Half the Church (Carolyn Curtis James)
Carolyn Curtis James
I’m going to be totally honest; growing up as a girl is tough and I guess it is only really hitting me now as I see those younger than me experiencing similar scenarios: catcalled on the street by a random man, because you are female; honked at by a van driver because you are out for a run and you are female; told by a tutor one of your first days of college that, if you are planning to have a family and work part-time you really should give up your teaching spot to someone else because you are female. And I know this is nothing; across the globe millions of women are abused, denied their education, forced into underage marriages and sold into the sex trade. It is no wonder the voice of feminism rises so powerfully and appealingly to the 21st woman. Then we turn to the church and as a young woman words that jar with our 21st feminist psyche jump out such as submit and the weaker vessel. But do we as the church really understand what the Bible tells us about women? Yes, we do not tell our women that they cannot be educated and abhor any idea of them being physically harmed, but how do we really view women? How do we teach our boys to view their mothers, sisters and other ladies in the church? What are we teaching our girls as they grow up in an age of raging feminism and increased sexualisation? Do you really know what the Bible teaches about half of the church?
Carolyn Curtis James is a brilliant writer and in her latest book Half the Church presents an eye-opening account of how the church has failed its women. This is not about upheaving God’s given order of leadership but rather a need to recognise and rectify the failure in many places to understand and live out what the Bible says about women - women who are made in the image of God and called to rule and subdue alongside men. As Custis James quickly points out - the Fall destroyed everything, including the relationship between man and woman, a relationship meant to glorify God and further his Kingdom. The Gospel alone restores all things including this broken alliance. The Bible holds the only truth for who women are and what they are meant to be and it is a truth that all of the church needs to hear. I would encourage both men and women to pick up this book to read and to be reminded or, perhaps told for the first time, what God’s plan is for half the church.
I’d also recommend both of Custis James’ other books, The Gospel of Ruth and Lost Women of the Bible. I have found these books to be both encouraging and instructional in my grappling of what it means to be a woman of God living in the 21st century. I’d put these books up as must-reads for both the men and women of our churches.
