From the earliest days of the Christian faith, Christians have honored holy matrimony as a divinely blessed, lifelong, monogamous union, between a man and a woman. According to the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (1979), reflecting the traditional view, "Christian marriage is a solemn and public covenant between a man and a woman in the presence of God," "intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is God's will, for the procreation of children and their nurture." However, while many Christians might agree with the traditional definition, the terminology and theological views of marriage have varied through time in different countries, and among Christian denominations.
Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Neopaganism, Baháʼí Faith, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those religions from a feminist perspective. Some of the goals of feminist theology include increasing the role of women among clergy and religious authorities, reinterpreting patriarchal (male-dominated) imagery and language about God, determining women's place in relation to career and motherhood, studying images of women in the religions' sacred texts, and matriarchal religion.
The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father, is a central Christian prayer which, according to the New Testament, Jesus taught as the way to pray:
John Stephen Piper is a theologian, pastor, and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Piper taught biblical studies at Bethel University for six years (1974-1980), before serving as pastor for preaching and vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis for 33 years (1980-2013).
John Richard Wimber was an American pastor, Christian author and musician. Initially ordained as a Quaker minister, he became an early, pioneering pastor of charismatic congregations, and a popular thought leader in modern Christian publications on the third person of the Christian Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit’s action in modern churches through miraculous phenomena referred to as miracles, or signs and wonders. Wimber was a founding leader of the Vineyard Movement, a Christian movement that Ken Gulliksen began in the United States and has become, as of 2017, a wider denomination.
Elisabeth Elliot was a Christian author and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca people of eastern Ecuador. She later spent two years as a missionary to the tribe members who killed her husband. Returning to the United States after many years in South America, she became widely known as the author of over twenty books and as a speaker. Elliot toured the country, sharing her knowledge and experience, well into her seventies.
Wayne A. Grudem is an American evangelical theologian, seminary professor, and author. He co-founded the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and served as the general editor of the ESV Study Bible.
Philip James Elliot was an American Christian missionary and one of five people killed during Operation Auca, an attempt to evangelize the Huaorani people of Ecuador.
Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) is a Christian egalitarian organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. CBE's Mission Statement reads: "CBE exists to promote biblical justice and community by educating Christians that the Bible calls women and men to share authority equally in service and leadership in the home, church, and world." According to its website, CBE "is a nonprofit organization of Christian men and women who believe that the Bible, properly interpreted, teaches the fundamental equality of men and women of all ethnic groups, all economic classes, and all age groups, based on the teachings of Scriptures such as Galatians 3:28: 'There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus' ."
Max Lucado is an American author and minister at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas.
John Cornelius Stam and Elisabeth Alden "Betty" Stam were American Christian missionaries to China, with the China Inland Mission (CIM), during the Chinese Civil War. The missionary couple were executed by Communist Chinese soldiers in 1934.
Complementarianism is a theological view in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, that men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, and religious leadership. The word "complementary" and its cognates are currently used to denote this view. Some Christians interpret the Bible as prescribing complementarianism, and therefore adhere to gender-specific roles that preclude women from specific functions of ministry within the community. Though women may be precluded from certain roles and ministries, they are held to be equal in moral value and of equal status. The phrase used to describe this is 'Ontologically equal, Functionally different'.
The roles of women in Christianity have varied since its founding. Women have played an important role in Christianity especially in marriage and in formal ministry positions within certain Christian denominations, churches, and parachurch organizations.
Bridge of Blood: Jim Elliot Takes Christ to the Aucas is a 1973 readers' theatre play based on the story of Operation Auca. It was written by David Robey, a former drama professor at Cedarville University, and produced by Lillenas Drama in 1988.
Edith Rachel Merritt Schaeffer was a Christian author and co-founder of L'Abri, a Christian organization which hosts guests. She was the wife of Francis Schaeffer, and the mother of Frank Schaeffer and three other children.
Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism is a collection of articles on gender roles, written from an evangelical perspective, and edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem. Crossway Books published the book in 1991 for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW). CBMW, an international interdenominational evangelical Christian organisation, has a board and staff committed to a view of gender roles they dub complementarian. Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood won Christianity Today's Book of the Year award in 1992.
Andreas Johannes Köstenberger is Research Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology and founding director of the Center for Biblical Studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is an evangelical scholar, author, and founder of Biblical Foundations, an organization devoted to encouraging a return to the biblical foundations in the home, the church, and society. His primary research interests are the Gospel of John, Biblical Theology, and Hermeneutics.
Maria Anne Hirschmann is a Czechoslovak-American author and public speaker on Christian subjects.
Biblical womanhood is a movement within evangelical Christianity, particularly in the United States. It adopts a complementarian or patriarchal view of gender roles, and emphasizes passages such as Titus 2 in describing what Christian women should be like. According to Rachel Held Evans, it is driven by the conviction that "the virtuous woman serves primarily from the home as a submissive wife, diligent homemaker, and loving mother."
Susan T. Foh is an American biblical scholar.
