Book Giveaway #2 Winners!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our second book giveaway. This go around we had nine participants (via comments and email) with a handful entered for a second chance. For our first giveaway, I wrote down each name on separate pieces of paper, dropped them all in a bucket and asked my son to draw two names. This time I found a very helpful online tool called List Randomizer (one of many tools offered at Random.org) which worked beautifully. After copying and pasting my list of names into the List Randomizer, the following three names were the top three:

1. Brian Kooshian
2. Joseph Wipff
3. Paul Nelson

Congratulations to all three of you. If you would be so kind as to email me with your mailing address, I'll package these and send them out to you.

Margaret Elizabeth Köstenberger, Jesus and the Feminists: Who Do They Say That He Is? Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2008. Softcover, 253 pages. $19.99



Prior to reading this book the issue of Feminism (especially Egalitarianism) had not been on my radar. I've read references to this issue here and there, but had not given much attention to it. Köstenberger presentation in this book has provided a very clear picture of what is at stake in the Feminist agenda. What is at stake here, as in many other contemporary theological debates, is the authority of Scripture. Along with this is the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. Of course, in many respects, especially regarding radical/reformist feminists, the Gospel is at stake.

In her conclusion, Köstenberger writes,

Overall, each of these feminist interpreters differs sharply as to the method used to arrive at the teaching of Scripture, whether Scripture itself is understood to teach feminism or egalitarianism. Both radical and reformist feminists, albeit to a differing degree, contend that Scripture is characterized by a patriarchal bias and must therefore be subjected to a rigorous critique in light of feminist tenets. Evangelical feminists, conversely, believe that Scripture, rightly interpreted, teaches egalitarianism, the notion of complete gender equality in personhood, worth, and role. It must be concluded that both cannot be right. Either Scripture teaches egalitarianism, or it does not. (pp. 217-18)

Earlier in the book she quotes John H. Elliott, an egalitarian who confesses that,

If the church were ever to put an egalitarian vision into practice, it would be a first-time event and an accomplishment that eluded even Jesus and his frist followers. (p. 108)

Finally, I would like to list the names of the Feminists and Egalitarians Köstenberger profiles and discusses (or simply references) in this book.

Radical Feminists

• Mary Daly
• Virginia Mollenkott
• Daphne Hampson

Reformist Feminists

• Letty Russell

Reformist/Radical Feminists

• Rosemary Radford Ruether
• Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza

Jesus Seminar Feminist (Historical)

• Kathleen Corley

New Feminism (Literary)

• Amy-Jill Levine

Evangelical Feminists (Egalitarians)

• John H. Elliot
• I. Howard Marshall (mentioned in passing)
• Krister Stendahl
• Letha Scanzoni
• Nancy Hardesty
• Paul Jewett
• Dorothy Pape
• Mary Evans
• Ben Witherington III
• Gilbert Bilezikian
• Aida Besançon Spencer
• Richard Longenecker
• Grant Osborne
• Ruth Tucker
  
• R. T. France
• Stanley Grenz
• Linda Belleville
• William Webb
• Douglas Groothuis
• John Phelan

Book Giveaway #2 Winners!