Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 33:3 (Summer 2019)
Article: Book Review "What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women" by Kevin Giles (Cascade Books, 2018)
Author: Aída Besançon Spencer

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PP 33:3 (Summer 2019) p. 29

Book Review
What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women
by Kevin Giles (Cascade Books, 2018)

Aída Besançon Spencer

Aída Besançon Spencer (PhD, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Senior Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. She, like Kevin Giles, began writing on gender equality in the 1970s. She has published extensively on women in church leadership, including Beyond the Curse (Baker Academic 1985), The Goddess Revival (Wipf & Stock 1995), Global Voices on Biblical Equality (Wipf & Stock 2008), Marriage at the Crossroads (IVP Academic 2009), and two volumes in the New Covenant Commentary series—1 Timothy (2013) and 2 Timothy and Titus (2014). She was among the first one hundred women ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Dr. Spencer is married to the Rev. Dr. William David Spencer, former editor of Priscilla Papers; they were ordained at a joint service in 1973.

The Rev. Dr. Kevin Giles is a longstanding supporter of women in leadership. Over the course of more than forty years, he has written at least nine books on the topics of women, ministry, and the Trinity. Many of his books on women have been published in Australia (e.g., Women and Their Ministry [Dove Communications 1977], Created Woman [Acorn Press 1985], and Better Together [Acorn Press 2010]). Now he has written What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women with a North American publisher (Cascade Books). It has been endorsed by renowned church leaders throughout the world. It begins with an explicit critique of complementarian theology (chs. 1–3); continues with a defense of gender equality in Gen 1–3 (ch. 4), in the Gospels (ch. 5) and in Paul’s letters (chs. 6–7); and ends with the related topics of slavery and social justice (chs. 8–9). After an annotated recommended reading list (231–35, for a fuller bibliography see 241–52), he includes the CBE International “Statement on Men, Women and Biblical Equality”1 (237–40), as well as subject, author, and Scripture indexes (253–63). His thesis is that “men and women have the same status, dignity, and leadership potential” in “the home, the church, and the world” (4–5). He sees no “middle ground” (5); the Bible teaches the “essential equality of the sexes” which is “the God-given ideal” (43, 67, 168, 223).

The word “actually” in the title suggests an implied subtitle: “Why complementarians are wrong in their view of women.” Giles establishes what the Bible actually teaches, not what complementarians allege the Bible teaches. The book i...

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