by Sarah Sumner

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review by Kendra Irons

AN EXPLORATION of diverging views of women and ministry, Sarah Sumner's Men and Women in the Church: Building Consensus on Christian Leadership is sure to be an informative book and helpful tool for many churches. Sumner, associate professor of theology and ministry at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California, strives to hold a centrist position between complementarians (those who believe certain roles exist and gender determines who should fill them) and egalitarians (those who believe all people should be free to follow God's call to any role or position). She builds a case for finding middle ground, where these two camps within American evangelicalism can converge, in hopes of constructing consensus.

Sumner's personal journey of living with one foot in each of these two sides—the egalitarians while serving as paid staff at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and the complementarians while attending seminary at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago—positioned her to be a positive voice adding steady wisdom to this continuing debate within American evangelicalism.

This experience and a common-sense approach to gender and biblical interpretation enables Sumner to present fairly the issues behind the debate: lack of historical knowledge, lack of communication, lack of clarity about the character of God, and even a lack of philosophical awareness. For readers within her audience—conservative evangelicals engaged in this gender fault line between complementarians and egalitarians—Sumner's thorough tracing is likely to add helpful information, especially for those who seek genuine understanding.

The book is divided into two unequal sections. The first and longest is a potpourri of topics: identifying her audience and purpose for writing, exploring the influence of church tradition on current practice, and interpreting various biblical passages that have been used to create the gender division evident in many evangelical churches. In this section, Sumner also addresses two foundational keys to her argument: the primacy of Scripture and her hermeneutical method. Regarding the former, she rightly claims both groups maintain a high view of Scripture; nevertheless, the author focuses more on church tradition, seeming to build a case to reject tradition when it fails to represent accurately what she deems is biblical.

So how does one determine what is biblical? Sumner's advice stems from her two guiding principles designed to foster humility: “every passage in the Bible means something” and “God knows what it means” (127, emphases are Sumner's). Additionally, Sumner says that usage is the solution to determining the meaning of individual words. While she later claims the Spirit's guidance is crucial for an accurate understanding of biblical passages, she fails to address how readers today are just as likely to read in light of our cultural context as those influential figures of church tradition did.

Long-debated passages are given ample consideration by Sumner in this first section. For example, she explores the concept of “headship,” the 2 Timothy charge to women to be silent in churches, and the order and meaning of creation. Her most inventive turn, however, is located in the chapter “Does Matthew 18 Apply to Wives?” where she argues that this passage might contain “God's contingency plan.” If a wife believes she is called to a particular ministry and her husband completely disregards her, this passage—according to Sumner—could provide a biblical mandate to bring someone else into the conversation, especially if the wife believes her husband is sinning by his dismissal of her conviction.

The second part of Sumner's study seeks to move beyond the fault lines to a place of consensus. In order to move forward, she calls her readers to agree to the mystery of God and creation; then, to agree that women and men “are equal but distinct” (270). It is here that the author strikes new ground, although how useful is yet to be determined. In claiming the fault line is not about gender per se, but actually based on a philosophical difference, Sumner may be on to something. Positing Scotists (a name derived from Duns Scotus, and according to Sumner, usually complementarians) against Thomists (a name derived from Thomas Aquinas, and according to Sumner, usually egalitarians) Sumner argues the sides are miscommunicating and seldom getting to the core of their disagreements. Calling both camps to see instead the logic of Jesus, the author strives to move evangelicals to a place of harmony, trusting God to heal the gender division.

If consensus, however, is an achievable goal for such entrenched camps, one may wonder how much Sumner's arguments—however insightful they may be—will work to reduce the drawn battle lines. Certainly, authors failing to recognize the hold of patriarchal power and systems, as well as those failing to make Jesus' radical inclusiveness a model for action, will ultimately provide only part of the solution to establishing agreement in the evangelical world.

On the other hand, this work seems well worth the time for those along the fault line, due to its even-handed analysis and conclusions. The relatively short chapters and the list of discussion questions following each make it well-suited for a small group or Bible study. And certainly, any book enabling more effective ministry is worth such attention.

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