Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 21:4 (Autumn 2007)
Article: Book Review: Finally Feminist: A Pragmatic Understanding of Gender
Author: Christine Mary Cos

Book Review: Finally Feminist:
A Pragmatic Understanding of Gender

John Stackhouse, Jr.

(Baker, 2005)

Reviewed by

Christine Cos

CHRISTINE COS is a Master of Divinity candidate at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She received her Master of Arts in Old Testament in 2006. Christine has been the Minister of Education of Pilgrim Church, Beverly, Mass., and is currently a member of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference.

Finally Feminist is designed to speak to both sides of the gender debate within the evangelical church. Stackhouse attempts to affirm both sides with “a single, coherent paradigm that amounts finally to a Christian feminism” (10). The book grew out of a series of lectures given while the author was a visiting scholar at Taylor University (Indiana) and Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia. Only 144 pages, the book’s discussion of gender is limited to the status and roles of women and men in church and family.

John Stackhouse is a professor of theology and culture at Regent College. Reared in a traditional Plymouth Brethren home, he noticed early on the apparent absence of women in public worship. In the 1970s, as American culture was going through radical social transformation with respect to gender, Stackhouse himself underwent a radical paradigm shift. While embracing an egalitarian position, he realized that the development of a theological basis for his position would require a more open-minded approach.

The first chapter begins with Stackhouse’s own story and his rationale for a new paradigm with which to evaluate the issue of gender. He felt that no one, complementarian or egalitarian, was able to explain adequately such puzzling texts as 1 Timothy 2:11-15. Stackhouse rejects the use of “proof-texting” as well as appeals to current social practices that are often used in gender debates. Instead, he asserts that theological conclusions should not be put off until all the relevant texts are seamlessly arranged into place, but that Christians should be open-minded as much as possible and find the interpretation that “makes the most sense of the most texts, and especially the important ones” (23).

In chapter two, Stackhouse lays out his theory for understanding the issue of gender from a biblical perspective, taking into account the nature of the church, the mission of God in the world, and the way in which the Holy Spirit fulfills that mission. He looks at implications for various spheres of influence: the Christian home, church, and society at large. As Stackhouse surveys the biblical text, he finds a double, not a single, message. Effectively, he sees an affirmation of gender equality that should eventually result in t...