Beyond Authority and Submission: Women and Men in Marriage, Church, and Society

I absolutely love this writing. "Beyond Authority and Submission" has been hugely influential to help clarify so much confusion that being a woman in conservative, complementarian environments has caused.Rachel Green Miller has a stunning capability to dissect a highly-divisive topic in a way that is neither combative nor hostile. She has my complete respect and admiration for the way she objectively handles controversial movements, using quotes from the original sources, rather than her own opinions to help the reader see for herself how history has influenced the ways we view men and women in marriage, church, and society.Even the way she has arranged and outlined each chapter is so clear, readable, and helpful. Each chapter builds on the one prior, yet you could read any chapter on its own and benefit greatly. I was extremely helped by reading quotes of the wisdom of the day, from Greco-Roman culture, to the Victorian era, to first-wave feminism, and later feminist movements. It set the stage to understand the conservative Christian response to the culture. It helped me understand why so many church leaders feel threatened by women who speak their minds, and why so many churches and pastors can't stop freaking out about the possibility of a woman behind the pulpit. It has helped me make sense of pastors who hand out "modesty checklists" to the young women in their church, while simultaneously covering up sexual assault of those same women. It helps to see the history of how we got here, what we have valued, and what we have feared.Rachel Green Miller does such an excellent job of quoting her sources, rather than ranting her own opinions about the morality of how men and women are viewed. She is incredibly gracious, even to those she disagrees with, as she points out the good of what some were trying to accomplish, even as she points out the negative results of their efforts.FInally, I appreciated the final 3 parts of the book, as she breaks down women and men in marriage, the church, and society. Each part is broken into 3 chapters, looking at prevalent teaching, what the Bible has to say about that area, and applying the Bible to each area. Again, this was incredibly clarifying to me, to understand what the Bible actually does and doesn't say. This is especially helpful, since so much of the complementarian, conservative teaching about men and women is touted as "biblical." It is called "biblical womanhood/ manhood/ femininity/ marriage" etc. It can be confusing when "biblical" teachings are rooted more in a Victorian culture than the actual Bible.Also, Doug Wilson hates this book. If you know anything about him, that alone should be all the endorsement you need.

Highly recommend! Rachel is incredibly knowledgeable and well-researched, while being very biblically minded. This book was a deep deep dive into history, biblical teaching, and cultural assumptions, but even so was enjoyable to read.Biblical gender roles is a topic that has (for my lifetime anyway) been at the forefront of Christian teaching in churches and homes, and we as a community are desperately in need of a reexamination of our views on what the Bible teaches about men and women. What does the Bible teach about men and women, and where is our interpretation clouded by cultural norms, overcorrection, and even ancient pagan ideas? It was fascinating reading about how many of our current views have their roots in the Greco-Roman or Victorian eras, examining first- and second-wave feminism through a biblical lens, and rethinking a lot of what's commonly accepted as fact about the nature of men and women in the church today.I love how the author highlights the Bible's teaching of men and women as co-laborers in the gospel. It really brought home how much our reliance on unbiblical cultural beliefs of manhood and womanhood robs our homes, churches, and society of the beautiful teamwork God meant for us to have and instead leaves us with feelings of discord and strife.She also challenged conservative gender stereotypes that can stop individuals from expressing aspects of their personality deemed undesirable for their gender. I enjoyed reading about the beautiful variety with which God created men and women and that there's space biblically for women who are gifted with leadership qualities, or men who can be emotional without losing their "man card."Overall this book was incredibly well-researched (the footnotes and bibliography!! superb!), well-organized and enjoyable to read. But most importantly (to me), the author's reliance on the Bible as the standard for our lives was beautiful to see. Because we don't need cultural assumptions and ancient stereotypes of what men and women should be - the Bible alone is enough.

Rachel has written a well researched book, with Scripture to back it up with. “”....our theology runs the risk of being trendy. This is particularly true of our beliefs about women and men. Sometimes we add a layer or two to our theology because we think our man-made rules are easier to keep. Other times we add hedges to it as a reaction to what’s going on in our culture and as a protection for what we believe. Over time, we end up with layers and layers of extrabiblical and even unbiblical ideas that cover up what the Bible teaches. That’s why I wrote this book.”Exactly where do our ideas of male/female, and masculinity/femininity come from? Do they come from Scripture, or do they come from what we have been taught that Scripture says, or do our views and ideas come from what we have studied from the Scriptures ourselves? It is so easy to buy into what those heavily steeped in patriarchy teach. And it can cause a sense of pride that we’re not like THOSE women who (are feminists, work outside the home, aren’t submissive enough, are immodest, etc. - insert any one of those).This was such a refreshing read, especially since I was one of those who had bought into all of the extra biblical, and unbiblical teachings from the Pearls, and some others. It’s much like the prosperity gospel - it promises things the Bible doesn’t and leaves broken, hurting people when the things promised don’t materialize.This is an important book that all Christians should read.

Before I start the review, you should know that I DO think that there need to be changes in the way that many conservative Christians view men and women.But this book does NOT provide the answer. I was hoping this book offer a Biblically reasoned worldview with regards to gender roles in various spheres.Instead this book does not take the Bible seriously. The author certainly pretends to take the Bible seriously but in practice she is not faithful to it.Lots of times she leaves the reader to guess why things are wrong instead of showing us from the Bible. For example, "divorce in an abusive relationship must be alright". Now I AGREE with this statement, but any book that doesn't go to the Bible for the reasoning is not a book worth reading at all.She also doesn't offer solutions for any problems that she (attempts to) reveals. For example she spends a lot of time saying what masculinity and femininity are NOT. But she doesn't tell us (from the Bible) what masculinity and femininity actually are then. She says that women are not meant to submit to their husbands in ALL things, but doesn't explain why she thinks that, especially as it seems to contradict Ephesians 5:24.Overall, this book plays fast and loose with the Bible. It pretends like it's a smart, reasoned, taking-the-Bible-seriously book but if you look underneath all that it's just her pushing her own agenda and beliefs thinly veiled with Christianese and confusing little references to the Bible (never really dealing with or wrestling with any key passages).Would not recommend for anyone to read.

This is a book Christian women and men need to read. It explores the Biblical understanding of women as equal image bearers of God, alongside men, who have abilities and strengths God uses, as necessary for his purpose in creation, to provide a people for Himself. Extremely well researched and grounded in Scripture.