St. Paul’s Adult Forum|
Fall 2011
The Good Book, by Peter Gomes
October 30. 2011
Chapter 7: The Bible and Women
To start, let’s think about these questions:
 | If
someone asked you what the Bible says about women, how would you respond? |
| What issues are related to the question of what the Bible says about women? Are these significant to you? |
Gomes begins the chapter with the account of Mary Daly’s sermon in 1971 at Harvard’s Memorial Church. What happened? How do you think you would have responded? Why do you think Gomes shared this story?
In this chapter, Gomes spend significant time discussing some women who were prominent in the early church: Lydia (Acts 16), Sapphira (Acts 5), Phoebe (Romans 16), and Prisca/Priscilla (Romans 16).
| What
did you think of these women? |
| Why
might it be important to think about their role in the early church? |
| Why do you think the role of women in the church changed? |
On p. 130, Gomes contrasts some of the “hard passages” about women (1 Cor 14:34-35 and 1 Tim 2:11-12) with passages that emphasize equality and inclusion (John 20:18 and Gal 3:27-29).
|
Besides the obvious, how are these passages different from each other? |
| Do
these passages represent practices/precepts or principles? |
| How might making this distinction (practice vs. principle) help us deal with the “hard passages”? |
Let’s take a look at the quote from Malcolm Tolbert found on p. 143. Do you find this helpful? How might it affect our interpretation of other challenging issues?
FOR NOV. 6: Read Chapter 8
and the biblical passages listed on p. 149