A Women's Place?: Leadership in the Church

by C.S. Cowles

Cowles, C. S.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this book a 3 instead of a 4, because much of the material was dated. A lot of the comments on women’s rights have been addressed in the last 20-30 years and I didn’t feel like a majority of them were really still that big of an issue. I appreciated the author’s systematic working through the main texts that are used to justify preaching as a male only position in the church. It was a good perspective on the texts in question. I especially appreciated the explanations of the Greek words in helping to understand the text. I would say most of the beginning of the book was dated and unnecessary. Chapter 6 offered the meat of the text and was the most helpful and informational in helping me to determine where I stand on this issue. The final chapter was disappointing. The author tried to appeal to emotion and that disappointed me. I felt the intellectual reasoning was strong and to end with the low blow of emotions, left me feeling disappointed. I thought the arguments were strong enough and an emotional appeal was unnecessary and annoying in our current culture where most people only appeal to emotions and leave out logical reasoning.

[Amy Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is out of the Wesleyan/holiness tradition. The author contributes a solid argument that for women to be empowered to serve according to their gifting, men in authority must seek out and recognize women’s gifts and put them in positions where they can exercise those in service of the church.

Cowles labels complementarianism in the church as discrimination, and seems to interpret scripture through that lens. His arguments are all presented in a less slanted way by Alice Mathews in Gender Roles and the People of God; I’d recommend her book over this one.

[Joelle Constant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is just incredible! C'est mon livre de chevet. I have read many books on this subject, but this one is by far the best I have ever read! I am grateful to the author for leaving to called women such a rich heritage! Joelle Constant

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book full of sound exegesis on the subject of a woman's role, not only within ministry but also within the home. Cowles paints a startling accurate picture of the history of women within and outside of the Bible, and then leads you in a very organized fashion through what the Bible says about women in the account of creation, through the life and ministry of Jesus, all the way to the writings of Paul on the matter.

For anyone doing research on a woman's role in ministry I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of this book!