nlt@gboro.glassboro.edu (N. L. Tinkham) (06/03/91)
I have just finished reading _Gender_and_Grace:__Love,_Work,_and_
_Parenting_in_a_Changing_World_, by Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990), and I thought I would
summarize it for net readers who are interested in discussions of men's
and women's roles in the church and in Christian life.
Dr. Van Leeuwen is a professor of interdisciplinary studies at
Calvin College; her training is in psychology, and she comes from a
Reformed and Evangelical religious tradition. She describes herself
as a feminist, and in this book she argues from the Biblical creation
accounts and from psychological studies that "women and men are equally
saved, equally Spirit-filled, and equally sent [ in Christian mission ]";
neither women nor men should be held back from leadership, creative work,
or parenting by rigid gender roles.
Van Leeuwen summarizes the main arguments of her book as follows:
The thrust of my argument...is that male headship can be invoked
neither by Christian men to preserve their positions of
privilege nor by Christian women to avoid responsibility for
their choices. In chapter two I argued that both these
propensities...are tragic results of the Fall, rather than
timeless norms of creation. In chapter three [I showed] that
appeals to biology are quite insufficient to justify
a particular set of gender roles for either men or women,
especially if we are to take human freedom and moral
accountability seriously. I concluded that while gender roles
in themselves are not wrong (indeed, that at their best they
have a positive, sacramental quality) they cannot be reduced to
a rigid (even limited) list that is valid for all times and
places. This conclusion was reinforced in later chapters, where
we examined the psychology of gender roles in our own and other
cultures. Finally, in [the last] chapter I have tried to show
that even those who have a formal theory of male headship seem
unable to apply it consistently in practice. I have also argued
that women are no less responsible than men before God for
carrying out difficult decisions in difficult situations,
regardless of their marital state. [ pp. 247-8, ellipses mine ]
_Gender_and_Grace_ is a good presentation of a feminist position by an
Evangelical Christian. I recommend it especially to those who have seen
conservative Christians present only patriarchal views of the roles of men
and women; Van Leeuwen is one of several Evangelical writers who presents
an alternative, egalitarian view, while still remaining faithful to the
Biblical witness.
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"For Christ plays in ten thousand places, Nancy Tinkham
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his nlt@gboro.glassboro.edu
To the Father through the features of men's faces." njin!gboro!nlt