So if you go to our church, you’d know that Chris is doing a series on “The Gender Agenda” (Biblical Manhood and Womanhood). Hopefully saw that despite the distortion on sin on being male and female that you can see the vision God has for redeemed manhood and womanhood through the gospel.
Perhaps you’ve had your thoughts provoked on the subject and you’d like to read more. The posts on blogs, books and studies are a good start to look through. Today though, I’m going to go through some ‘meatier’ books than last time. Last time’s books were more light reading, perhaps like listening to a series of sermons. These ones are more like listening to a series of lectures. A bit more work but still worthwile!
Radical Womanhood – Carolyn McCulley
This book goes into some detail (half the book?) on the background of Feminism, the three waves, some of the good things that came out and a lot of the un-Christian things too. She talks about motherhood, raunch culture, domesticity etc.
A quick snippet: “The history of feminist ideology is manifetsly anti-mother, anti-child, and anti-Jesus. What’s less clear is how much each of us has been affected, or even infected by this agenda. It’s good to know…the worldview behind the tools we take for granted, such as contraception…these tools can be received with gratitude and used with thanksgiving…tempered with faith toward God. But we should be suspicious of how much we have been influenced by our culture…”
Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood – John Piper and Wayne Grudem
Honestly I don’t have this book but its pretty famous when it comes to these issues. Even better is you seem to be able to access it from this link. Have a read, its pretty good from the bits I’ve read.
A quick snippet: “What kind of influence would be inappropriate for mature women to exercise toward men?…To the degree that a woman’s influence over man is personal and directive it will generally offend a man’s good, God-given sense of responsibility and leadership, and thus controvert God’s created order.”
God’s Good Design – Claire Smith 
Again, I haven’t read this, but I was at the series of talks in Sydney when Claire gave something like this. She goes through passage by passage, dealing with the difficult bits of the Bible on women, like ‘being silent’, headcoverings…etc. I’ve tried to buy it but last time I was at Koorong (in Brisbane) they couldn’t find it, even though it was in stock. She also has a free chapter here.
Note: these are all from a ‘Complementarian’ point of view. If you’d like to read from both sides, please see the book suggested in my previous post here.
Please write down any questions you have from the sermons and email Chris or myself or leave them in the comments below. We’d love you to think about the issues and ask lots of questions 🙂
Grace Lung 