Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: How the Church Needs to Rediscover Her Purpose

By: Aimee Byrd

Narrated by: Charity Spencer

Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

While evangelicalism dukes it out about who can be church leaders, the rest of the 98 percent of us need to be well equipped to see where we fit in God's household and why that matters. Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is a resource to help church leaders improve the culture of their church and disciple men and women in their flock to read, understand, and apply Scripture to their lives in the church. Until both men and women grow in their understanding of their relationship to Scripture, there will continue to be tension between the sexes in the church. Church leaders need to be engaged in thoughtful critique of the biblical manhood and womanhood movement and the effects it has on their congregation.

Do men and women benefit equally from God's word? Are they equally responsible in sharpening one another in the faith and passing it down to the next generation? While radical feminists claim that the Bible is a hopelessly patriarchal construction by powerful men that oppresses women, evangelical churches simply reinforce this teaching when we constantly separate men and women, customizing women's resources and studies according to a culturally based understanding of roles. Do we need men's Bibles and women's Bibles, or can the one, holy Bible guide us all? Is the Bible, God's word, so male-centered and authored that women need to create their own resources to relate to it? No! And in it, we also learn from women. Women play an active role as witnesses to the faith, passing it on to the new generations.

This audiobook explores the feminine voice in Scripture as synergistic with the dominant male voice. Through the women, we often get the story behind the story - take Ruth for example, or the birth of Christ through the perspective of Mary and Elizabeth in Luke. Aimee fortifies churches in a biblical understanding of brotherhood and sisterhood in God's household and the necessity of learning from one another in studying God's word.

The troubling teaching under the rubric of "biblical manhood and womanhood" has thrived with the help of popular Biblicist interpretive methods. And Biblicist interpretive methods ironically flourish in our individualistic culture that works against the "traditional values" of family and community that the biblical manhood and womanhood movement is trying to uphold. This audiobook helps to correct Biblicist trends in the church today, affirming that we do not read God's word alone, we read it within our interpretive covenant communities - our churches. Our relationship with God's word affects our relationship with God's people, and vice versa. The church is the school of Christ, commissioned to discipleship. The responsibility of every believer, men and women together, is being active and equal participants in and witnesses to the faith - the tradents of faith.

Discussion questions and accompanying charts are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Aimee Byrd (P)2020 Zondervan

thoughtful and honest

This book takes a hard look at modern teachings on gender compared to scripture. Recommend!

Excellent, necessary, intelligent

I'm sending it to three other people right now. A gracious word to a church in need.

Christians should read this, especially leaders

It took me years of getting the message that women are second class humans from society and the church before starting to understand the underlying assumptions the patriarchal establishment has imposed since the beginning of time. This book sheds light on how this all came about and is a must read for many women who feel alienated from fully engaging in the church. I wish I had read this earlier in my life and I applaud Aimee Byrd for having the courage and smarts to present a very well researched treatise on this subject. Highly recommend this book for people in the church and especially leaders.

Thought provoking

Well worth the time even if you don’t agree with the author’s view. It never hurts to dig in deeper when seeking to understand Scripture.

Almost all the questions that need to be asked

relieved to finally hear a public exhortation to reevaluate male and female from biblical bare bones. disappointed at the lack of discussion of original language translation decisions and somewhat short shrift given to Christian definition of authority in the family and the church as springing from servanthood not power.

Not what you think

For those unfamiliar with the work, “Biblical Manhood and Womanhood,” as I was/am, I believe Byrd provides a concise explanation.

For those that are, or are familiar with the surrounding debate, I don’t think you’ll find this to be a rebuttal, per se. the best way I can think of to concisely summarize the message of this book is;

“Ya’ll missed the point!”

As far as Complementarian vs Egalitarian, it should be fairly evident the book is oriented toward the Comp. side, but Byrd also points out some shortcomings of Egal., as well.

Charity Spencer: Excellent work providing a drive and energy I believe the author felt in her writing. Well done.

Her Errors Show Why Women Souldn't Speak In Church

The argumentation in the book is nothing short of horrible. On the one hand, she grasps at conjecture after conjecture to stretch to a possibility only to apply it as factual. Then on the other hand, runs over, disregards, and explains away clear text that contradicts her position. Seriously this book is horrible and her handling of the text is an act of criminal malpractice. The one redeeming virtue of the book is the ironic point that the author, by her inept mishandling of Scripture, actually proves the opposite of her argument; namely that God was right to forbid women from teaching the Bible but to be silent in church and if they are to learn anything, let them ask their husband's at home (1 Cor 14). The author should have stayed silent and asked her husband at home and not taken upon herself to abuse Scripture publicly in a book such as this.

eb

twisted, misguided, and misinformed manipulating the Scriptures and other authors' words. Read with discernment and wisdom!

She Misses the point

The author misses the value of “women’s work” in teaching children and women and being workers at home. She comes to the conclusion that because women can’t teach men theological truths in church leadership type roles that they are being pushed down to a lower more demeaning level. I do not think God views traditional women’s roles in a demeaning way. And she does not even mention the verses that most people hold to when they believe in complimentarian roles. I would not recommend this as sound biblical teaching. Definitely has a strong feminist bias.

Poor exegetical work. Poor systematic theology.

This is an agenda seeking an exegetical and theological argument. The author sounds like an egalitarian and is happy to cite egalitarian theologians over the Reformed theologians of her tradition. This book is dangerous. Mark and avoid.