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The Role of Women in the Church
Out of print in recent years, this newly revised edition of Charles Ryrie's The Role of Women in the Church , featuring a new foreword by Dorothy Kelley Patterson, proves its ongoing relevance in addressing what is still a divisive issue at the forefront of What can a woman do in the church of God?
With clarity and depth, Ryrie recounts the status of women in ancient Greece and Rome. He looks at the significance of Mary as Christ's mother, the attitude of Jesus toward women, and at women as ministers to Jesus. There are Scripture based chapters on marriage, celibacy, and divorce as well as a woman's place in church life. The book's final section examines the status of women in the church during the second and third centuries.
In sum, Patterson views Ryrie's work as "a masterpiece of blending both historical records with biblical exegesis to present a well-reasoned biblical answer to the burning question from this generation and those to come."
With clarity and depth, Ryrie recounts the status of women in ancient Greece and Rome. He looks at the significance of Mary as Christ's mother, the attitude of Jesus toward women, and at women as ministers to Jesus. There are Scripture based chapters on marriage, celibacy, and divorce as well as a woman's place in church life. The book's final section examines the status of women in the church during the second and third centuries.
In sum, Patterson views Ryrie's work as "a masterpiece of blending both historical records with biblical exegesis to present a well-reasoned biblical answer to the burning question from this generation and those to come."
147 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 28, 2000
16 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
Charles C. Ryrie
153 books63 followersCharles Caldwell Ryrie (born 1925) was a Christian writer and theologian. He graduated from Haverford College (B.A.), Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M., Th.D.) and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland (Ph.D.). For many years he served as professor of systematic theology and dean of doctoral studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and as president and professor at Philadelphia College of Bible, now Philadelphia Biblical University. He was a premillennial dispensationalist, though irenic in his approach. He was also the editor of the popular Ryrie Study Bible.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 10, 2015
See all of my book reviews at MostlySensible.com.
My book shelf is quickly filling with books from the complementarian point of view of women’s roles, and Ryrie’s book is a great addition. He showed the great worth and dignity that Christianity has given women. The first edition was written in 1979, and this second edition was published in 2011. Some parts of the book took a bit of slow reading without distraction, but it was well worth the time!
Ryrie’s book begins with descriptions of the status of women in Judaism and in Greek and Roman culture and outlines how that differs from Christ’s teaching and relationship with women as well as the early church’s view of women’s roles. Jesus’ ministry was truly a turning point in the life of women. “It was the Lord Himself, who turned the reproach of the unmarried or widowed Jewish woman into reputable service for the Master.” I appreciated in this section Dr. Ryrie’s explanation of the issues of divorce, silence in the church, head coverings, subordination, prophetesses and deaconesses, widows, and virgins. His interpretations of the relevant Scriptures are true to the languages and the common sense of the texts.
The second half of the book traced all of the mentions of women in all of the church writings from the time of the apostles through the 3rd century. This was different that most other books of this genre I’ve read, and I loved it! The writings of Polycarp, Ignatius, Clement, Tertullian, Origen and others are analysed for clues about how the early church viewed women’s roles and how they applied the New Testament to the faithful Christian life. Ryrie’s short overview of each writer’s theology and background was helpful because unlike Scripture, the writings of the early church are jaded by their own human infallibility and philosophies and false doctrines. Having that framework for each writer was helpful to me in that way. The writings reveal how the early church practiced the doctrines of the New Testament and interestingly an office of deaconess is conspicuously absent until halfway through the 3rd century. Rather, “Beyond any question the widow was the outstanding figure throughout the entire first three centuries of the church.” We find the term deaconess only in connection with Phoebe (Rom. 16:1-2) in the New Testament, and Ryrie shows clearly that even in the first centuries of the church, the office of “deaconess” is more of an outgrowth of a well-organized and respected group of widows whose duties were not liturgical but consistent with helping at baptisms of women and visiting the sick and prayer. They did not preach, teach, nor perform any of the ordinances, not even when it involved only women. Notably in these early church writings, widows were not ordained as were bishops/pastors. Throughout these centuries the role of women in the home was the main emphasis of the church. The value of these godly women and their active service in the church was undeniably treasured, but their service was never authoritarian or in conflict with male leadership. Ryrie concludes, “Women workers, yes; women deacons, no.”
Too often the feminist and egalitarian camps try to rewrite church history and read into words like deaconess much more than was intended or described. We need more voices like Ryrie’s speaking in support of the complementarian view of women’s roles, that subordination does not equal inferiority, that ordering of authority and roles is very much defined and expected in Scripture, and that a woman’s godly service and contribution to the church does not require a formal position of authority.
My book shelf is quickly filling with books from the complementarian point of view of women’s roles, and Ryrie’s book is a great addition. He showed the great worth and dignity that Christianity has given women. The first edition was written in 1979, and this second edition was published in 2011. Some parts of the book took a bit of slow reading without distraction, but it was well worth the time!
Ryrie’s book begins with descriptions of the status of women in Judaism and in Greek and Roman culture and outlines how that differs from Christ’s teaching and relationship with women as well as the early church’s view of women’s roles. Jesus’ ministry was truly a turning point in the life of women. “It was the Lord Himself, who turned the reproach of the unmarried or widowed Jewish woman into reputable service for the Master.” I appreciated in this section Dr. Ryrie’s explanation of the issues of divorce, silence in the church, head coverings, subordination, prophetesses and deaconesses, widows, and virgins. His interpretations of the relevant Scriptures are true to the languages and the common sense of the texts.
The second half of the book traced all of the mentions of women in all of the church writings from the time of the apostles through the 3rd century. This was different that most other books of this genre I’ve read, and I loved it! The writings of Polycarp, Ignatius, Clement, Tertullian, Origen and others are analysed for clues about how the early church viewed women’s roles and how they applied the New Testament to the faithful Christian life. Ryrie’s short overview of each writer’s theology and background was helpful because unlike Scripture, the writings of the early church are jaded by their own human infallibility and philosophies and false doctrines. Having that framework for each writer was helpful to me in that way. The writings reveal how the early church practiced the doctrines of the New Testament and interestingly an office of deaconess is conspicuously absent until halfway through the 3rd century. Rather, “Beyond any question the widow was the outstanding figure throughout the entire first three centuries of the church.” We find the term deaconess only in connection with Phoebe (Rom. 16:1-2) in the New Testament, and Ryrie shows clearly that even in the first centuries of the church, the office of “deaconess” is more of an outgrowth of a well-organized and respected group of widows whose duties were not liturgical but consistent with helping at baptisms of women and visiting the sick and prayer. They did not preach, teach, nor perform any of the ordinances, not even when it involved only women. Notably in these early church writings, widows were not ordained as were bishops/pastors. Throughout these centuries the role of women in the home was the main emphasis of the church. The value of these godly women and their active service in the church was undeniably treasured, but their service was never authoritarian or in conflict with male leadership. Ryrie concludes, “Women workers, yes; women deacons, no.”
Too often the feminist and egalitarian camps try to rewrite church history and read into words like deaconess much more than was intended or described. We need more voices like Ryrie’s speaking in support of the complementarian view of women’s roles, that subordination does not equal inferiority, that ordering of authority and roles is very much defined and expected in Scripture, and that a woman’s godly service and contribution to the church does not require a formal position of authority.
February 23, 2026
Ryrie presents the role of women in the church from a very conservative complementarian perspective. The historical background information revealed a surprisingly harsh first century treatment of women. Ryrie regards the silence of women in churches (I Cor 14, 2 Tim 2) to apply generally to the idea that women should not speak publicly in church gatherings. A major weakness to Ryrie's presentation here is that he does not address the relationship between the women and their husbands concerned in these passages. He gives very little to the translation of aner, and therefore misses the consideration of husband/wife dynamics on this issue.
For the clearest example, a passage which might have been construed as an example of female leadership in the church, Phoebe's mention in Romans 15 is considered to be "deacon" as a descriptive function, rather than an official title. Because she was helping and serving the church she was referred to in this way, but not because of any title bestowed. There is really no grounds for interpreting the work "deacon" as anything other than deacon within the context of discussing official members and leaders of the church at Rome. Thus Ryrie sees that women never hold positions of any kind of leadership in the church.
However, Ryrie is willing to admit that women tended to have more prominent roles in the Old Testament, such as interpretive consultation of prophetesses and their leadership ministry functions. This sits awkwardly up against a New Testament understanding of prophetesses who were "the exception and not the rule." Where would a prophetess prophesy if she is not allowed to speak in the church? Based on his strict interpretation of this rule, women were to prophesy as a private practice: a view that is a conclusion of the prohibitive passages, an not necessarily exegetically derived.
Ryrie spends a few words on his opinion of the New Testament's treatment of the subject of divorce and remarriage, off topic for the book, and with very little presentation or argumentation. These sections boil down to his own personal statements of opinion on the matter. He spends very little time dealing with the role of men and women within the marriage relationship either, to spend it on divorce and remarriage. It seems this parallel idea falls slightly out of scope.
The least valuable appeal in Ryrie's book is the chapter on early church history. He appeals to the early church treatment of women as an argument of tradition reflecting the New Testament understanding of how women should be treated in the church. This is an unstable argument, since the early fathers made many other interpretive departures from strictly apostolic teaching. He treats the passages of strictly complementarian women relationships as if they were demonstrating his interpretations to be correct, but ignores early church statements about deaconesses as if they were later innovations of the 3rd century church. You cannot have your cake and eat it too in this chapter. Either you accept the complementary evidence and the egalitarian evidence, or you do not admit any of it into a biblical theology of the role of women in the church.
Ryrie's book could benefit from further elaboration on the exegetical work of key passages, rather than stringing together a train of exceptions and conclusions.
For the clearest example, a passage which might have been construed as an example of female leadership in the church, Phoebe's mention in Romans 15 is considered to be "deacon" as a descriptive function, rather than an official title. Because she was helping and serving the church she was referred to in this way, but not because of any title bestowed. There is really no grounds for interpreting the work "deacon" as anything other than deacon within the context of discussing official members and leaders of the church at Rome. Thus Ryrie sees that women never hold positions of any kind of leadership in the church.
However, Ryrie is willing to admit that women tended to have more prominent roles in the Old Testament, such as interpretive consultation of prophetesses and their leadership ministry functions. This sits awkwardly up against a New Testament understanding of prophetesses who were "the exception and not the rule." Where would a prophetess prophesy if she is not allowed to speak in the church? Based on his strict interpretation of this rule, women were to prophesy as a private practice: a view that is a conclusion of the prohibitive passages, an not necessarily exegetically derived.
Ryrie spends a few words on his opinion of the New Testament's treatment of the subject of divorce and remarriage, off topic for the book, and with very little presentation or argumentation. These sections boil down to his own personal statements of opinion on the matter. He spends very little time dealing with the role of men and women within the marriage relationship either, to spend it on divorce and remarriage. It seems this parallel idea falls slightly out of scope.
The least valuable appeal in Ryrie's book is the chapter on early church history. He appeals to the early church treatment of women as an argument of tradition reflecting the New Testament understanding of how women should be treated in the church. This is an unstable argument, since the early fathers made many other interpretive departures from strictly apostolic teaching. He treats the passages of strictly complementarian women relationships as if they were demonstrating his interpretations to be correct, but ignores early church statements about deaconesses as if they were later innovations of the 3rd century church. You cannot have your cake and eat it too in this chapter. Either you accept the complementary evidence and the egalitarian evidence, or you do not admit any of it into a biblical theology of the role of women in the church.
Ryrie's book could benefit from further elaboration on the exegetical work of key passages, rather than stringing together a train of exceptions and conclusions.
September 29, 2025
very good! but a little bit over my head in fully understanding the history. I also wish it had moved beyond the 3rd century but it is still a book I'll hold onto and I appreciate the author's conclusions and insight!
how far the church of today has been led astray in the area of women given roles in the church that simply shouldn't be.
how far the church of today has been led astray in the area of women given roles in the church that simply shouldn't be.
November 6, 2015
Great book
This was a great book. The basic conclusion was expected but the arguments were well structured and Dr. Ryrie offered a perspective on divorce that I was not previously aware of.
This was a great book. The basic conclusion was expected but the arguments were well structured and Dr. Ryrie offered a perspective on divorce that I was not previously aware of.
November 24, 2011
This is a good biblically faithful treatment of a topic that is very controversial. It was a good and quick read. I would recommend it to anyone exploring this issue.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews