The Complementarian Publishing Conundrum

New Testament scholar Tom Schreiner, on the challenges of writing on complementarianism and the attractiveness of new egalitarian interpretations of Scripture:

Sometimes I wonder if egalitarians hope to triumph in the debate on the role of women by publishing book after book on the subject. Each work propounds a new thesis which explains why the traditional interpretation is flawed.

Complementarians could easily give in from sheer exhaustion, thinking that so many books written by such a diversity of different authors could scarcely be wrong.

Further, it is difficult to keep writing books promoting the complementarian view. Our view of the biblical text has not changed dramatically in the last twenty five years. Should we continue to write books that essentially promote traditional interpretations? Is the goal of publishing to write what is true or what is new?

One of the dangers of evangelical publishing is the desire to say something novel. Our evangelical publishing houses could end up like those in Athens so long ago: “Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21, NASB).

Revisionism and reinterpretation require that we return to the text to see if these things are so. In February of 2016, Crossway will publish the third edition of Women in the Church: An Interpretation and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9-15, edited by Andreas J. Köstenberger and Thomas R. Schreiner. It contains a number of essays on this classic passage, including extensive new research on parallels to the syntax of 1 Timothy 2:12 from the first century.