Does Christianity Teach Male Headship?

Don S. Browning (1934-2010) was Alexander Campbell Professor Emeritus of Religious Ethics and the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago Divinity School and director of the Lilly Project on Religion, Culture, and the Family. He coauthored From Culture Wars to Common Ground: Religion and the American Family Debate and served as coeditor of the Religion, Marriage, and Family series (Eerdmans).

This is not just another book on the perennial issue of male headship. In contrast to those many who regard Christianity as the great source of male domination, this book argues that authentic Christianity does not teach that husbands have spiritual superiority over their wives, and its authors listen to and engage voices that still claim that it does. Written by distinguished Protestant and Roman Catholic scholars, the book first demonstrates how deep strands of the Christian tradition have always taught an ethic of gender mutuality, sowing the seeds for what is today called the "equal-regard marriage." Though patriarchy was pervasive in the ancient world surrounding early Christianity and sometimes influenced the church, new research shows that the earliest layers of Christianity both resisted and worked to transform it. Not every author in the book agrees with this point of view; dissenters have their say too. As a whole, "Does Christianity Teach Male Headship? constitutes a robust debate that, finally, invites readers to decide.Contributors: David BlankenhornDon BrowningLisa Sowle CahillAllan C. CarlsonDaniel Mark CereMaggie GallagherW. Robert GodfreyBonnie Miller-McLemoreJohn W. MillerCarolyn OsiekMary Stewart Van LeeuwenJohn Witte Jr.