Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 35:2 (Spring 2021)
Article: Book Review "The Headship Of Men And The Abuse Of Women: Are They Related In Any Way?" By Kevin Giles (Cascade Books, 2020)
Author: Jonathan Tysick

PP 35:1 (Winter 2021) p. 14

Book Review
The Headship Of Men And The Abuse Of Women: Are They Related In Any Way?
By Kevin Giles (Cascade Books, 2020)

Jonathan Tysick

Jonathan Tysick is pursuing a Master of Theological Studies at Wycliffe College (University of Toronto). He graduated with distinction from the South African Theological Seminary with a BTh. He formerly worked with the School of Biblical Studies (University of the Nations) in Cape Town, South Africa. Jonathan is especially interested in how theological and NT studies impact contemporary issues in the church and society and how these fields can equip Christians to live out their faith in a pluralistic world.

The saying goes that ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. Kevin Giles, a retired Australian Anglican minister of over forty years and long-time champion of the egalitarian movement, believes this is certainly true of male-headship teachings. Answering his title question in the affirmative, Giles forcefully argues that “headship teaching can encourage and legitimate domestic abuse and it must be abandoned if domestic abuse is to be effectively countered in our churches” (2).

Summary

This short book (just 116 pages) is divided into four main chapters, with three accompanying addendums. The first chapter shares the disturbing realities of domestic abuse. Citing recent academic studies and reports, Giles details how at least thirty-five percent of women around the world experience violence from intimate partners (5). He goes on to expose the tragic reality that domestic abuse is also rampant in the church, pinpointing the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States and the Anglican Diocese of Sydney in Australia as examples of evangelical, complementarian churches where an “endemic” of women’s abuse has been exposed by the light of the #metoo and #churchtoo movements (11).

In chapter two Giles synthesises contemporary data to define domestic abuse as “the ongoing assertion of power, almost always by the man over his wife or intimate partner, that has as its intent the complete control of the woman” (20, italics original). This manifests itself in verbal, psychological, social, financial, spiritual, sexual, and physical abuse (23).

Giles cites numerous studies to show the scholarly consensus that “behind all domestic abuse and violence lies the belief that men should be in charge and make all the important decisions and women should be submissive” (26). He goes on to argue that headship teaching (“God set the man over the woman and thus the hierarchical ordering of the sexes is God-given, good, and can never change” [32]) provides a divinely legitimized, biblical entitlement for patriarchy leading some men to a...