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Compared with some of the literature generated by the Church of England over the issue of women bishops, this is a mild mannered book, as you would expect from Croft and Gooder, assisted by Viv Faull and others. I hope that by July of this year that part of the book which deals specifically with the episcopal issue will be a matter only of historical interest; but the chief virtue of this book is that it faces up squarely to all the highly problematic Biblical passages that deal with women, not least the tortuous agonising’s (and bad Greek) of Saint Paul. In order of discussion they are: Genesis 1:26-31; 2:15-25, Galatians 3:16-29, Romans 16:1-16, 1 Timothy 2:1-15, 1 Corinthians 11:2-16; 14:34-35, Ephesians 5:15-33, Romans 12:1-10. For those who do not know it, there is a neat history of women in the Anglican communion and an intelligent reading list pointing to more academic works.
If you want to get up to speed with all the key issues, reading this will be an hour well spent. For the more thoughtful there are discussion points and prayers which allow the book to be used as a taught course.