Why Run with Only One Leg? A Review of "Half the Church"

The winners of the book give-away are, appropriately, two women! Stephanie wins the "clean" promotional copy of "Half the Church" and Adrienne wins my review copy, "dirtied" with pencil marks and notations. Stephanie and Adrienne: please contact me at Ray dot Hollenbach at Gmail dot com with shipping addresses and I'll send you your books!


Christian books for women usually fall into one of two dreadful categories: either a North-American evangelical perspective that sees women as little more than a marketing niche within Christendom, or a feminist-driven perspective that contains a Rosie-the-Riveter “I’ll show you” subtext. Books about the role of women in the church usually fall into a dreary debate between highfalutin words like complimentarianism or egalitarianism. Carolyn Custis James’ Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women falls into “none of the above.” That’s refreshing.

James invites North American Evangelicals to lift our eyes and see women’s issues in global and Biblical perspectives. “I was determined to find out if God’s message for women was universal,” she writes, “encompassing the full spectrum of every woman’s life regardless of her demographics or circumstances.” In fact, much of our gospel presentation--beyond gender issues--would benefit from James’ perspective. Is the good news good news for everyone? Prosperous or poor, socialist or capitalist, male or female?

Half the Church challenges the comfortable reader to think not only globally, but Biblically as well. While avoiding the tiresome debates over whether the opening chapters of Genesis are meant to be “taken literally,” this book focuses instead on the meaning of the creation account, especially the meaning of how humanity bears God’s image. “[God] gives both male and female the exact same identity--to be his image bearers. He gives both the exact same responsibilities when he entrusts all of creation to his image bearers.”

Even if creation is broken (and it is) God’s purposes and methods remain unchanged, and we would do well to excavate the foundations again. James does so by challenging traditional interpretations of the phrase “suitable helper” found in Genesis. She points out that the problem is not with the Biblical record, but rather the meanings we have attached to these words, applying culturally-bound meanings to what should be culture-changing revelation from God.

James borrows heavily from the work of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn, creators of the Half the Sky movement. Kristof and Wudunn would never fit into an Evangelical mold yet they are about God’s work, sometimes to the shame of the prosperous North American church: “Like quarreling siblings,” she writes, “we are arguing over how to divide a pie so everyone gets their fair share while the neighbor’s house is on fire.” The fire she describes is the systematic negation of the value and role of women around the world, and the opportunity wasted by Christians, who possess a universal answer. James is aware of the debate over women’s roles in ministry, but refuses to allow herself to be pulled into that swamp: the world of the church is too big for both men and women for us to ignore our missional call while settling matters of doctrine--especially doctrine that is secondary to the mission God has given us. She calls for a “Blessed Alliance” of the sons and daughters of God, who will focus on their creation-mandate instead of culturally-generated arguments.

If there are weaknesses in the book, they are weakness of technical merit, not heart or mind: some illustrations she provides may come across as trite, while others perhaps too emotionally laden. Yet her call to action is unmistakable and the larger vision of the Church is laudable in every respect.

James states her case clearly in the introduction and stays on point throughout the work: “When half the church holds back--whether by choice or because we have no choice--everybody loses and our mission suffers setbacks. Tragically, we are squandering the opportunity to display to an embattled world a gospel that cause both men and women to flourish and unites us in a Blessed Alliance that only the presence of Jesus can explain.” Who could argue with that?

You can earn a chance to win a free copy of Carolyn Custis James’ "Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women" by leaving a comment below. A winner will be chosen at random on Saturday.