This book is an excellent, important read. I’m thrilled to have read it and will encourage my students to read it as well. It doesn’t exactly fit the needs for my specific class regarding gender and language, but I will certainly be recommending it and sharing it with friends and through social media outlets as well. Barr’s writing is excellent—strong and scholarly, yet engaging and enjoyable at the same time.

This is a great book and very timely for 2021 - we ordered a copy because of high interest and think it will do well with patrons.

A compelling read with a message I thoroughly endorse. After reading this, I am convinced that complementarianism is patriarchy and I can no longer make distinctions between the two.

Barr's main premise is that evangelicals think that by holding onto traditional gender roles, they are not conforming to the secular world--that they are "in the world but not of it". Barr's background as a historian of the Medieval time period informs her argument that traditional gender roles are rooted in secular culture, not theology. The Bible paints a different picture of female church leaders, teachers, and preachers in history than what we hear in contemporary evangelical theology.

The book takes a historical rather than theological perspective since its written by a historian. At times, I got bored and skimmed through large sections of Medieval church history, wanting to get to the theological implications of that history. The book is strongest when Barr focuses on how the roles of women have changed and evolved over time and how our theological interpretations and understandings of women's roles have evolved over time. It was less interesting to me when it focused on people throughout history, yet I understand that this is Barr's expertise.

Many books have been written about this issue from both sides of theology, and the uniqueness of this author's voice and perspective does lie in her background as a historian. Her exposition of history supports her thesis that the subordination of women is not evangelical, but secular, and was appropriated by evangelicals, who claimed that it was "gospel truth" rather than just historian and cultural. The insistence that patriarchy is biblical maintains the power differential between men and women in the Church. The subjugation of women continues to give complementarians their power.

This book has a powerful message with the potential to shatter evangelical's tightly-held beliefs in "biblically gender roles". I hope it succeeds.

For 40 years, Beth Allison Barr believed “biblical womanhood” meant “God designed women primarily to be submissive wives, virtuous mothers, and joyful homemakers,” she writes in the introduction of her book, “The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth.” But Barr’s training as a historian (she’s associate professor of history and associate dean of the Graduate School at Baylor University) convinced her otherwise. She shares her experiences as a Southern Baptist and pastor’s wife, combined with the history and impact of complementarian beliefs, in her book, which releases in April.

Read the rest of our coverage at Religion News Service at the link below.

Dr. Barr has accomplished what so often eludes academics: she has written a highly accessible, intellectually rigorous piece of scholarship. By interweaving her own memoir with the history of patriarchal oppression, she has crafted an empathetic guide to understanding both the past and its impact on us in the present.

This is an excellent piece of theological and historical analysis about the idea of "biblical womanhood" and how it came to be. I had already come to a number of similar conclusions about patriarchy and its role in conservative Christianity; but these opinions had been formed mostly from personal experience and intuition. I greatly appreciate now having Barr's research to fortify my positions, especially given how accessible this book is to the layperson. Highly recommended.

I was really fascinated by the premise of Barr's book as someone who grew up in the middle of the Bible Belt but in a liberal household, who majored in religious studies in college, and who has devoured the work of Rachel Held Evans, Sarah Bessey, and Nadia Bolz-Weber, all women who are firmly rejecting the idea of patriarchy within the church. I really enjoyed Barr's perspective as someone who spent so much of her life living a complementarian lifestyle and submitting to the patriarchal ideas of the church, the SBC specifically. I don't know how many people who really need to hear this message will be willing to read this book, but it's really well written and compelling. I learned so much, and appreciated the way Barr wove her personal narrative through her research and perspective as a historian.

My thanks to NetGalley and Brazos Press for an advance reader's copy.

This book is SO IMPORTANT.

I grew up in an Evangelical Free church and the description Barr provides of how Evangelical women think of themselves is SPOT ON. We’re taught that it’s our divinely appointed nature that calls us to be submissive homemakers. But this book shows the various ways that the evangelical understanding of womanhood has been skewed - both intentionally and unintentionally - to reach a complementarian structure between genders rather than an egalitarian structure (which Barr argues is a truer reading within historical context).

The three key areas that I found to be most impactful were: 1. Barr’s analysis of commonly misunderstood and misused Pauline texts to show the inconsistencies in content and style which are easy to miss without historical context, 2. The history of women teaching, being deacons, missionaries, etc before the reformation and the way that history has been erased, and 3. The intentional effort to exclude gender inclusive language in the ESV translation of the bible - the accepted translation in all the churches I’ve attended - though gender inclusive language would be an equally valid translation. Barr also points out how the evangelical belief of biblical inerrancy compounds these issues.

Given how pervasive evangelical Christianity is in the US, and how harmful the ideas of complementarianism can be to Women AND Men, this is a very important book. It is well presented and argued, and I think everyone who has ever been a Christian should check it out.

I received a free E-ARC copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So much goes wrong when we forget our history. Ignorance is the cause of so many problems. I love how Barr’s book brings the past into the future to show us how certain things aren’t always as straight forward as we’ve been led to believe. That patriarchy has always been around in different degrees and is a cultural construction, not a biblical one. Today that patriarchy is hidden in the name complementarianism.

This book has introduced me to history of the church that I had never heard before, where women were actually praised for following God’s calling no matter where it took them. I was surprised to learn that most church histories where written by pastors and not historians. Not a great idea really because their education and focus is different. I loved how Barr (an actually historian) was able to show us that, while we are so anxious about setting down rules for women in the church today, the earlier churches were concerned about more important issues like making sure we have a right view of the Trinity and bringing people to Christ.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone. It makes you question why you believe the things that you do. Is it because someone said “this is the way and no other” or is it really what the Bible says? Barr points out that Christianity brought freedom to the women in the Roman world because it was a radical change from their culturally oppressive (patriarchal) lifestyle. Are women in today’s church less free? If so, we really have to question our interpretation of what it really means to be a “biblical woman”.

This book caught me off guard. Going into reading I would’ve stated that I have been developing a far more egalitarian view over the past few years but, while reading, I was forced to acknowledge different points of complementarianism which I hadn’t realized I still held. I continued to read, and I wrestled with the history the author was presenting, and I felt uncomfortable with what was written on more than a few occasions. Frankly, I’m still mulling over much of the information and struggling with the views of headship that I’ve always been taught and how it squares with the Biblical teaching.

The book covers many of the same Bible verses which are often explored in the complementarian/egalitarian debate, but it presents the egalitarian argument in a much stronger way than I’ve normally seen it done. You are also walked through Christian history and presented with a history which you’re not often made aware of: A history in which women have played a much larger role than you find in the history books, and you’re left questioning the motivations behind why it’s not presented. Regardless of where you stand on this debate, this is a book which needs to be engaged with. I think one of the best things about this book is that, even when you’re being presented with information which you may not be comfortable with, you don’t really feel attacked, even though the case is presented passionately.

Often when engaging in this debate there is the temptation to react in fear and pride but I feel that The Making of Biblical Womanhood will engage with you in a way that allows you to not get defensive, if you go into it willing to hear and engage.

Huzzah! I cannot tell you how many books I read on theology and church history, knowing I can't recommend them to the majority of my friends. They could understand them but wouldn't take the time to do so.

On the other hand, I read books that lean angry or cynical. The tone can feel disrespectful, which may get the point across but can leave my heart-that-aches-for-unity hurting. We can't come together if we alienate one another.

Beth (of course your name is Beth), thank you for guiding women in a way that we can all read and enjoy. I learned so much from your story, from your professional insight, and from your lengthy list of references.

Perhaps the highest compliment I can give, I'd recommend this book to anyone.

Honestly, where do I start? This book is so necessary for the evangelical church. As much as Bible literacy is an issue in the church so is historical and contextual literacy of our faith, traditions, and beliefs. This book will make you recon with your beliefs and when you read it, and you can either dig in your heels or examine yourself and the structures in place around you.

Women leading is a mark of church history, not some version of feminism trying to invade the church. It is clear throughout scripture, yet where do we learn about it when we learn about church history? We don't because women have been written out of the historical narrative and, to a degree, scripture as well.

There are so many issues that Bible scholars and church leaders want us to believe are unique to our time because feminism, but the truth is there is nothing new under the sun. Gender inclusive language along with women pastors and teachers have been around since medieval times and even before. What the evangelical church has turned to since the Reformation is a focus on family (no pun intended) and gender roles laid out in complementarianism. Biblical womanhood has become gospel truth not necessarily because it's true but because women's role in the home and church is now a marker of one's stance on inerrancy of the Bible and thus Christian orthodoxy. All of this has done a disservice to women and men in our churches because it has been laid upon patriarchal structures to keep women out of power and out of leadership which deprives the church of their gifts.

I hope that those who disagree with Barr will still read her book because this issue is too pervasive to ignore. Whether you are egalitarian or remain in complementarianism, there is truth and history to be learned form Dr. Barr that can be applied in your context. Whatever you choose, do not hold women back from serving the church well and in ways that mirror strong female leadership and service present in scripture.

I'll leave you with the words she leaves her readers with, "Go be free."

#EndChristianPatriarchy

I want every Christian I know to read this book. I want to hand it to all the women who've walked away from the church because of misogyny and patriarchy. Beth Allison Barr has given us a gift - there is such freedom in these pages. As I read it, I was sending quotes and screenshots to my friends because I was so excited by what I was reading. Barr pulls no punches and is unafraid to go after conservative evangelicalism's sacred cows. As she says at the end of the book, "Complementarianism is patriarchy, and patriarchy is about power. Neither have ever been about Jesus."

If you like this topic, you will find this book very interesting to read about the history and about changes in culture, The author talks about the past and the present in the culture about womanhood, and church. I recommend you to read also other books that support the other point of views that support what she smashes, I think is important to get different opinions and listen to a different point of views. Thank you for this opportunity to read this material.

I've always questioned the role of women in the church, but I never had a good source to turn to for historical context. Look no more, this book does just that. The author does an excellent job explaining the history, culture, and context as they apply to when key Biblical passages were written that related to women and the church. Not only did this book give me some data and clarity to start drawing my own conclusions, but it opens the door for others to do the same.

Beth Allison Barr, in "The Making of Biblical Womanhood", details the history of Christianity and a woman's expected position in this belief system. Having read a book with a similar title, I expected the same humor and personal stories as before. However, this book is more of a serious thesis about how woman have risen above their station throughout history. Barr even makes the assertion that what is known as "biblical womanhood" is not actually biblical at all. It was easy to tell that this book had been well researched, but it was a little too serious for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

What an incredible book! Part narrative theology, part medieval study of women, part egalitarian theology. Barr's voice and honesty about the past push readers to truly consider how the "complementarian" view of Christian's is actually worldly patriarchy wrapped in a priestly robe. The witness of history is clear: women shouldn't be dismissed and deserve an equal place wherever they are: at home, in a boardroom, teaching, preaching, or otherwise. I haven't ever read a study on medieval Christianity before, but Barr makes me want to read more. THANK YOU, for sharing your story and this reality about women in the Church.

Beth Allison Barr masterfully synthesizes the stories of women throughout church history to show how the Evangelical idea of "Biblical Womanhood" was born. She mainly focuses on three time periods: the early church, the medieval era (her area of expertise), and the 20th century to the present.

Barr's examples of women in ministry in the early church (and modern attempts to minimize, dismiss, or deflect from that work) will not be news to those who have been studying the debate over complementarianism. However, the work of these women in the biblical texts is so marginalized in conservative evangelicalism that Barr's treatment of the texts is vital to the conversation.

Barr often gives examples of medieval perceptions of Biblical figures and saints, demonstrating the comfortability of medieval thinkers relative to modern evangelicals regarding women's roles. However, she does not offer sufficient commentary on the veracity of legendary accounts or the validity of conflating Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene, for example.

Barr's argument is bolstered by her explanation of how the Protestant Reformation created a "cult of domesticity", leading the removal of women from ministry roles and public work and shoehorning them into wifehood and motherhood. Barr's examples of women in ministry post-Reformation (despite consistent efforts to suppress them) show how remarkably new the "orthodox" teaching of complementarity is to church history. By shedding light on how conservative evangelicals created the doctrine of inerrancy and resurrected Arianism in order to suppress the status of women in the church, Barr effectively hammers the final nail in the coffin of 'biblical womanhood'.

This book should be required reading for anyone in the evangelical sphere who has been led to believe that complementarianism is biblically faithful and has been the dominant teaching through church history. Patriarchy by any other name is still sin, and Christ's people should not lag behind the world in eradicating it.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for honest review. Let me just say, this is an amazing book. First of all, the combination of personal story with clear, easy to follow historical research makes this a compelling read. I didn't want to put it down - but had to, in order to process the impactful words Beth Allison Barr has written here.

The way she paints a picture of patriarchy and complimentarianism becoming accepted as gospel truth in much of the modern church is moving and powerful. I am very familiar with this debate and much of its history, yet I learned a lot in this book - particularly about the role women played in the medieval church and the way Bible translations have been shaped and impact our understanding of the role of women.

I have already talked to several people about this book and all I can say is - you HAVE to read this. So good.

Introduction

In April 2021, Beth Allison Barr will release her new book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth. There is every reason to believe it will make a big splash: it is a no-holds-barred case against Complementarianism by someone who used to affirm it from within the SBC. The book weaves together her personal story as the recipient of misogyny and abuse with historical, philosophical, exegetical, theological, and experiential arguments to make the case that Complementarianism is equivalent to patriarchy and that it necessarily leads to the abuse and subjugation of women. As such, she argues, it should be rejected.

I commend Barr for her unflinching commitment to speaking truth to the powers that be within Complementarian circles. Though I find serious, substantive issues with parts of the book (which I'll demonstrate below), it is, I think, still a book worth reading. Though not every argument is sound, those who have ears to hear nevertheless would do well to respond not with defensiveness but with humility, a quickness to repent, and a desire to push back against misogynist structures and attitudes in our churches and our world.

Countering Historical Ignorance

Complementarian Evangelicals tend to hold a frighteningly naive view of history, and especially as it relates to sex and gender: men have always led and women have always followed until the sixties when the feminists barged in and ruined a perfectly good society. Barr quickly dismantles this narrative; she shows that Christian beliefs and attitudes about women through the millennia have varied enormously. History defies simple narratives! Sometimes the Church has been deeply patriarchal; at other times, women could preach even in Southern Baptist churches and were commended for it. Her historical focus is medieval women and the Church, and she shows that even during patriarchal eras such as that women nevertheless were in some ways more free than they were after the Reformation. Before, they could join a Convent and be first-class citizens in God's economy. After the Reformation, the locus of spiritual spiritual authority shifted more toward the family and because of theological reasons, women became subordinated under the headship of their husbands. Given that she is a historian, it comes as no surprise that her historical argument against Complementarianism is the high point of the book.

Confronting Gender Determinism

Complementarians essentialize sex and gender to such a great degree that even the spiritual path of men and women becomes gendered. There is a cottage industry of Men's and Women's Study Bibles, as well as books seeking to explain how to be a godly wife or how to become the man that God created you to be. Barr does not try to dismantle the entire concept of gender by any means, but she does still argue that it means less than Complementarians want to squeeze out of it. When the concept of submission is feminized, we do the great injustice of acting as if a woman's spiritual growth is almost entirely a matter of getting married and submitting to her husband, and we do the parallel injustice of acting like men mostly don't have to worry about submission. Women and men can grow in godliness together! We are all of us created in the image of God; though there are certainly ways in which the masculine and feminine experience differ, growing in godliness and virtue should nevertheless be mostly framed in terms of our common human image instead of culturally-determined gender roles.

All that being said, she leaves this reader adrift when it comes to what gender should mean, or what a good kind of submission should look like. She mostly uses "submission" and "subordination" synonymously, so when we read biblical passages about submitting to authorities, submitting to one another, and submitting to God, are we supposed to view all of that negatively as "subordination"? Further, if Complementarians are wrong about what they believe the implications of gender to be, then what implications should one draw? Her intent was primarily to make a case against Complementarianism, but a positive vision for something else is, in my view, crucial to that argument.

Pushing Back Against Masculinized Exegesis

Complementarians typically like to read from "literal" translations like the ESV or NASB, thinking that this gets them "closer to the metal" as it were. These translations render grammatically masculine nouns and pronouns like αδελφοι ("brothers") or the singular "he" as they are, trusting that the reader will be able to determine from context when it applies to only men or when it is a shorthand for everyone. The problem is that the context is not always clear, and in those cases the reader is basically left to fall back upon his or her own culture's gender stereotypes. This results in the reader seeing a scriptural basis for a gender role when it is not in fact there. For example, Complementarians often point at 1 Timothy 5:8 ("if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever") to show that husbands are supposed to be the providers for their families, but this interpretation rests entirely on the word "he" and assumes that this should not be taken inclusively. Barr argues that overly-masculine Bible translations effectively write women out of the script in many places where they should be included.

The question of how to translate masculine pronouns and nouns is, of course, representative of the many other decisions translators must make. For example, Barr raises the question of whether to translate Phoebe's role in Romans 16:1 as "deacon" or "servant" (an option that some more "literal" translations in the 20th century chose).1 But both "deacon" and "servant" are literal translations; the average Bible reader should not assume that just because they are reading a self-described literal translation that it can therefore be read uncritically.

Nonetheless, when Barr engages in biblical exegesis of key passages to show why they do not support Complementarianism, it becomes clear that her degrees are in history and not Biblical studies. Consider her discussion of 1 Timothy 3:

A few months ago, I rewatched Steve Lipscomb’s documentary Battle for the Minds, which is about the conservative takeover of the SBC. I was struck by how the SBC leaders harped on 1 Timothy 3:2, that overseers should be husband of one wife. They used this as ironclad proof that senior pastors had to be men. Yet Lucy Peppiatt shows us how 1 Timothy 3, the chapter so often cited by the male leaders of the conservative resurgence as articulating why only men can preach, was shaped by English-language translations to look more masculine than it actually is. We assume 1 Timothy 3:1–13 is referencing men in leadership roles (overseer/bishop and deacon). But this is because of how our English Bibles translate the text. Whereas the Greek text uses the words whoever and anyone, with the only specific reference to man appearing in verse 12 (a literal Greek translation of the phrase is “one woman man,” referencing the married state of deacons), modern English Bibles have introduced eight to ten male pronouns within the verses. None of those male pronouns in our English Bibles are in the Greek text. Peppiatt concludes that the problem with female leadership is not actually the biblical text; it is the “relentless and dominant narrative of male bias” in translations.2

This analysis contains factual errors (verse 12 is not the "only specific reference to man"), and while Peppiatt's argument is valuable, it doesn't actually have anything to do with the argument that she describes SBC leaders using in Lipscomb's documentary. Barr describes his argument as boiling down to the male noun ἄνδρα ("husband" or "man") in 1 Timothy 3:2, while the refutation is about all the grammatically masculine pronouns in the other parts of the passage. I have not watched the documentary in question, but the point is that at least here the refutation has nothing to do with the argument; it's a red herring. It is possible that perhaps elsewhere SBC leaders did use the argument from masculine pronouns she refutes, but the presentation here is intellectually dishonest and sloppy.

She is correct that exegetical and translational choices can make a text seem more masculine than it really is, but again I found her positive demonstration of how we should exegete the text to be lacking.

Taking to Task Patriarchally-motivated Theologizing

Barr argues that there are two doctrines that enable Complementarians to hold Patriarchal views and feel good about it: Inerrancy and Eternal Functional Subordination. The latter is a recent invention that pretty transparently seeks to import Complementarianism into the Trinity, and she is right to call it out. It is by and large a rebrand of a heretical idea that the Church has always unequivocally renounced. It is deceptive and just plain bad theologizing to try to import hierarchy into the Trinity and then turn around and use that as an argument for Complementarianism. She rejects inerrancy, however, because she falsely equates the doctrine of Inerrancy and the interpretive attitude of "the plain and literal reading of the text":

“We may like what Paul says, or we may not like it,” proclaimed Princeton Seminary professor B.B. Warfield in 1920, “but there is no room for doubt in what he says.” The divinely sanctioned patriarchy entrenched in his words would sound the death knell for preaching Baptist women like Mrs. Lewis Ball. The concept of inerrancy made it increasingly difficult to argue against a “plain and literal” interpretation of “women be silent” and “women shall not teach.” The line between believing the Bible and believing a “plain and literal” interpretation of the Bible blurred. If Ephesians 5 told wives to submit to their husbands, the plain and literal interpretation demands that wives submit to their husbands. Those who disagree were not faithful to Scripture.3

It requires relatively little effort to dismantle the belief that scriptures must always be taken "literally." Psalm 18:2 is not suggesting that God is literally a rock or a fortress. Happily, one can quite easily reject literalist interpretation while gladly holding onto the conviction that God-breathed scripture is free from error. The many Egalitarian professors at my seminary regularly and heartily affirm that "the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God, inerrant in the original writings, complete as the revelation of God’s will for salvation, and the supreme and final authority in all matters to which they speak."4 Citing personal experience in the SBC, Barr goes on to claim, "Inerrancy creates an atmosphere of fear."5 By this she means that when literalist readings are questioned, other Christians respond defensively because their faith is fragile and even the smallest questions result in existential crises. But the solution is not to reject Inerrancy; the solution is to teach Christians in the pews basic hermeneutics so that they have an awareness of how the "plain and literal reading" is shaped by genre as well as by historical, cultural, and literary context.

Exposing Patterns of Abuse in Complementarian Churches

Complementarians often present their view of gender roles as the antidote to the over-sexualized culture that we live in today, and Barr's most emotively powerful work in this book is to take to task that line of reasoning. She points at the numerous #MeToo and #ChurchToo stories that have surfaced recently, both in the culture at large as well as in her own personal story. The narrative that Complementarianism is the antidote to our over-sexualized culture just flat-out doesn't work when sexual abuse is just as prevalent within Complementarian churches as it is in the culture at large. She does not beat around the bush: “Hierarchy gives birth to patriarchy, and patriarchy gives birth to the abuse of both sex and power.”6 The Complementarian reader will likely be affronted by this accusation, but they should not dismiss her lightly. If she is wrong about this, then what does give rise to the utterly grievous presence of abuse in these churches where men and women are supposedly living in the way God designed? Whether the reader ultimately accepts or rejects this conclusion, repentance must begin with the household of God, and it would be good and right to see Complementarians stop blaming victims and greatly strengthen cultural and structural forms of accountability for those who have power.

On Loving Neighbors and Doing Good, Scholarly Work

Near the end of the book, Barr exhorts her readers:

For those who still believe that biblical womanhood is God ordained, my advice is Dr. Switzer’s: Stop it! We have become so embroiled in arguments about Greek grammar and whose Bible translation is better that we have forgotten what Jesus told us was most important: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. ... [And] love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39). We have forgotten that the harshest words Jesus utters in the Bible are not to the ordinary people and sinners around him—the tax collectors and prostitutes and gentiles and women, whom the disciples kept trying to push away.7

This struck me as a particularly rich false dichotomy: not only did Barr devote plenty of time in her book both to "arguments about Greek grammar" and to making the case that some translations are patriarchal, but she then claims that when other people do this they are doing so instead of loving others. It's an insulting and condescending cheap shot at the many scholars who devote their entire lives to questions of translation and exegesis so that we might all benefit from their work and thus love our neighbors better. I imagine Barr would take issue if I asserted, "We should focus on loving our neighbors instead of worrying about the role of women in Medieval society." Rhetoric like this feeds into the tired, counter-productive, and even dangerous notion that Christian academics labor away in ivory towers that have no bearing upon the life of the church, when on the contrary their work is deeply necessary. We must not dismiss the hard work of biblical and theological study, but instead do so all the more but with the keen remembrance that it affects real people in significant ways, and has the power to do either good or harm.

Conclusion

Barr does a fabulous job demonstrating that many common Complementarian narratives about "how it’s always been" regarding sex and gender are at best historically ignorant and at worst profoundly damaging to real human beings. She shows why supposedly literal translations, overly masculinized exegesis, irresponsible theologizing, and preconceived biases about gender roles all come together to affect the way women are treated in Christian communities and the world at large. Though there are many substantive, troubling issues with her argumentation, I nevertheless came away with the conviction that she is the conscience that Complementarianism has lacked.

Who should read it? The Complementarian who is aware of the stakes would do well to listen humbly and carefully. She's going to poke your sacred cows. She's going to trigger you. You will most likely find some of her arguments lacking. You'll be angry and shocked, but you'll be better for it. But as a Complementarian, you should be aware of your movement, your history, and the skeletons in your movement's closet. You absolutely should reflect on the ways that your Complementarianism might be creating space for men to prey upon women. You should mourn for the damage that has been done to women by Complementarians just like you, and whether you are persuaded to renounce Complementarianism or not, you should actively work against abusers and the ways in which they use their masculinity to take advantage of others.

DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of a fair, unbiased review.

1. Barr, Beth Allison, The Making of Biblical Womanhood (prerelease), (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2021), Kindle Electronic Edition loc. 1003.
2. Barr, Biblical Womanhood, loc. 2115.
3. Barr, Biblical Womanhood, loc. 2717.
4. Statement of Faith | Denver Seminary
5. Barr, Biblical Womanhood, loc. 2728.
6. Barr, Biblical Womanhood, loc. 2965.
7. Barr, Biblical Womanhood, loc. 2943.