Macrina (330–379), someone whom I admire, was the sister of Gregory of Nyssa and Basil of Caesarea. I could give more examples to Barr’s narrative of women teachers. So Margery Kempe (1373–1438) stood up to the Archbishop of York and won the day (73–75), using the words of Jesus in Luke 11 against the words of Paul (1 Tim 2 or 1 Cor 14) in the context of her 1417 disputation with the archbishop and others. She does so to illustrate how women often taught and preached in ways unlike the roles that complementarianism encourages.

She levies (mostly) medieval examples of women who served God as teachers and preachers.

Women in HistoryĪnd as a historian, Barr wants to give a fuller picture to the experience of Christian women. If I understand her argument correctly then, gender hierarchies as such indicate patriarchy, and patriarchy by definition creates a system of power and oppression that privileges men and devalues and damages women. And she argues that “gender hierarchies oppress and damage both women and men in the name of Jesus” (9). In other words, male-only pastors and male leadership in the home exist as instances of a larger patriarchal society.Īlthough Barr may allow for good in hierarchies, she does not explain if or how that might be the cause.

She then explains, “Both the tradition of male church leaders and the authority of male household heads function within cultures that generally promote male authority and female submission” (14). How does she make this connection between patriarchy and complementarianism? First, Barr discusses a taxonomy of patriarchy and highlights this definition of it: “A society that promotes male authority and female submission” (13). “For millennia,” wrote Owen Strachan, “followers of God have practiced what used to be called patriarchy and is now called complementarianism.” Others have made similar statements, and so we might not be surprised that Beth Allison Barr identifies complementarianism with patriarchy, which Barr understands as a system of male power and female oppression.

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