Does Christianity Teach Male Headship?: the Equal-regard Marriage and Its Critics

Jacket Description/Back: This is not just another book on the perennial issue of male headship. In contrast to those many who regard Christianity as the great source of male domination, this book argues that authentic Christianity does not teach that husbands have spiritual superiority over their wives, and its authors listen to and engage voices that still claim that it does. Written by distinguished Protestant and Roman Catholic scholars, the book first demonstrates how deep strands of the Christian tradition have always taught an ethic of gender mutuality, sowing the seeds for what is today called the "equal-regard marriage." Though patriarchy was pervasive in the ancient world surrounding early Christianity and sometimes influenced the church, new research shows that the earliest layers of Christianity both resisted and worked to transform it. Not every author in the book agrees with this point of view; dissenters have their say too. As a whole, "Does Christianity Teach Male Headship? constitutes a robust debate that, finally, invites readers to decide. Contributors: David BlankenhornDon BrowningLisa Sowle CahillAllan C. CarlsonDaniel Mark CereMaggie GallagherW. Robert GodfreyBonnie Miller-McLemoreJohn W. MillerCarolyn OsiekMary Stewart Van LeeuwenJohn Witte Jr. Publisher Marketing: This is not just another book on the perennial issue of male headship. In contrast to those many who regard Christianity as the great source of male domination, this book argues that authentic Christianity does not teach that husbands have spiritual superiority over their wives, and its authors listen to and engage voices that still claim that it does. Written by distinguished Protestant and Roman Catholic scholars, the book first demonstrates how deep strands of the Christian tradition have always taught an ethic of gender mutuality, sowing the seeds for what is today called the "equal-regard marriage." Though patriarchy was pervasive in the ancient world surrounding early Christianity and sometimes influenced the church, new research shows that the earliest layers of Christianity both resisted and worked to transform it. Not every author in the book agrees with this point of view; dissenters have their say too. As a whole, "Does Christianity Teach Male Headship? constitutes a robust debate that, finally, invites readers to decide. Contributors: David BlankenhornDon BrowningLisa Sowle CahillAllan C. CarlsonDaniel Mark CereMaggie GallagherW. Robert GodfreyBonnie Miller-McLemoreJohn W. MillerCarolyn OsiekMary Stewart Van LeeuwenJohn Witte Jr.

Contributor Bio:  Blankenhorn, David Blankenhorn is founder and president of the Institute for American Values and has long been a key figure in the public debate on marriage and the family as well as a prominent leader in the fatherhood movement. He is the founder of the Council on Families in Ameria. Contributor Bio:  Van Leeuwen, Mary Stewart Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen is professor of psychology and philosophy at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. She taught at Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Michigan) for many years, and she has been a senior editor of Christianity Today. Currently she is a contributing editor for Books & Culture. Van Leeuwen has written, cowritten, and contributed to several books, includingThe Psychology of Intergroup Relations (with L. Kidder, McGraw-Hill, 1975), The Person in Psychology (Eerdmans, 1985), After Eden (one of several contributors, Eerdmans, 1993), Religion, Feminism & the Family (co-editor, Westminster John Knox, 1996), The Family Handbook (co-editor, Westminster John Knox, 1998) and Women and the Future of the Family (with Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Mardi Keyes and Stanley Grenz, Baker, 2000). Contributor Bio:  Browning, Don Don S. Browning is Alexander Campbell Professor Emeritus of Ethics and the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.