Informing debate

If you have been reading my latest posts on Mark Driscoll, ESS, gender issues, Piper and Grudem and some of the responses which are occurring over at 'Strive to Enter' and 'Suzanne's Bookshelf', also explored at 'Gentle Wisdom', '42' and 'Anglicans Down Under' (See blogroll), you might be interested in reading the following:

DesiringGod ministries
CBMW

They teach ESS and functional subordination but ontological equality of women. They help churches to work out the roles which women and men should take on in the world.


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Giles Frazer Kevin Giles: Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity

“The Subordination of Christ and the Subordination of Women” in Discovery Biblical Equality

“Hermeneutical Bungee-Jumping: Subordination in the Godhead,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

NT Wight - lots of his stuff worth reading

Gordon Fee - as above

Millard Erickson: Who’s Tampering with the Trinity?

God in Three Persons: A Contemporary Interpretation of the Trinity to buy not read online

They teach perichoretic mutuality within the Godhead and mutual submission (Eph 21) within marriage. The Holy Spirit gifts the body of Christ without lists of gifts that are gender dependent.

I want to learn from this debate. For me, at the moment, Ware, Piper and Grudem seem to teach ESS, which I interpret as their overemphasising of a functional subordination within the trinity which overstates hierarchy and minimizes divine mutuality. They extend their theory into practical advice to women for how they should relate to men and vice versa and I believe that this sets extra-biblical restrictions on men and women, which I do not think are healthy or mandated by God.

CBMW will soon be debating the idea of ESS and women. There will also be a blog conference on Women in Ministry. So check out those sites. See Suzanne's Bookshelf for more information.