How to be a (Realist) Egalitarian

Last updated on: November 9, 2015 at 7:07 am by Scot McKnight

How to be a (Realist) Egalitarian 2015-11-09T07:07:47-06:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The issue is not if one is to be an egalitarian but how to be an egalitarian. (Not disrespecting that complementarians believe the same about themselves.) The issue John Stackhouse addresses in a chapter called “What Then?” (the book is called Partners in Christ) is how to be an egalitarian in a Christian manner. This is how he states the problem itself:

As we seek to respond properly to a social situation involving patriarchy—whether a marriage or a church, in the instances discussed in this book—there are a number of principles that can guide us (127):

He will outline four guiding principles that ought to guide the Christian who is egalitarian.

First, activism.

His theory is that we should be active for the Shalom of Jesus, and that means “we should further the flourishing of human society by the fullest possible participation of women and men, without prejudice or constraint. … We are, instead, called to do what we can to extend the kingdom of God. So if we get any chance to improve a marriage or a church, we should (127). [Brother John, friend, and much-honored professor, I’ll leave that Kuyperian-Niebuhrian-realism view of kingdom alone in this post.]

Second, realism. [This is John Stackhouse’s theory of how Christians are to live in this world and relate to culture and face the capacity for change, transformation and church life.]

Again, he defines realism as loving God and loving neighbors as ourselves (the Jesus Creed). But what does this mean in a realism framework? John has an important book on this topic — blogged about on this site years back — called Making the Best of It.

Given a particular set of circumstances, what does God want to happen? Given what the limitations seem to be, what are God’s priorities? Given who the neighbors are in this case, in what ways can I love them, and in what ways will they let me do so? Such realism will help us make the necessary hard decisions in a world in which we typically cannot succeed in everything we attempt, a world in which we frequently have to settle for half a loaf, a world in which we often confront a conflict of values and have to work for the higher at the cost of the lower (127-128).

Third, vocation.

John contends we are called to follow Christ, to do what we are called to do, not to do what we are not called to do but God is also calling the church to do what the church is called do in this world — and we part of that mission of God in this world.

Fourth, hope. Very important words here:

God gives us immediate hope that our current labor, however vexed by suffering, will produce lasting results as it is validated and assisted by him. God also gives us the great final hope that soon our suffering will cease, that injustice will be terminated, and that Christ will return to establish his kingdom of lasting shalom (128).

John Stackhouse then works out how this works out. We begin in our churches with better marriages and better families and better fellowships of gendered Christians.

Some will not be heard (here his realism comes to the fore). At times illusions of change must be shifted to subtle improvements through faithfulness over time. He does believe the Spirit can transform but he is not living in a utopian ideal world now.

Pushing too fast or too far in a given setting may cause more damage than good. [OK, but sometimes rupture is what is most needed, right?] God wants shalom, on that we agree. At times the policy is slow, steady progress — and I agree on that. But John knows this well: at times, the slow, steady theory is actually the “don’t change the status quo” theory. Here is how he puts it:

So in some circumstances the policy needs to be slow, steady pressure on a marriage or a church to change, with appreciative cooperation with all of the genuine work the Spirit is doing therein. We must be careful not to run ahead of the Spirit of God (129).

Because he’s aware that this issue is about marriages and not just women in ministry, he speaks about abuse — which is not the same as some difficult relationships in marriage. Here are his words:

Someone suffering abuse, I should make plain, should free herself or himself from it if she or he possibly can. No proper Christian teaching about suffering in general, or about voluntary subordination within marriage or church, can bless abuse by telling people to stay in such situations if they can escape them. We especially must guard against the tolerance of abuse “for the sake of the church’s reputation’1 or “for the sake of the pastor’s reputation”—for abuse happens in Christian and even clerical homes as well, and it must be rooted out there as it must be rooted out everywhere else (130).

But God calls some to a more activist posture and others to a more cooperative posture.

Remember this: love one another.

Women and Ministry

Previous Post

November 9, 2015

E.P. Sanders on E.P. Sanders

Next Post

November 9, 2015 Billy Graham, Author or Not?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who received a coat of many colors?

Select your answer to see how you score.

David Joseph Jacob Moses