Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 35:2 (Spring 2021)
Article: Complementarianism Collapsing An Extended Review Of Matthew Barrett, "Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, And Spirit" (Baker, 2021)
Author: Kevin Giles

PP 35:1 (Winter 2021) p. 23

Complementarianism Collapsing An Extended Review Of Matthew Barrett, Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, And Spirit (Baker, 2021)

Kevin Giles

Kevin Giles is an Australian Anglican minister who was in parish ministry for over forty years. He holds a doctorate in New Testament and has authored numerous articles and books, some of which are in the endnotes above. Kevin lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife, Lynley, a social worker and marriage counsellor. They have been partners with CBE International since its inception.

In well over thirty years in debate with scholarly complementarians on the status and ministry of women and on the Trinity, I have been accused of rejecting the authority of the Bible, denying what the Bible clearly teaches on the man-woman and the divine Father-Son relationships, of being an “evangelical-feminist,” and even an Arian. While some theologians have been terribly uncharitable, I am delighted by the dignity of Matthew Barrett. When I decided to write a scholarly review of his book, Simply Trinity, I sent him what I had written for comment and criticism (as is my habit). Matthew responded graciously and generously in a number of email exchanges. He related to me as an evangelical brother of Reformed convictions. After reading my extended review of Simply Trinity he made a detailed response. Wherever possible I have reworded, corrected, or deleted sentences or paragraphs that he thought were not fair or did not represent accurately his views.1 If only evangelical egalitarians and complementarians had been able to interact like this on the debates about the status and ministry of women and on the Trinity over the last thirty or so years, I am sure things would be very different today.

Matthew Barrett is associate professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri. His book, Simply Trinity, is focused mainly on the doctrine of the Trinity, but how this doctrine bears on the relationship of the sexes comes up time and time again. He unambiguously confesses his theological position:

I am a committed, convictional complementarian. I believe there are strong scriptural reasons for restricting the office of pastor to qualified males. I also believe the husband is the head of his wife and the wife is to submit to her husband. (250–51)

This confession gives this book its great credibility and power. Here we find a devastating critique of the dogma, invented and promulgated by complementarians, that the Father rules over the Son for all eternity by a “card-carrying” complementarian.

Another fact lending significance to Matthew’s book...