Women in the Church's Ministry: A Test Case for Biblical Hermeneutics

Brilliant approach to both hermeneutics and a very helpful explanation of his position on the matter of women in ministry. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of this book for me personally was how well he encourages us to have a healthy and humble attitude to handling differences in theological opinions/conclusions. Highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to look more into how to interpret biblical texts carefully, and also to anyone wanting to get a good representation of the egalitarian view (I'm not a fan of bundling people into "egalitarian", "complementation" or other groups, as I don't feel it helpfully reflects the many individual positions of people). Great book - buy it, read it! I love it!

Someone asked me to buy this and read it... I'm giving it 4 stars, because the guy tries hard - but this is the strangest thing I have ever read. Unlike certain other changes that are being pushed onto the church by society - I sense that when it comes to "women in ministry", the church isn't really sure itself what it believes. Opinion ranges the full gamut, from silent, no makeup, head covered - to - they can do anything you can do. This book attempts to address the issue biblically, as applied to the Church of England. And herein lies the strangeness. The author is rigorously biblical, but when it comes to church practice, the CofE is not. The CofE does not do church biblically. So we have the strange situation, where the author is carefully considering biblical amendment, to a structure not built on a biblical foundation. An analogy might be a salesman discussing the merits of a gas oven with the owner of a house that only has electric. I could critique the author's exegesis of the text, the position they take, eloquence of the prose, etc, etc, but really - what would be the point?

Dick France gives an excellent overview of the New Testament's teaching on women in the church's ministry and models good hermeneutical practice to the reader. A must for anyone who is wanting to think through the issue of women in church leadership.

An excellent exposition on this very important subject. An easy read by a very good author. Wish I'd seen it earlier.

In a previous review of "Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews" in the Daily Bible Commentary series (ISBN: 9781598561951) I stated that one of the points of disagreement I had with Dr. France was his view of women's roles in the Church today, which is to say, he interprets 1 Tim 2:11-15 to be a cultural issue (as compared to a permanent principle for all time). While I personally hold the latter view, I also stated that I very much looked forward to reading his book "Women in the Church's Ministry," the book for which I am writing this review. While I have a hard time agreeing with his interpretation on these matters, I nevertheless greatly enjoyed this read and found it very thought-provoking and interesting. I greatly appreciate the way he argues for his cultural interpretation, and I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in this issue, since, if for nothing else, it is a great resource that describes the issue from this particular perspective.

R.T. France is a master of biblical hermeneutics. Here is help for anyone who is serious about what the "diificult" passages say about women in the church's ministry.He is particularly good on 1 Timothy 2v8-11 but has much insight on other passages. I felt he was always letting scripture speak for itself rather than coming to it to prove an argument as so often is the case in this debate. He also points from the specific passages to the wider biblical teaching that relates to gender issues in God's word.

When we moved to a new city, we visited a number of churches. In one of those large, successful churches, the pastor went on a significant aside espousing his egalitarian views. He also said something in that sermon which was clearly wrong so I wrote him a polite email which lead to a nice exchange. As part of that exchange, I asked him for the book which he liked best. I was quite sure that neither of us would change our position, but as I have aged, I have become more tolerant of others with different views but I like to know why they believe the way they do. Thus, I read this book. It was a disappointment. The prolegomena to the issue is well done and useful to consider. I do think that his discussion in this area is useful and welcomed. However, there were background issues where he erred which play a major part in his analysis. Some of those views were quite common at the time the book was written but I think that they have since been disproven. If you would like to read about the backgrounds and compare it to his statements, I would suggest “Cult Prostitution In New Testament Ephesus: A Reappraisal by” S. M. Baugh ([...]). He waits to the last part of the book before getting to the most interesting points. On page 71, his statement: "Even within our own passage, Paul prohibits the braiding of hair and the wearing of gold, pearls and expensive clothes (v. 9), yet I know of few modern church circles, however committed to the authority of Scripture, where these prohibition are regarded as mandatory. Yet they are part of the same paragraph in which Paul also prohibits women to teach and hold authority. On what basis are the two parts of his instructions treated differently?" is stunning. He is basically saying that since we all throw out 1 Tim 2:9, there is no good argument against throwing out some more! I would like to suggest that 1 Tim 2:9 is an essential and important verse for us today if it is read correctly. The usual stumbling block with reading this verse is πλέγμα. A large number of ladies both then and now braid their hair because it is practical and useful, so how could there be a prohibition against that? What is the significance of braided hair? If you read the Wikipedia article on Roman hair styles, I think that the verse will become more clear ([...]). Normal women used bone or wood to bind their hair together. Only the very rich used gold. What Paul was talking about, I think, was braided hair held together with gold. So, the verse loosely, becomes, “no really expensive hair, no really expensive jewelry, and no really expensive clothing.” This is, I believe, a message the church today should heed, not throw out. Evangelicals cannot just throw out Scripture when it is inconvenient—we must struggle with it and, ultimately obey it even if it is inconvenient or contrary to what we wish and even if we believe that it limits the use of some individuals. The fact that France is clearly willing to throw out a passage that is clearly contrary to his position is disappointing and thus the low rating.