I understand justice to be giving a thing its due. And if McKnight’s position leaves a hermeneutical loophole that you can drive a truck through, then pointing out such a problem is precisely part of what it is to do justice to his book.

In the peace of Christ,

- Bryan

It seems rather ironic that the point of the book is to “let the blue parakeets be blue parakeets, instead of trying to explain them away” while at the same time claiming that “The Pauline texts, which seem to exclude women from pastoral ministries, are essentially Paul having to speak in his own day in his own way”. It seems that, apparently, what counts as “explaining them away” is entirely subjective. One man’s “explaining them away” is another man’s “interpreting”.

And when you ask, “If the Spirit is today leading women to important ecclesiastical things, who are we to get in the way?”, I’m left wondering how exactly you know that it is the [Holy] Spirit doing these things, and not merely the spirit of our times. In other words, if it were not the Holy Spirit, but merely the spirit of our times doing these things, how would it be different? How would you know?

In the peace of Christ,

- Bryan

Bob, “Hermeneutical Loophole” would be an awesome name for a rock band.

Your statement that: “The Pauline texts, which seem to exclude women from pastoral ministries, are essentially Paul having to speak in his own day in his own way.” I hope is not his major argument, because it creates a hermeneutical loophole that I could drive a truck through.

Your review makes me want to read the book, and overall, I appreciate McKnight’s work.

But like you said, he is kinda preaching to the choir. I already know that people have a lens when the read scripture. How do we help people who don’t realize they have a lens?