More Thoughts on Women in Ministry

I was kind of surprised at how many people were commenting on my 2 Tim 2:8-15 paper, when I realized that a fair number of them were coming from Scot McKnight's blog, where he recently kicked off a firestorm (140+ comments). There's something instructive about reading all these responses - it illustrates just how quickly the waters get muddied and just how vehement people can be about their positions. So much so that Scot backed off his plans to do a series on it - he thinks it's impossible to do this kind of discussion in a blog forum (and that's saying a lot, because Scot is the master of the blogging mini-series).

He may have a point here. At the same time, I see an awful lot of fertile ground for discussion here - not so much in terms of reaching a definitive conclusion on the matter, but more for surfacing the wide range of hermeneutical baggage - often unspoken and unexamined - which people bring with them to the text. That to me is something which might really be profitable to discuss. But not during finals week. I'll need to think about how best to approach it.

In the meantime, I may as well post another paper on women, this one called Women in Worship, from a couple of years back. I think it's probably better written and researched than my recent interaction with 1 Tim 2:8-15, but be forewarned - it's longer, and it's more specific to those of us in presbyterian circles. It basically examines the adage which is gaining popularity these days: "Whatever an unordained man can do, a woman can do also" and it seeks to evaluate this in light of Scripture, the Westminster Confessions, and the BCO. Oh yeah, there's also an interesting (IMO) little critique of the Regulative Principle.

I know. You can't wait. Well, have at it then... as for me, I need to get back to the business of studying (so that I can graduate in a couple of weeks!) :-)

ADDENDUM: David Wayne (Jollyblogger) has some interesting thoughts on Women's Roles in Church and the Gospel, where he reflects on the recent "Together for the Gospel" initiative and asks whether or not the woman's issue is really a top-tier gospel issue as well. Worth reading.