This guide considers the historical contexts, the literary forms, the social and rhetorical backgrounds, the politics, the theologies, and the reception of 2 Corinthians. Each chapter surveys recent scholarly approaches to the text, focussing especially on critical perspectives that mesh with our contemporary concerns about gender, identity, race and class. 2 Corinthians becomes, in the process, less the work of a single 1st-century writer than a set of fraught, even fractured negotiations...

The author of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus argues in favor of a “traditional” Greco-Roman gender ideology: that because men and women are biologically different, they ought to behave differently in the family and society. His gender-specific beliefs carry over into his teachings for the house churches, where only free married men are eligible to serve as leaders, teachers, and preachers, while women are expected to take up the subordinate female domestic roles of wife, mother, and house...

2025 REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION • The landmark book exploring what the Bible actually says—and doesn’t say—about same-sex relationshipsAs a young Christian man, Matthew Vines harbored the same basic hopes of many young people: to one day share his life with someone, to build a family of his own, to give and receive love. But when Vines realized he was gay, those hopes were called into question. The Bible, he’d been taught, condemned gay relationships.Feel...

A controversy of major proportions has spread through the church. Recent generations bear witness to the rise of "evangelical feminism"-a movement that has had a profound impact on all of life, challenging some of our basic Christian beliefs.In this new edition of an influential and award-winning best-seller, more than twenty men and women have committed their talents to produce the most thorough response yet to this modern movement. Combining systematic argumentation with popular ...

Both outside and inside of the church, many people today are increasingly uncomfortable with hell. They wonder: How could it be fair to punish anyone for eternity? Will Jesus really condemn millions simply for not believing the right things about him? Isn’t God a God of love, not vengeance? The top-notch contributors to Is Hell for Real or Does Everyone Go to Heaven? tackle these and other questions with an even-handed survey of the Bible’s teaching on this difficult subject. Together, the...

In just a few short years, massive shifts in public opinion have radically reshaped society's views on homosexuality. Feeling the pressure to forsake long-held beliefs about sex and marriage, some argue that Christians have historically misunderstood the Bible's teaching on this issue. But does this approach do justice to what the Bible really teaches about homosexuality? In this timely book, award-winning author Kevin DeYoung challenges each of us—the skeptic, the seeker, the certain, and...

The role of women in positions of worship and church leadership is one of the most divisive and inconclusive biblical debates.Two Views on Women in Ministry furnishes you with a clear and thorough presentation of the two primary exegetical arguments so you can better understand each one's strengths, weaknesses, and complexities.Egalitarian - equal ministry opportunity for both genders (represented by Linda L. Belleville and Craig S. Keener)

Christianity Today 2018 Book Award WinnerRespected New Testament scholar Cynthia Long Westfall offers a coherent Pauline theology of gender, which includes fresh perspectives on the most controverted texts. Westfall interprets passages on women and men together and places those passages in the context of the Pauline corpus as a whole. She offers viable alternatives for some notorious interpretive problems in certain Pauline passages, refra...

Taking a stand over the gender-issue divideAuthor and New Testament scholar Michael Bird was formerly in favor of distinct gender roles in ministry, a viewpoint commonly called “complementarianism.” But inconsistencies in practice and careful biblical study convinced him to rethink his position.Originally published as a short ebook,Bourgeois Babes, Bossy Wives, and Bobby Haircuts offersan engaging, incisive perspective on biblical gender equality a...

Biblicism, an approach to the Bible common among some American evangelicals, emphasizes together the Bible's exclusive authority, infallibility, clarity, self-sufficiency, internal consistency, self-evident meaning, and universal applicability. Acclaimed sociologist Christian Smith argues that this approach is misguided and unable to live up to its own claims. If evangelical biblicism worked as its proponents say it should, there would not be the vast variety of interpretive differences th...

For years a debate has raged over how to define true masculinity and true femininity. While there is agreement that men and women share equally in the privilege of being made in God's image, some views of manhood and womanhood blur God-given gender distinctions. Wayne Grudem assembled a team of distinguished writers to show how egalitarian views destroy God's ideal for your relationships, marriage, and life purposes. The contributors to this book include: John Piper, Pastor of Bethlehem Ba...

It was the center of learning, commerce, wealth, and religion. Devoted to materialism, extravagance, luxury, and the pursuit of sensual pleasure, it was a privileged society. But, there was also injustice, poverty, and oppression. It was the great and ancient Babylon—the center of the universe.And now we find Babylon redux today in Western society. Consumer capitalism, a never-ending cycle of working and buying, a sea of choices produced with little regard to life or resources, soc...