Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 01:2 (Fall 2019)
Article: R. Albert Mohler Jr. On The State Of Complementarianism
Author: R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

Eikon 1:2 (Fall 2019) p. 92

R. Albert Mohler Jr.
On The State Of Complementarianism

R. Albert Mohler Jr.

R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

CBMW: During the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, the issue of women in ministry was a kind of proxy battle in the larger war over inerrancy. In recent years, however, the Southern Baptist Convention has seen the issue of women in ministry crop up again, but this time among inerrantists. What is this larger conflict about? Hermeneutics? Natural revelation?

RAM: Evangelicalism in the 1970s and Southern Baptists in the same era were presented with multiple fronts of theological challenge. Egalitarianism, as a product of second wave feminism, arrived just at the moment when evangelicals were also confronting real challenges to the inspiration and authority of Scripture. For many Southern Baptists, the issue of inerrancy was at first rather abstract. It came down to the fact that seminary professors and others could say that they rejected the word “inerrancy” but still affirmed the truthfulness of Scripture. It was a way of playing with words that left many lay people and some pastors frankly confused.

Eikon 1:2 (Fall 2019) p. 93

But when it came to the question of whether women should serve as the pastor of a church, that was so tangible that all evangelicals and Southern Baptists could understand what was at stake. So it was a hermeneutical issue, yes, but behind the hermeneutical challenge is the fact that the basic issue is the authority of Scripture. Those who disagreed over the question of women serving as pastors (and that is how the question was framed in the 1970s) were operating not only from different hermeneutics, but also from radically different understandings of the inspiration and authority of Scripture. That became more clear over time, and in the crisis and controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention, that was one of the major flash points. It was, frankly, beyond the imagination of Southern Baptists that many of the issues now related to the entire LGBTQ spectrum could even be questions.

What was also unforeseen was the challenge we face now of defining some of the questions of complementarianism in a new context and for a new generation. To affirm inerrancy is to accept certain hermeneutical boundaries, but it’s clear that to affirm inerrancy does not in itself settle all questions the church now faces over what it means to be male and female in Christ, in the family, and in the church. This is a new challenge, but we do need to recognize that once you affirm the inerrancy of Scripture, you are limited to certain plausible hermeneutical questions. So, the issue of...