great and have remained friends ever since.

All that is to say is that, to be honest, I personally cannot really relate to much of what Barr shares in her book. She grew up in clearly a very conservative Baptist culture, and many of her examples of misogyny in the church come from the Baptist and/or Calvinist worlds. I’ve never spent much time in either of those worlds.

And so, I think it might be interesting to see where my look at Barr’s book goes. Like I said, I agree with much of what she says in her book. At the same time, there will be a few things that I will take issue with. I’ll try to do what I’ve always done with my book analysis series—just walk through, chapter by chapter, offering a brief summary of the chapter, then sharing my thoughts on a few things.

Stay tuned.