Essays on Women in Earliest Christianity (2 vols.)
Overview
How can modern Christians understand God’s intention for a woman’s role in the church? Carroll Osburn’s two volumes exemplify recent research on women in the Bible and the early church. These volumes include essays on women from the Old and New Testament as well as women during the initial few centuries of Church history. Define the role these early women played in the Church, and explore how they lived lives devoted to God with essays that cover a variety of topics. Pastors will gain insight and wisdom as a pastor on how to affirm and enable women to worship and serve.
For more on this subject, check out the Women in the Church Collection (6 vols.).
Key Features
- Examines the roles of historical women during the initial stage of the Church
- Focuses on a feminine aspect of worship and belief
- Contains multiple perspectives from a large group of contributors
Product Details
- Title: Essays on Women in Earliest Christianity
- Editor: Carroll D. Osburn
- Publisher: Wipf & Stock
- Publication Date: 2007
- Volumes: 2
- Pages: 1,210
- Christian Group: Evangelicals
- Resource Type: Collected Essays
- Topic: Biblical Studies
Partially includedAbout Carroll Osburn
Carroll Osburn is the retired Carmichael-Walling Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Abilene Christian University, where he taught at the College of Biblical Studies for 17 years.
Reviews
3 ratings
Randy
3/13/2024
"Essays on Women in Earliest Christianity" is edited by Carroll Osburn. As I understand it, Carroll produced these volumes according to his Egalitarian viewpoint. This means Carroll thinks passages like Galatians 3:28 establish that gender and role distinctions between women and men should be removed in the church. Since in these volumes, Caroll does not seem to recognize that Christ serves as the ultimate and eternal example of the fact that equality in your position (He is equal to God) doesn't eliminate the need for roles of submission between equals (Jesus always voluntarily subjects Himself to the will of the Father), or that Paul (1 Timothy 2:11-15) specifically based the prohibition of women teaching or exercising authority over a man on God's timeless design and order in creation as well as Eve's role in the fall (not on contemporary circumstances), I cannot endorse the editorial decisions Carroll made in publishing these volumes.
Dr. Anthony Mazak
3/30/2021
Jeff Moss
2/17/2017
I'm contemplating ordering these two volumes because of the breadth of the topics covered on this vital area of church history and church life. The big negative for me is that there are 43 essays (I think I counted correctly) but only a handful - maybe four or five - female authors. Surely the compilers of this collection could have done better than that given the overall focus of the volumes - particularly when the editor was a woman. Once again we have mainly men examing the roles of women - exploring an "often neglected" topic without much input from "often neglected" female authors. My impression is that there are numerous well-qualified women who could have contributed to an important exploration such as this. Even if I purchase the books, this aspect will be a disappointment.
