N.T. Wright: Egalitarianism isn’t “progressive”; it’s biblical. Others object.

November 29, 2012February 5, 2015 / Paul Burkhart / 4 Comments

Alas, due to my obsessive commitment to not let blogging get in the way of the relationships in my life, my promised post on the historical context of 1 Timothy will not be coming today (and may have to wait until next week). Instead, as part of this ongoing series, today I’d like to offer to all of you an excellent Op-ed that biblical scholar N.T. Wright posted in The Times of London (copublished here).

Last week, the Church of England voted not to allow any female bishops (though they have, for some time, allowed female priests). Prime Minister David Cameron bemoaned this, telling the Church they needed to “get with the programme” and ordain women bishops because that’s just where the world is right now, apparently. (This issue is also causing other political problems for the Church.)

Wright, who supports female bishops wrote the Op-Ed blasting Cameron for encouraging the Church to “get with the times”, saying that that is never a reason why the Church should do anything. He continues, blasting the idea of naive “progressivism” that has dominated monder thought.

Instead, he says, the Church should ordain female bishops because it’s biblical, not because it’s “cool” or “progressive”. He goes on to say that appealing to the culture does damage to the truth that it is biblical, and reinforces the patently false idea that those that oppose female ordination are the ones reading Scripture “literally” and “faithfully” while egalitarians are only listening to “culture”.

The Op-ed is brief, snarky, and powerful. Needless to say, it garned some thoughts from conservatives on this side of the pond. Doug Wilson did not just one, but two posts on it, and Denny Burke also wrote against it. The Internet Monk then brilliantly deconstructed their responses.

And so, I give you these men (why is it always men!) to read and discuss in the space below. Have fun.

On Women Leading Stuff in the Church: 1 Timothy 2:8-12

November 28, 2012June 3, 2018 / Paul Burkhart / 7 Comments

In this series on women in the church I haven’t taken the usual approach of jumping right to Bible verses. I feel there are far deeper things that affect how we interpret before we even opened the Bible. I thought we should talk about that.

This has also been a really hard post to write. For much of my readership (especially those whose minds I am most interested in changing–male church leaders who disagree with me), I don’t know what I can say that’s different than what they’ve heard before. I don’t like feeling like I’m contributing to the noise.

So here’s what we’re going to do. I’m just going to try and deconstruct the more conservative view of these verses (this post), and then offer a reconstruction of how I view the verses now (the next post). If people need me to cite sources and such, then I can do that in the comments. I won’t bog down this post with that stuff, because the people that care are generally the people that both know where to find the information and/or already know it and have incorporated it into their view. So here we go.

the text

Here’s the text in question. This is the single most “problematic” text for those that see a valid place for women in the ordained leadership offices of the Church. The text is 1 Timothy 2:8-14 (ESV):
Continue reading →

Top 10 Reasons Why Men Shouldn’t Be Ordained [casual fri]

November 23, 2012February 5, 2015 / Paul Burkhart / 2 Comments

In this on-going series on women in the ministry of the church, I’ve certainly tried very hard to not be snarky, sarcastic, or ungracious to those that disagree with me on these issues. Nevertheless, this was a bit of fun I could not resist. It’s from a post on the (now defunct, it seems) blog Christian Feminism (of course). It was originally a comment left on one of their posts. I loved this list so much, I decided to post a few of my favorites from the list. Enjoy.

Top 10 Reasons Why Men Shouldn’t Be Ordained

10. A man’s place is in the army.

9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibilities of being a parent.

8. Their physical build indicates that men are more suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do other forms of work.

7. Man was created before woman. It is therefore obvious that man was a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowning achievement of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. This is easily demonstrated by their conduct at football games and watching basketball tournaments.

5. Some men are handsome; they will distract women worshipers.

4. To be ordained pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more frequently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes by any means other than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

2. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep paths, repair the church roof, change the oil in the church vans, and maybe even lead the singing on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church.

1. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus, his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinated position that all men should take.

Two quick questions for all you complementarians out there….

November 20, 2012February 5, 2015 / Paul Burkhart / 6 Comments

I’m still in the process of writing my first post on a specific text (1 Timothy 2:8-15). It’s not done yet (I chose to have an amazing of night full of wings and really good friends instead of writing it).

Because of the impending holiday weekend and the travel days that it entails, I’ll probably be putting that one up on Monday (sorry to get everyone fired up just to drop you for almost a week), but in the meantime, I wanted to solicit some help from my more conservative friends out there (also usually called “complementarians“) on a couple of questions I’ve had during this on-going series on Women in the Church. First:

Under a complementarian view, what would the traits of a failed husband in this respect look like? In other words, what does a “feminine” husband look like? Does that look anything like the way you think women are supposed to act in the home?

What I’m getting at is this: when I think of these answers (on both extremes), I think of terms like “weak, passive, indecisive, silent, not-present, abusive, exploitative, manipulative, and aggressive”.
Continue reading →

Women & the Church: 2 things that began changing my mind

November 19, 2012June 3, 2018 / Paul Burkhart / 20 Comments

the journey

If it’s not obvious so far, I wanted to make something clear before we begin: these posts in this series on Women the Church are walking through the same path my own journey took get to where I am.

In my last post, there was a concern that a friend brought up that I didn’t get to talking about the biblical texts enough. Well, this is because both egalitarians and complementarians are looking at the same biblical texts. In my own shifts on this issue, the key changes were not “new” Bible verses I found.
Continue reading →

Happy Fall, Philly

November 17, 2012November 17, 2012 / Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

photo by way of The Daily Philly

Women & the Church: we’re ALMOST to the Bible, but first…

November 15, 2012February 5, 2015 / Paul Burkhart / 11 Comments

Well, we’ve gone through some of my own journey and some of the ways this discussion goes, but the real meat of this discussion centers around a few key biblical texts. Various refutes and refutations’ refutes can be found with any easy Google search. I don’t necessarily want to re-hash the more widely-publicized textual minutiae of the issue, though some of that will be necessary.

In this post, I could easily just list the three primary offending texts and then talk about how my view differs from others’ views. But those other people’s views don’t come out of thin air. They are based in many more (and, epistemologically more important) assumptions and bigger issues that usually never get touched on.

And so, as I continue this series, today I just want to touch on the ways people go about using the Bible in this, and then defending how I feel like we should use the Bible here. After this post, beginning next week, I promise we’ll start getting into actual biblical texts. But we need to do this first.

Because, as anyone that has studied theology begins to realize, everything comes back to your chosen interpretive method and filters–what’s usually referred to as a “hermeneutic”.

Continue reading →

Christian egalitarians: authority-fearing, culture-worshipping, Bible-hating, puppy-kicking liberals (and other truths)

November 14, 2012February 5, 2015 / Paul Burkhart / 12 Comments

I hate pontificating.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Often, we can only hate most deeply that which we know most truly. Going through the annals of this very blog and my own conversations (especially during college), pontification makes frequent guest appearances.

By “pontification” I mean saying something authoritatively more for the sake of emphasizing the authority with which you say it than the point for which you did. It’s speaking to your base and those who agree with you, and it often says more about you than it does for the topic at hand. And generally, especially for issues where there is deep disagreement, it accomplishes absolutely nothing more than entrenching each side.

Continuing this series on gender relationships in the church, I don’t want to do that. I really don’t. But too often, this is the case.

Continue reading →

On women leading & teaching stuff in churches: a story

November 13, 2012February 5, 2015 / Paul Burkhart / 23 Comments

Women, and their role in shaping society’s power structures, are at the fore-front of our nation’s consciousness and cultural discussion right now–Evangelical and otherwise.

Socio-politically: Maureen Dowd wrote about it this past week. Hanna Rosin wrote a book about this happening. Sandra Fluke got Rush Limbaugh into a tizzy and then spoke at the Democratic National Convention. Republican leaders, for some reason, could simply not stop talking about rape. Mitt Romney bragged about his binders full of them. Last week, Americans elected the largest number of females to Congress than it ever has.

In Evangelicalism: Rachel Held Evans brought attention to misogyny and patriarchalism at one of the bastions of the Neo-Reformed. Her new book, which already carried some controversy, has been criticized and patronized by conservative evangelicals, including one of the top female thinkers of that flock (Evans’ response, a scholar’s rebuttal). Concerning said bastion, after a rough search and count for the phrase “Complementarianism”, it seems that over half of the results appeared this year alone. At the time of this writing, a different bastion of the Neo-Reformed, upon visit to their site has as the featured video: “Complementarianism: Essential or Expendable?”. The Church of England just announced their new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and one of the main issues being talked about is his views on women’s ordination.

And so, I’m starting a series of posts (as I usually do) to offer up some of my thoughts on the Christianity side of this discussion–thoughts which I hope are helpful to us all. But first, I find it only fair to tell you all my journey into this and where I stand. I’ve hinted at it before, but a fuller treatment might be in order.

Continue reading →

Class 6: NT Letters, Revelation, & The Bible in Worship (WE’RE DONE!)

August 21, 2012August 21, 2012 / Paul Burkhart / 3 Comments

This week was the last week in the six-week Bible Survey class I’m been doing at my church.

It’s been an honor to do this class, and I feel like this last one went especially well. Others seemed to find it genuinely helpful.

We ended our time in this class by talking for a little bit about how we can use the Bible–and all the information we just gleaned these past weeks–in our own, personal, spiritual lives.

To conclude the class, this Saturday we will be going to University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. You really won’t want to miss this. I’ll be putting a post up on this tomorrow.

For those that have followed in class and online, thank you so much for doing so. It was such an honor to be able to do this class, and I can’t believe I was given the time and grace to do it.

I hope that these resources are found to be helpful to those that invest their time into them; and that they draw each of you into a greater knowledge, love, and desire for our God as He meets us in our Scriptures.

And lastly, over the next months, I will be compiling all of these notes, as well as other essays I’ve written on the Bible in the past and self-publishing a book in both print and electronic forms. If you think about it, please pray for me. I’m starting to see that self-publishing is a lot more costly and complicated than I had originally thought.

This Lecture Covers:

A chronological survey of the contents and background of Paul’s letters
Discussion of the contents and background of the other letters of the New Testament
A talk about that crowd-favorite, Revelation. We talked about how it fits into the greater story of Scripture, how it’s often misread, how to properly read it, and it’s contents and background
How one should approach the Bible to build up their spiritual life
Practical methods people can employ to know God through the Scriptures

**Side Note: twice in the audio of this lecture, I refer to Galatians and James as books that may each have been the “first book of the Bible written”. I meant to say “New Testament”, not “Bible”. Sorry.**

Download: [Audio] [Notes] Continue reading →

Class 5: Intertestament, pt. 2; NT Intro; Gospels; Acts

August 16, 2012August 16, 2012 / Paul Burkhart / 3 Comments

This week was the fifth week in the six-week Bible Survey class I’m doing at my church.

And wow, we covered a lot in the class. But still, this class probably had the greatest percentage of material I had prepared that was not actually touched on in the talk. This makes the manuscript that much more full of extra material.

Covering the topics above, I have 35 pages of material below.

You may have noticed that I never actually finished the materials I talked about last week. Well, entering into an entirely new testament of the Bible put me in a mindset that I just couldn’t go back to finish up writing about every one of the Prophets. I’ll do it someday. I promise.

Lastly, mark your calendars for August 25th, where we will be going to University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. You really won’t want to miss this. Details to come next week.

This Lecture Covers:

A discussion of the Political and Religious history between the Old and New Testaments
An Introduction to the Background of the New Testament
Background and context of Jesus, his upbringing, and his life
Survey of the content and background of the Gospels.
An extensive and in-depth look at the book of Acts.

Download: [Audio] [Notes] Continue reading →

Class 4: Prophets, pt. 2; Wisdom Books; & Intertestamental Period, pt. 1

July 31, 2012August 11, 2012 / Paul Burkhart / 1 Comment

This week was the fourth week in the six-week Bible Survey class I’m doing at my church.

We didn’t quite get to the Introduction of the New Testament like I had planned. This class was a bit different than other ones. Rather than focusing on a lot fo content of each book, this week was mostly a “tour” of these sections of the Bible and History, with some “highlights” along the way. The main point was to give people a bigger picture of these things to help them read the Bible themselves.

Just like last week, my notes are very incomplete. Most everything I said is in there, but I definitely want to provide a lot more in the notes than I say–and that hasn’t been filled in for most of the books so far. I will be spending the next two weeks filling that in. Once I’m done, I’ll let you all know. Thanks for your patience.

Lastly, I know I did a very poor job at telling the story of the Intertestamental history. I will try this again and condense it more in the next class. I will be much better prepared then.

This Lecture Covers:

Principles to keep in mind to help when reading the Prophetic books
Highlights from the Prophetic Books
Survey of the content and some of the background of the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament, with a special focus on the content of Job
Survey of the History between the Old Testament and New

Download: [Audio] [Notes] Continue reading →

Class 3: The Historical Books & Prophets, pt. 1

July 24, 2012July 24, 2012 / Paul Burkhart / 2 Comments

This week was the third week in the six-week Bible Survey class I’m doing at my church.

And yes, we actually covered all the books of the Old Testament from Joshua to Nehemiah, did an intro to the Prophets, and had a brief discussion on the ethical problems with the “Old Testament God” in an hour.

You can find a small article I wrote on those atrocities and “ethical dilemmas” of the Old Testament attached to the end of the Notes below.

At the time of this writing, I’m not quite done with the notes, but I wanted to get the lecture audio to everyone. So, below you will find an incomplete version of the notes. I will upload a revised version later today (or tonight) with everything else filled in. I’ll update this post when that happens, as well as the Scribd doc below.

Also, as I posted about earlier today, as part of this class we will be going to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit this Saturday in Philadelphia. There are also discounted tickets available. Check the link, and I hope to see you there!

This Lecture Covers:

A discussion of the Deuteronomistic and Priestly Histories of the Old Testament
Survey of the content and background of the Historical Books of the Old Testament from Joshua to Nehemiah
An general introduction to the Prophets
A discussion concerning the atrocities committed in God’s name by the Israelites in Joshua and Numbers

Download: [Audio] [Notes] Continue reading →

Class 2: The Rest of the Pentateuch (from Exodus to Deuteronomy)

July 10, 2012July 10, 2012 / Paul Burkhart / 2 Comments

This week was the second week in the six-week Bible Survey class I’m doing at my church. We went through the rest of the Pentateuch, or more specifically, Exodus through Deuteronomy. I was originally hoping to do all the historical books of the Bible, then I was just hoping to get through Joshua. I did neither. We just got to Deuteronomy. But that will be okay.

In the recording, there’s also a brief discussion we ended up having on the importance of historicty and the Old Testament–a topic that’s only going to more of issue as we move forward in this class. Be sure to listen and get in on the discussion! You can follow the class on the class page above.

**Remember, we have next week off, so the next lecture is on 7/22, with our first field trip on 7/28.**

This Lecture Covers:

Review of the foundational ideas of the Bible we talked about last week
A more refined response on my part on the doctrine of “Revelation”
Survey of the content, background, and application of Exodus through Deuteronomy
Discussion concerning the historicity of the Old Testament and its importance

Download: [Audio] [Notes] Continue reading →

Class 1: The Bible & it’s Story, OT Intro, & Genesis

July 3, 2012July 10, 2012 / Paul Burkhart / 8 Comments

This past week, I started the Bible Survey Class I mentioned earlier today. It’s a six-week class going through a theology and history of the Bible and its contents, with an emphasis on these facts helping to build up the spiritual life of Christians. It also goes into a lot of the historical development and issues behind the Bible, so it could also be of interest to non-Christians. You can follow the class on the class page above.