Review: Women in the Church: An Analysis and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9-15

Women in the Church: An Analysis and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9-15 by Andreas J. Kostenberger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I specially ordered this book for the purposes of writing a paper on 1 Tim. 2:9-15 as part of course requirements for a Systematic Theology course. I sought to give the text a fair treatment, and as best as I can, resist the inclinations of allowing my presuppositions to influence my understanding and interpretation.

This book should get a more stars by complementarian reviwers and less stars from the egalitarian reviwers. Therefore I would like to disclose that my view of women in ministry is close to Blomberg's position of "Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian" (see the Appendix of the Two Views on Women in Ministry that he co-edited - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19...).

Hence, while I do not hold a strict complementarian view like the authors (and editors) do, I was overwhelmed and inspired by their dedication and passion they have for interpretation God's Holy Word. Their love for God and his Bible is ever so evident across the multiple authors. Of the 30-40 other books and commentaries** on 1 Tim. 2, this title stood out as one that achieved a beautiful mix of positive matter/substantives being put forward with a lively interaction with (egalitarian) scholarship that was published after the first edition in 1995.

At no part of the book did I sense any bigoted or sexist agenda. What matched the most rigorous of academic scholarship, was an equally enormous amount of grace and pastoral care. I would like to echo Schreiner's call to “bend over backward to love those with whom we disagree, and to assure them that we hope and pray that God will bless their ministries, even tough we believes that it is a mistake for women to take on a pastoral role.” (p85-86).

I heartily recommend this book! If like me, you would like to embark on a study of 1 Tim. 2 to attempt to find out what the bible actually affirms, I would recommend this book, alongside Stanley J. Grenz and Denise M. Kjesbo's Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry. In my opinion, these two are the best in the respective camps (in the defence of their position in the rebuttals of the other).

UPDATE: The 2016 Edition has been released. See my review of it at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

**See my goodreads review for the list of sources I consulted for my 1 Tim. 2 exegetical paper.

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