A couple years ago I read the
profoundly worldview-changing book Half the Sky by Sheryl
WuDunn and Nicholas D. Kristof. That book opened my eyes to the huge
challenges, obstacles and burdens the women of our world face and
moved me to action on their behalf. As I have written previously, I
recognized that Kristof and WuDunn were right on target with their
statement:
We believe that in this century the
paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality in
the developing world.
I also came to realize that a similar
statement could be made about women within the Church. I believe that
the paramount issue in this century within the Church will also be
the struggle for gender equality. So when I saw Carolyn Custis James'
new book Half the Church, I knew I had to read it. I had
already read her book The Gospel of Ruth and was moved by her
examination of that well-known story. Half the Church was just
as powerful.
In Half the Church James makes a
concise and powerful argument for God's global vision for women. This
vision stems from the very beginning of creation, when God created
men and women in the divine image.
So God created humankind in his own
image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
James would insist that we not skip
quickly over these words lest we fail to recognize the profound
statement being made here. Both men and women are divine
image-bearers. Women are not an afterthought. James writes:
“He gives both male and female
the exact same identity – to be his image bearers. He gives both
the exact same responsibilities when he entrusts all of creation to
his image bearers, calling them to be fruitful and multiply and to
rule and subdue the whole earth.”
From this basis James examines
Scripture and builds a strong case for not only the equality of men
and women, but for the fact the without both genders the Church
cannot fulfill the mission of God. Women weren't created to be the
“helpmeets” of men. Women were created to bear the image of God
alongside men, so that together we can accomplish God's purposes. She
makes the point more than once that by placing women in a subordinate
position, the Church has crippled its own ability to bear the divine
image. The Church is trying to carry out its mission with only half
of its potential strength. By failing to appreciate and live in
accord with the fundamental nature of creation – in which men and
women both bear equally the divine image – the Church has sold the
Gospel of Jesus Christ short.
“At the heart of this discussion is
the very real question of whether the gospel's message for women is
merely a kinder, gentler version of the world's message. Are we only
dealing with a sliding scale, where our beliefs move women to a
safer, more acceptable zone of human value, or does Jesus bulldoze
that system and reconstruct in its place a radically different gospel
way of valuing women?”
I find it profoundly tragic that this
book needs to be written. The truth that James argues should be
inherently apparent and practiced throughout God's Church. Sadly this
is not the case and has not been throughout the Church's history.
Although Western culture has made significant strides in affirming
the value of women, much of the Western Church still lags far behind.
For this reason James' book is necessary. Although she writes it for
women, I think it has great value for and needs to be read by men as
well. We need to have our thinking about women in the world and
particularly in the Church radically transformed. James has laid out
a good fundamental argument to help stimulate that transformation. I
would love to see this book used in mixed small groups so that God's
children, men and women together, could talk about these important
issues and together initiate changes that will unleash the half of
the church that currently finds themselves restricted, hindered and
undervalued.
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