One of my greatest joys during college, and now, is to help women (and all people) come to a freer, more egalitarian view of women in the bible, women in church leadership, the gender of God- all that good stuff. I've been asked enough times for my best book and resource recommendations on this subject that I figured I should publish it here! There are a TON of subcategories within this scope and I am happy to answer questions (to my best ability) on any of them - Genesis and Adam/Eve, language translations, Paul's teachings, Jesus and women, God's gender and the trinity, women in the old testament, etc. But for a general overview, here are my best resources. BEST BOOKS: Beyond the Curse: Women Called to Ministry by Aida Besançon Spencer - this book is it. Spencer is an incredible scholar who blows my mind with every chapter - her translation of ezer knegdwo is so helpful. This one's a bit more academic, but really rich and thorough. Powerful and Free: Confronting the Glass Ceiling for Women in the Church by Danny Silk - a good primer for people looking into this topic for the first time. It's short and sweet but really centers the troubles women in church leadership face and the reasons they are just Half the Church: Recapturing God's Global Vision for Women by Carolyn Custis James - Half the Church is modeled after Kristof and WuDunn's Half the Sky and I love the way James takes issues facing women and girls around the world like female infanticide or domestic violence and relates them to scripture and gives There's a ton more I could recommend, I've read some great books on Paul and women, I'm currently reading on Mary Magdalene. But those are GREAT starters, wonderful and thoughtful and brilliant overviews on many topics. Beyond books, I've loved several online resources. Christians for Biblical Equality is an incredible organization and their website, is my first stop for any questions. They and the Junia Project have a TON of blog posts and scholarly articles on biblical egalitarianism. If I'm wondering about "submit to your husbands" or "Bathsheba", "God's gender" "headship" or "authentein", I'll type that into the search bar on those two sites and always find excellent scholarship on those subjects! Mimi Haddad, the president of CBE, and Aida Besançon Spencer both have incredible work on those sites. I also have some favorite video resources! J.R. Daniel Kirk is another one of my favorite scholars on the topic, find his blog here, has a video on patriarchy and culture on CBE's Youtube channel here that I love! It's super academic and low-budget, but he is just so brilliant and insightful. Here's another one from Egalitarians for Jesus Christ on the Sin of Patriarchy. Just great stuff to orient your thinking toward the worth you know within yourself and the ways that the bible and God are more affirming of that than the modern church would make you believe. A little more dry, but here are a few essays on women's ministry, here from NT Wright, and here by Catherine Booth. And when someone tries to tell you that women can’t be pastors-share this just for laughs :) I'm sure I'll continue to add to this list as my study continues and questions arise. I'm grateful for my mom for her patient explanations and translations which helped shape my interest in these topics and feminist hermeneutic, and for the work of all these scholars and more which have made a huge difference in my life and the Church at large.
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Becca LambChristian, feminist, idealist, wife, poet, abolitionist, dreamer, adventurer. Archives
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