Better Together

In the last forty years, one of the most momentous social changes known in human history has taken place, women's liberation. Its consequences have not been easy for women to work out in theory or practice, hard for many men to adjust to, difficult for business to implement and a huge challenge for the churches. It has allowed women to extend their responsibilities beyond the home into the workforce with few occupations denied them. Many women are now in high level leadership positions. This revolution has also impacted on the home. Men are now more likely to share the domestic workload and childrearing, women to be significant contributors to the household budget and major decisions to be made conjointly. However, some Christians believe that the Bible does not wholeheartedly affirm these changes. They argue the Bible prescribes some gender based 'roles' to men and some to women, and most importantly that God has appointed man as the 'head' or leader of the wife and as such he must make all the major decisions in the home. On this basis they cannot endorse the ordination of women because this would allow women to usurp male 'headship' in the church. In BETTER TOGETHER, Kevin Giles positively considers from a Christian perspective the changes in the man-woman relationship that have occurred in recent years and invites us to take a fresh look at the biblical texts quoted in support of women's ongoing subordination, setting out questions at the end of each short chapter for home groups to discuss.