4 minute read
Texts. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019. Pp. 184. $22 (PB by Laura Powell
Lucy Peppiatt is the Principal of Wesminster Theological Centre, professor of Christian
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doctrine and spiritual formation and author of several books primarily focused on women.
Peppiatt has written another reflective work to add to her repertoire. Composed of eight chapters,
Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women explores various topics about women and male
dominance and attempts to debunk the belief of Scripture prescribed patriarchal order – all while
still addressing how Scripture supports “the idea of women serving in all capacities alongside men. ”1
Profoundly academic, Peppiatt writes in a manner that I found required one to step away,
periodically, for the information to be absorbed. She focuses on redefining complementarian and
egalitarian roles as she observes that “both are applied somewhat erroneously.” 2 Instead,
Peppiatt finds it more useful to use labels that describe these roles, rather than what they are
limited to or what they are permitted to be. Therefore, she chooses to use the terms
hierarchicalists and mutualists. In the hierarchicalistic view “power and authority are not identified with the essence of a person’s being, “but rather their output or function. 3 Mutualists,
1 Lucy Peppiatt, Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women: Fresh Perspectives on Disputed Texts (Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019), p. 5. 2 Ibid., p. 6.
3 Ibid., p. 7.
on the other hand, equally share all interactions in the church and the home – “subverting patriarchal patterns in all spheres.” 4
A second topic Peppiatt discusses at length is headship. In her opinion, the natural place
to begin the conversation is in Gen 2. She writes extensively about what the creation accounts
might tell us of male-female relations from various points of view. Peppiatt also incorporates 1
Corinthians 11:2-10 and Ephesians 5 into the discussion and dissects the use of ezer and kephale
and the numerous translations and implications.
Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women begins with a Foreword by Scot McKnight
and an informative introduction that maps out the entirety of the book. Chapter one begins by
asking the question “how do we understand an androcentric (male-centered) and patricentric
(father-centered) story?” 5 Peppiatt offers alternative readings to answer this question and
continues with a pattern of questioning that segues into chapter two. Here the reader finds “the place of women in God’s great plan”6 through the stories of women in Scripture. Chapter three
completes the focus on women and their place by evaluating several passages (Gen 2-3; 1 Cor
11:2-10; Eph 5) pertaining to women and men in the Bible and the differences in interpretation
and their effects.
Chapter four primarily continues the discussion on headship, based on Genesis 2 and 1
Corinthians 11, and “specific problems associated with a hierarchicalist interpretation.” 7
4 Ibid., p. 8.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid., p. 28.
7 Ibid., p. 58.
Chapters five and six cover marriage from a hierarchicalist view followed by a mutualist
one. Continuing with Paul’s “theology of the husband as the head of the wife,” Peppiatt directs
the reader to the household codes and the possibility that these codes spoke a radical message of
“mutual love, honor and submission between husbands and wives.”8
In Chapter seven, Peppiatt examines women’s roles in the early church and relies heavily
on Paul’s letters as evidence of their roles as leaders, pastors, teachers, prophets and apostles.
Through Paul’s epistles and other biblical data, Peppiatt simultaneously exposes the harm a
“dominant narrative of male bias” can have on women and translations.9
The final chapter is an in-depth look at 1 Timothy 2:8-15. Peppiatt focuses on the issue of
translation and in turn, the solutions to this problem. She agrees with Richard and Catherine
Clark Kroeger in that the “fundamental argument is that Paul was clearly addressing a specific
situation, and that this text, therefore, cannot be read as a universal injunction for all women in
all churches for all time. ”10
A thoughtful Conclusion and an extensive Bibliography and Scripture Index complete the
book. Lucy Peppiatt successfully disputes clobber passages, while still giving ample time to the
rest of Scripture. The primary tenets of the book, although not exhaustive, are the evaluation of
God as male, women’s crucial role in the salvation story, the early church’s radical redefining of
roles in the home and the many positions women held within the church. While a challenging
8 Ibid., p. 79.
9 Ibid., p. 139.
10 Ibid., p. 145.
read at times, I believe Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women would serve well in a Bible
study, small group, personal reading or in a New Testament higher education course.
Laura Powell
MABC, Luther Rice College and Seminary
Lucy Peppiatt. Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women: Fresh Perspectives on Disputed Texts. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019. Pp. 184. $22 paperback.
