In this work, Amy Peeler presents a robust reading of the New Testament incarnation narratives, arguing for a view of God that transcends gender. She energetically exposes the presuppositions undergirding the traditional claim that God is male. Peeler draws from her well-rounded experience as an associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and associate rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Geneva, Illinois.

Peeler’s argument proceeds in three steps—elaborating on the meaning of sex, gender, and roles. First, she draws from Israelite history and New Testament writings to tackle the claim that God is male. Through an analysis of the purity laws of Judaism and the Gospels’ portrait of Mary’s pregnancy and birthing of Jesus, she uncovers the shortcomings of traditional assumptions. The work proceeds by reaching beyond the ordinary conception that God is masculine because of attributes such as sovereignty and divine initiative. Peeler challenges the usual trope of the oppressed feminine woman, underscoring how Mary represents strength. The third move of the argument addresses the controversial subject of gender “roles.” Peeler builds her position around the doctrine of the virginal conception, implying that the nature of the dogma makes Jesus’ maleness one of a kind.

Peeler’s argument against the alleged maleness of God engages Hebrew and NT scripture interpretations. She concedes that the OT scriptures characteristically represent God as male but maintains that they never depict God as a “sexual” male deity. She argues that the frequent Hebrew scripture allusions to God as Israel’s Father or King remain purely figurative, “contained within the ideas of founding or care, never procreation” (p. 13). Although NT depictions are more direct—God causes the birth of a baby—Peeler emphasizes that God’s maleness remains one of analogy. God is like a father. He is not a “sexual” male that impregnated a human woman (p. 19). Peeler’s most impactful argument is a pneumatological one, drawing on the linguistic representation of the Holy Spirit. In the OT, the Spirit is referred to using the feminine Hebrew ruakh. In the NT, the Spirit is neither masculine nor feminine, but referred to using the neuter Greek pneuma. In Trinitarian perspective, the agent of birth in the Gospels is the Holy Spirit who is responsible for Mary’s pregnancy (Matt. 1:18, 20) and the one whose power overshadows her making the child the holy babe of God (Luke 1:35).

Reviewed by Paul J. Palma

Publisher’s page: https://www.eerdmans.com/9780802879097/women-and-the-gender-of-god/

Tom Doyle was a pastor. About twenty years ago he and his wife, JoAnn, felt a call to be missionaries to the Middle East. They are the founders of Uncharted Ministries (https://unchartedministries.com/). If you go to the website you will see that they have a burden to share the gospel with two groups of people that many feel are difficult to reach, the Jewish people and Muslims. Presenting Jesus to these groups can be especially challenging. The Doyles reach out to them wherever they can. Often this outreach takes place in countries that many western Christians would be afraid to go to. In Women Who Risk, the authors share the stories of women they have met in various countries in the Middle East. Tom has also written other books that deal with the experiences of believers in this part of the world (see pages xvii-xviii in Women Who Risk).

The book begins with a section called “An Unstoppable Force.” One topic addressed in its pages is Satan’s war on women; this has been going on since Genesis 3 (page xx). The authors go on to say that once women come to Jesus, they can become a force to be reckoned with. This is happening in the Muslim world, women are influencing others for Jesus (page xxii). The Doyles call women “the spiritual gatekeepers of their families” (page xix). The chapters that follow demonstrate their influence.

The main body of the book consists of seven chapters. In each chapter the reader is introduced to a Muslim woman somewhere in the Middle East. In some cases the reader will also meet those who helped them in their journey to Jesus. Due to security concerns the names of the Muslim women and some of the details of their stories story have been changed in order to protect them (page xix). When you read their stories you will understand why.

The accounts in this book are quite varied and have different outcomes. In chapter 1 a Muslim woman became a follower of Jesus after being set free from jinns, that is, demons (pages 1-4). She was tormented by them. This woman’s father was a sheikh and he trained imams, Muslim clerics (page 4). A Muslim coworker told her if she wanted help with her problem she should go to a church (page 3). She met a pastor and his wife, they prayed for her, and she was set free from the jinns and became a believer (pages 8-9). Her father died at about the same time and her new found faith earned her the wrath of her mother (pages 9-10, 18-19). However, through a divinely orchestrated series of events this young woman led her mother to the Lord (page 22). You need to read this story, it is truly amazing!

Not all of the stories have as happy an ending as the one I mentioned in the previous paragraph. In chapter 7 the reader will met a Muslim woman who became a believer after seeing Jesus in Mecca at the hajj, which is a major annual gathering for Muslims (pages 165-168). She shared her experience with a longtime friend and it started her friend’s journey toward Jesus. The Christian women encouraged her friend to pray to Jesus, this friend asked Jesus to appear to her in a dream that night, and He did (pages 171-174). The woman who was a believer took her friend to an underground church meeting (pages 176-179). As a result of her dream, the love of the people, and a Scripture passage that she read at the church meeting; her friend became a believer (pages 177-179). When the church met, outsiders were led to believe that the people were gathering to watch a soccer game (pages 175-176). The women enjoyed the meetings. In time the family of the woman who came to Christ first become suspicious that she had become a Christian (pages 183-184). One of her brothers followed her to a meeting of the underground church and joined her in the meeting (pages 184-185). Though the group did not pray or read the Bible while he was present he believed she had converted. The woman was pretty sure that her days were numbered. Because of this, she fled the country in order to escape becoming the victim of an honor killing. So she left her family behind. But she went on to minister to Muslims in another place in the world, the United States (page 191).

The book contains an epilogue which highlights some of the important lessons that can be gleaned from the book. These lessons are: Danger is Temporary, Pray for Miracles and Expect Them, and Prayer is for the Long Haul. The authors also offer some information for those who wish to be more involved in reaching Muslims.

There are some recurring themes in this book. You will find that prior to their conversions some of these women wanted to kill their husbands. When you read their stories you will understand why. They were humiliated. They were verbally and physically abused. Not all Muslims mistreat their wives (page xxi), but in this volume you will meet some who were ill-treated. You will also find the supernatural in this book. There are accounts of Jesus appearing, in dreams and in person, at least one case of divine healing, and there are stories of Jesus bringing food to people in times of need. One very important take away from this book is the resolve that the women have to be faithful to Jesus. They do this even though it is extremely dangerous to be a Christian in their countries. Their examples are truly inspiring. This book demonstrates clearly that God is moving powerfully today among Muslims.

Reviewed by John Lathrop

For a free chapter from Women Who Risk, complete the form available from the publisher: https://www.thomasnelson.com/p/women-who-risk/#freechapters

Tom and JoAnn Doyle: After twenty years of pastoring, God gave us a definite call to go to the Middle East and serve Him in multiple countries. I had become a tour guide for the State of Israel while I was a pastor, but God began to work in our hearts about the people who needed Jesus in Israel and the entire Middle East. Both of us received calls and God put it so strongly on our hearts to leave pastoring and go!

PneumaReview.com: What types of ministry are you involved in overseas?

Tom and JoAnn: At Uncharted, we have 70 national indigenous leaders in Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan, and Germany. Our goal is to reach the unreached and stand with the persecuted. Our team plants churches in high risk areas among Muslims and we work with Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Israel. Another strong emphasis is working with persecuted believers. We try to sound the alarm in the West about the major breakthrough that is occurring in the Muslim world. More Muslims have come to faith in Christ in the last 10-20 years than in the last 1400 years of Islam!

PneumaReview.com: JoAnn, please tell us a bit about the new book, Women Who Risk.

JoAnn: After 20 years now in the Middle East we realized that women were always instrumental in the harvest field of salvations. The women we write about in Women Who Risk are real and their stories are true, but the book reads like a thrilling novel. God’s stories are the best, aren’t they? We just had to tell these stories because they remind us of the faithful women who financed Jesus’ ministry, were at the Cross, the Burial and the Empty Tomb. They were the first Gospel sharers as they told the Good News to the disciples too.

PneumaReview.com: In the book, women are described as “spiritual gatekeepers.” Please explain what that means.

Tom and JoAnn: Women are the major influencers in their families when it comes to spiritual things. You would think that would not be true in the Muslim world, but it is a God-given role to mothers and if they come to faith in Christ, they are faithful to tell their family even if they may die. At Uncharted we say, reach a Muslim woman, reach the Muslim world.

PneumaReview.com: Tom, you wrote a book about dreams and visions. How prevalent are they in the Middle East?

Tom: I didn’t believe in it at first until we were hit by a tidal wave of salvations with former Muslims who often told us that it all started with a high-definition Jesus dream. About 1 in 3 Muslims who come to faith in Christ say they had a dream or vision of Jesus Christ. He identifies Himself as Jesus in the dream so there is no doubt. No one goes to bed a Muslim and wakes up a Christian because of a dream of Jesus. But it starts them on a journey to find our who Jesus is after they have the initial encounter. Maybe because so few go to the Muslims with the Gospel as missionaries, and because Islam is 1/5^th of the planet, Jesus is leading the way and opening up the door for us.

Leah Payne speaks with PneumaReview.com about her book, Gender and Pentecostal Revivalism.

PneumaReview.com: For your book, Gender and Pentecostal Revivalism, why did you concentrate on the ministry of two revivalists?

Leah Payne, Gender and Pentecostal Revivalism: Making a Female Ministry in the Early Twentieth Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), xii+223 pages.
From the Publisher’s page: This innovative volume provides an interdisciplinary, theoretically innovative answer to an enduring question for Pentecostal/charismatic Christianities: how do women lead churches? This study fills this lacuna by examining the leadership and legacy of two architects of the Pentecostal movement – Maria Woodworth-Etter and Aimee Semple McPherson.

Leah Payne: I wanted to explore how gender (as well as race and class) shaped Pentecostal Revivalism over time, so I chose revivalists who were powerful and influential representatives of the first two generations of the movement. Maria Woodworth-Etter is an example of how Pentecostal revivalism originated in holiness revival circles and then morphed into its own distinct set of practices and theologies. A generation later, Aimee Semple McPherson represented a shift in Pentecostal revivalism from its rural, tent-revival practices into the middleclass mainstream of American evangelicalism. Both revivalists toured extensively, wrote prolifically, pastored mega-churches, had many imitators, and used mass media to distribute their messages. Thus, they are ideal subjects to study the formation and reformation of the movement over the years.

PneumaReview.com: How would you introduce Maria Woodworth-Etter and Aimee Semple McPherson to someone who is not familiar with their stories?

Leah Payne: Good question!  Woodworth-Etter and McPherson were two of the most influential and innovative revivalist ministers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Like a lot of powerful revivalists, they were famous for their preaching and infamous for their ministry careers and personal lives. Like a lot of celebrity pastors, they had sex and money scandals. What makes them especially interesting to me is that they created and maintained authority as celebrity ministers in an era when the categories of “woman” and “minister” were perceived to be discreet. How they negotiated those two identities, how and why Pentecostals accepted them, and how their careers shaped the movement is the focus of Gender and Pentecostal Revivalism.

PneumaReview.com: Others often refer to your two primary subjects as Sister Etter and Sister Aimee. Has it been a conscious decision to refer to these pioneers as Woodworth-Etter and McPherson instead?

Leah Payne: Most people (including many historians) refer to Woodworth-Etter and McPherson by their “churchy” names like Mother Etter or Sister McPherson. For example, Edith Blumhofer’s excellent biography of Aimee Semple McPherson, Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody’s Sister does this in part to demonstrate the warmth and feelings of intimacy that McPherson evoked from her followers. I choose to refer to them the way academics & theologians typically refer to important thinkers/activists: by their last name. I do this because I want to give them credit for being architects of Pentecostal theology and practice. I want these women to be talked about alongside other important Pentecostal-Charismatic theologians and practitioners like Whitefield, Wesley, etc. Referring to them in this way is my way of recognizing their accomplishments.

The Church of God (Cleveland, TN) is one of the major Pentecostal bodies in the United States. This book contains the results of a study conducted in that denomination regarding women and ministry. Some books that deal with this subject focus on biblical texts to either support or limit women’s place in ministry, this book, however, asks women ministers what they want. Not surprisingly, what they want is equality in ministry. The Church of God has 3,088 licensed women ministers in the United States, 726 of them participated in this survey (page 29). Those who made up this sample group are from different age groups and ethnic groups (page 13). The respondents come from different parts of the country (pages 30-31) and have varying degrees of education (page 55). One thousand randomly chosen male ministers in the denomination, called Ordained Bishops, were also invited to participate in the study, 16% of them responded (page 34, footnote).

This book is written by two insiders in the Church of God (Cleveland, TN): Kimberly Ervin Alexander and James P. Bowers. Both of these individuals are people of high academic credentials; they both have Ph.Ds. Alexander is a historical theologian who has in the past served as an assistant vice president for a seminary and is also a past president of the Society for Pentecostal Studies (page 12). Bowers has served as a pastor and seminary vice president (page 12).

The main body of the text consists of seven chapters. The chapters are: Hearing Their Voices, What They Believe About Family, How Power and Leadership Function, Are Women Flourishing as Ministers?, What Women Can Expect in Compensation and Advancement, What A Pentecostal Woman Minister Looks Like, and Looking from the Outside by Cynthia Wooleever. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 each contain two responses to the material presented in the chapter from women ministers in the Church of God. The book also contains three appendixes. The study contained in this book is very detailed; there are a lot of facts and figures some of which are presented in graph and chart form as well.

The fact that the Church of God has 3,088 licensed women ministers in the United States may at first seem to be a very encouraging sign, and in some ways it is. At least the church recognizes that women have God-given ministries and acknowledges these ministries by giving the women ministerial recognition in the form of credentials. However, a closer look shows that these women are definitely not equal with men in ministry. For example, women are “for the most part” not allowed to serve in “state or national positions of authority in the USA” (page 13). In addition, even though they are credentialed ministers they are not allowed to vote in the General Council of the General Assembly (page 13). This means that they do not have a voice in the policies adopted by their denomination. There are also other areas in which they are clearly at a disadvantage; these areas include financial compensation and opportunities for advancement.

Lynn H. Cohick, associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, illuminates the cultural, religious, and social roles of Greco-Roman women in the second temple period. She has examined primary sources from that era, laboring to recover an accurate picture of the lives of both the elite and common woman. In this regard, Cohick first examines the Greco-Roman world, next, Early Judaism, and then early Christianity, in order to demonstrate the active role women had in every strata of that culture. Each chapter reviews her research from the primary source material, illustrates it with a character studies, and she includes an effective summary section at the end of each chapter. Cohick’s passion to get “the historical story right and the facts correct” claims the essential place for her study of history and for her proposed pathway of the future (324). However, contrary to our expectations, Cohick approaches the subject in a manner that is unlike Catherine and Richard Clark Kroeger’s approach in their I Suffer Not a Woman historical critique of 1 Timothy, in that she emphasizes her own feminist hermeneutic on the primary texts of her research.

Cohick prefaces her research with her intentions: “to provide an engaging and accurate reconstruction of ancient women’s way of life” (21); “to tell the story of the average woman… active at all levels within their social and religious communities” (23); “to correct the misconceptions about women’s lives” (24); and to expose “how gender was used as a devise” in the promotion of “a vision of social order” (27). Herein she candidly expresses her historical and sociological approach, while at the same time defining her literary and feminist critiques. In sum, Cohick’s research on women in Greco-Roman culture finds “a woman was honored for who she was and how she behaved relative to a man, not for what she accomplished” (255).

The format of the book follows the life progress and pattern of a regular Greco-Roman woman. Cohick alarms her readers by starting with the practice of infanticide or abandonment accepted in their culture, noting that more often than not a female child was less desirable than a male child. Next, if the female child survived and was raised by her family, she would then be trained to understand the ideology of what it meant to be a good wife. Equally, Cohick follows the life expectation of the girl who was abandoned by her own parents and raised for prostitution and/or slavery by others. The centerpiece of this book focuses on chapter four—Motherhood—for birthing and nurturing children is central to the preeminent role of the Greco-Roman women in Cohick’s research. The other roles of women in this book—religious, business, education, vocation, slavery, or prostitution—become sounding boards for her returning focus on the role of the average woman, the “real marriages and the real wives” (97). Nevertheless, Cohick makes a convincing argument for the “patronage” role of women in the life of Jesus and in the ministry of the Apostle Paul, where she demonstrates their ability to financially support and theologically contribute to the birthing and nurturing of Christianity. “The female benefactors would have a voice and an authoritative role in the community, granted to them without consideration of gender” (320).

Tony Richie at the 2014 Society for Pentecostal Studies convention held in Springfield, Missouri.

Acts 2:17-18 clearly indicates that Spirit-filled women have an important place alongside Spirit-filled men in the ministry of a Pentecostal church. Unlike many other Evangelical groups, the Church of God, one of the oldest of the classical Pentecostal denominations, ardently affirms the place of women in ministry; but the Church of God has often struggled to define the specifics of that place, particularly in leadership functions. This ambiguity contributes to partial affirmations combined with partial reservations. Soon after the General Overseer (aka Presiding Bishop), Dr. Raymond Culpepper, made moving remarks about uniting and implementing the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) and the Great Commandment (Matt 22:37-40) and led the gathering in a significant time of concert prayer, the General Council session quickly moved into passionate and spirited debate on the agenda item, Women in Ministry, particularly on ordination of women as bishops. In the Church of God, bishops comprise the General Council with rights to debate and vote in session. Also, only bishops are eligible to serve in almost all elected or appointed positions. Presently, the Church of God ordains women as ministers with full rights to preach, to perform weddings and the sacraments, and to pastor churches but it does not allow women to be bishops.

The Moderator repeatedly found it necessary to remind the Council to be sensitive of the Council’s tone, decorum, and demeanor and to carefully weigh all remarks. Opinions on this issue were polarizing. It seemed everyone passionately desired to correctly interpret, apply, and embrace the truth found in Scripture. Those “against” ordaining women as bishops adamantly argued that a literal interpretation of Scripture allowed no room for any other view. They appear to fear compromise of biblical beliefs thereby undermining commitment to biblical inspiration and authority. However, speeches made by those “for” ordaining women as bishops included several leading biblical scholars and theologians as well as church historians. These seem convinced that careful exegesis of Scripture and awareness of Church of God history and the Pentecostal heritage provide a firm foundation for full partnership in ministry. In fact, some argued that the struggle about the role of women in the Church of God is itself indicative of doctrinal transition or departure from the denomination’s Holiness Pentecostal roots toward a more Baptistic theology and polity. On the one hand, opponents to the motion were apparently concerned that a “liberalizing” trend beginning with ordaining women bishops might lead to similar steps in the future regarding ordaining homosexuals and lesbians. Proponents of the motion emphatically denied any such perceived connections. On the other hand, proponents of the motion to ordain women as bishops repeatedly compared antagonists to 19th century Christian slaveholders in the southern United States prior to the Civil War – a connection that was also emphatically denied by their opponents. Though much of this discussion was about nomenclature, culture and context, the process required a simple “yes” or “no” response. The motion failed with a “no vote” of 62.52%. A bold attempt to reconsider the subject in the General Assembly session failed as well.

James Beck and Craig Blomberg, eds., Two Views On Women in Ministry (Zondervan, 2001), 383 pages.

In the first century the apostles had to struggle with the Gentiles. Can they be accepted as equals in the faith? Can they be raised to positions of deacons, overseers, and elders? Can a Gentile actually be ordained to lead a congregation?

Before Christ, these questions would have been considered absurd and not given a second thought. Yet through the blood of the Lamb, the absurd was becoming commonplace.

Now we find ourselves in an era that has its own questions and challenges. What about women in ministry? Zondervan Publishing House has taken on the task of examining that question in Two Views On Women in Ministry by editors James Beck and Craig Blomberg.

To the book’s great credit, efforts have been made to avoid vocabulary that inflames many such debates and belittles other brothers and sisters of the faith. As a result, even though the reader may not agree on every point (after all, the book presents two views), when “cooler heads prevail” it is far easier to hear and consider both sides of the issue.

The 2005 Revised Edition.

Another appreciable quality to Two Views On Women in Ministry is a general avoidance to compare modern secular feminism to any claim the Bible does or does not make regarding women in ministry. This keeps the reader engaged in God’s Word and its culture, rather than allowing the subject matter to be influenced by contemporary societal forces.

The debate is not always centered specifically on Paul’s epistles, but—on the whole—takes a “complete Bible” approach, allowing the reader to reach his or her conclusions on a much wider field of vision and biblical scholarship.

Each of the four units, two on egalitarianism and two on complementarianism, conclude with poignant questions from the book’s editors—giving readers a more intimate glimpse into each writer’s position.

Craig S. Keener aptly espouses various doctrinal issues from an egalitarian position—with a fair amount of time spent in the Old Testament. At the very least, he poses questions the complementarian side does not answer in this book. Linda L. Belleville tackles the tedious topics of Greek translation, likewise challenging some of the more traditional arguments of women in leadership. If you’re not up on your Greek, this section may prove trying, but is worth the investment. Both professors were amply published in the 1990s, but Two Views presents materials and scholarship new for this century.

On the complementarian side (also known as traditional or hierarchic) we have authors Thomas R. Schreiner and Ann L. Bowman.