The Surrendered Christ: The Christological Confusion of Evangelical Feminism -- By: Russell D. Moore

Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 11:1 (Spring 2006)
Article: The Surrendered Christ: The Christological Confusion of Evangelical Feminism
Author: Russell D. Moore


The Surrendered Christ:
The Christological Confusion of Evangelical Feminism

Russell D. Moore

Dean, School of Theology
Senior Vice President for Academic Administration
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,
Louisville, Kentucky

For too long complementarian Christians have assumed that the gender debate is simply one more important but intramural discussion among likeminded evangelicals—similar to the differences between Calvinists and Arminians, or between paedobaptists and Baptists. It is increasingly apparent that evangelical feminism is a far more serious development. As demonstrated at the 2005 annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) meeting, the gender debate ultimately boils down to Christology.

We often use the cliché, “I could hardly believe my ears,” but at one ETS session, I literally found myself turning to those around me and asking, “Did he say what I think he just said?” Alan Padgett, egalitarian theologian at Luher Seminary, presented a paper seeking to reconcile evangelical feminism with Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 has always been difficult for egalitarians since the apostle Paul clearly grounds the submission of a wife to her husband and the headship of a man for his wife in the archetypal structure of the Christ/church relationship. The “mutual submission” gambit of egalitarians has never proven all that persuasive, even to feminist-minded people, since Paul outlines what the various aspects of headship and submission are to look like. Few people, for example, would ask whether Paul is suggesting that parents sometimes obey their children. Moreover, the structure of the argument itself

precludes a mutual submission between husband and wife since Paul suggests that the husband loves “as Christ loves the church” and the wife submits “as the church submits to Christ.” Are we to suggest that Christ submits to the church? Some have advocated this, but no one so publicly and forcefully until now.

Padgett argued in his paper that mutual submission doesn’t just exist between husband and wife but also between Christ and the church. Using passages such as that of Jesus giving himself for the church in Eph 5 and pouring himself out in Phil 2, Padgett argued that sometimes Jesus submits himself to his church. When a perceptive listener wondered when the church ever doesn’t submit to Christ, Padgett’s answer was stunning. In the eschaton, he said. Then, he said, “the church ...

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