N. T. Wright on Women in Ministry
2012 June 7
N. T. Wright, speaking at the beautiful Serra Retreat Center in Malibu on the full participation of women in ministry (via Rachel Held Evans):
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This is just another example of how we are often afraid to read the Text plainly. We have a tendency to rationalize away passages which don’t fit neatly into our preconceived views of doctrine. One does not have to be as scholarly qualified as N T Wright to read the plain Text for what it says.
Our cultural trends, even within the CoC, are to accept women more actively involved, but there remains much opposition.
Mildly amusing to hear Wright say, one cannot be a Biblical Christian and object to women in ministry. A serious indictment for many.
I love that while some flippantly claim you can’t be serious about the Bible and still call for full participation of women in ministry, along comes one of the best Bible scholars (and a conservative one at that) who insists that scripture does open the doors.
Interesting that Tom Wright makes a distinction between relying on church tradition or relying on the Biblical text when approaching an issue such as the participation of women. It seems that our fellowship leans heavily on the former, while claiming solely a reliance on the latter.
Great video! I especially like the setting for the filming! Ever been there?
With that accent and those thoughts, I would follow this man anywhere! Thanks, Mike.
Based upon what is stated in the brief video clip, N. T. Wright says nothing about “full participation of women in ministry,” but rather participation of women in ministry. On that topic he is correct.
Since 1 Corinthians predates the Gospels by decades [and by generations in the minds of many scholars], Paul can hardly be accused of “removing” [airbrushing out] the tradition about the women at the tomb.
Thanks for the video clip.
Actually he does say “full participation” — it’s in the first minute.
What he also does, however, is gloss over and marginalize some other fairly clear texts that makes his implied point at the end that elder/leadership positions should be open based on John 20, somewhat suspect.
Everyone has an agenda.
What Judy Thomas said…
Richard O, are you saying that Paul’s letters pre-date all of the oral traditions from which the Gospels were cobbled together? That IS an interesting perspective. qb
qb! Don’t play with fire…. Dr. Oster isn’t known as “Oster the Toaster” for nothing….. Even the apostle Paul thinks twice before disagreeing with him! (Pompous redheads like myself, though, seem to do it recreationally. ^_^)
I say this all with respect and affection. We disagree vastly, but I adore and admire Dr. O.
Thanks for the warning, Q…I suppose I should have suspected I was poking a bear. Still, I’ll be interested in his “take” on my question, should he condescend to answer it from his lofty perch in the tower d’ivoire.
In any case, qb was forced Sunday night to consider the possibility that in I Corinthians 5:1ff Paul goes a bit further in his tactical discipline of sexual deviancy than Jesus might have gone, assuming John 8:1ff is both acceptable and accurate and John 4 is accurate. So the interplay among Gospel text, Pauline epistle-texts, and Gospel source traditions (sensu Bauckham) is piquing qb’s interest something terrible.
qb
IBID what Judy and Anne said!!
)
Thank you so much for posting this wonderful discussion on women in ministry. Now we need the courage to keep the discussion going and to act….I have been to the mountain top and seen the other side….I have a dream….that one day, women, will be “judged by the content of the character.”
Yep. I bet it’s safe that NTW is speaking about the oral traditions.
Mike, on the Christian Chrononicle website is listed an event n Montgomery for Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes camp.
Now this is bad on so many levels I am surprised the CC listed it, but the idea that the word leader has to be feminized in form (a totally ungrammatical form) to include female campers just blows me away.
It breaks my heart to think of young girls in Montgomery thinking that they can be leaderetts, but never leaders.
Especially since, if current trends continue, they will live in a society with more female leaders in government, industry, the professions, and academia than male leaders.
Linda -
Even worse – the leaderettes are only allowed to “compete” (smh) in an all female environment. Congrats Dad! Your daughter was the best female song leader. But you can never see it, or you’d be sinning.
God help us…
One can’t be a catholic Christian and consent to women priests. I was a “priestess” in TEC for 13 years and have written a great deal on this topic, tracing the origins of the priesthood as a caste in the anceint Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Women priests has had disastrous consequences for Anglicanism. The consequences follow from breaking the back of catholic orders and setting aside 2000 years of Church tradition.