Book Review - The Bible VS. Biblical Womanhood: How God's Word Consistently Affirms Gender Equality by Philip Payne

Halie Proude is currently serving as a Mom of 3, working as the Montague Site Ministry Coordinator at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Montague, PEI and on the board for Wycliffe Canada. She lights up when others are experiencing healing and transformation in Christ, and enjoys any opportunity to serve toward that end. Halie and her husband Tyler have been living in Montague, PEI for the past decade. They enjoy exploring local island coffee, restaurants, trails, playgrounds, and beaches with their kids.

Halie Proude

In recent decades, if not longer, the word “biblical” has been commonly used to communicate what’s believed to be God’s stance on the Bible’s hermeneutics for everyday living. For better or for worse, this authoritative word has shaped Christian community across the globe. Far too often this terminology of “biblical womanhood” has been used to support gender hierarchy in a complementarian view; Philip Payne’s book The Bible vs. Biblical Womanhood flips that on its head, pun intended, offering a winsome, yet challenging perspective. I was surprised and delighted to hear the confidence and humility he brings in his perspective of non-hierarchical gender equality, evidenced in God’s design from Eden to the New Testament letters.

Payne not only walks through Scripture in its context but teaches gender equality in the passionate servant hearted posture he describes Christ inviting us each to. He starts at the beginning of humanity where this biblical womanhood conversation often begins and slows down to reveal how the original words in their context have been misunderstood and misused. This was surprising and uncomfortable for me in contrast to the way gender roles were taught from Scripture in my personal upbringing, but reasonable arguments that left me longing to return to these passages after the book. And still this book reignited the fire in me that our work is not to “foster what was initiated by the fall.”[1] By all means, equality continues to be part of our restorative work as Christ followers on this side of “the fall”. Payne reveals how the Bible actually proves God’s way is upside down from the fall; both genders flourishing together, empowered as servants like Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

For any reader like myself, who has wrestled with the common passages from the New Testament used in these debates around the gender roles in the church, they will be inspired with hope to a more beautiful reflection of the body of Christ.The author reveals the heart of these passages pointing to the mutual expression of Jesus’ character and nature in contrast to a hierarchical and often self serving way of relating to each other. Especially in passages that have often stirred up anger toward God for what appears like condoning an oppressive relationship with men toward women like in 1 Peter, Payne clarifies how writers like Peter are “not describing an ideal Christian community or endorsing the oppressive social structures he mentions.” [2] Rather the author shows the work of how these inspired writers are speaking instructions to help the people follow Jesus in the circumstances and culture they find themselves in. He calls out the injustice of these commonly held misunderstandings in a gracious way.

The thoughtful attention and academic nature of Payne’s book is reflected in his writing, though also accessible to readers like me who often can feel out of my league in academic circles. Regardless of where the readers' convictions lie, this book is a needed voice around the table, a healthy spark in conversation, as Christ followers in a siloed age seek to move toward Jesus together in love. For those reading left feeling disenchanted growing up in “biblical womanhood”, I’m hopeful that both men and women will be challenged and empowered to live into who God has called them to be. For churches finding themselves in similar conversations and questions in their community; dare to have this as a launch pad for a group or book club. Where we can have this kind of holy and charitable dialogue is where disciples can be made.

1. Payne, Philip. The Bible vs. Biblical Womanhood. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2023, p. 11.

2. Payne, The Bible vs. Biblical Womanhood, 127.