Publisher's Synopsis
To help clarify the issues, Philip Siddons examines the biblical passages referring to women's status in society and the church as they relate to the whole of Scripture. Siddons traces the changing attitudes toward women through the first-century Jewish culture and the greatly changed early Christian church in the Hellenistic culture. He shows how Jesus and the church modeled a new equality and how Christ-followers were moving in a new direction - especially with regard to the status of women. Jesus, Feminism & You calls all who align their spiritual pilgrimage with the teachings and person of Christ to reexamine the example of Jesus who saw women as human beings with equal responsibility with men in personal growth and ministry. For everyone seeking to understand the importance of women as equal partners in the home, society and in the church, this book offers insight on what Jesus meant when he proclaimed the purpose of his mission "to set free those who are downtrodden." A very interesting group study with questions for each chapter. Because Jesus dared to see women as human beings having equal rights with men, he can rightly be called a feminist. I define "feminist" as one who believes and acts in accordance with the presupposition that women should have rights equal to men in all aspects of life. While women's rights was not an issue in the Gospels, what emerges from the writings is a Jesus, in considerable contrast to what we know of first-century Palestinian Judaism, who was an individual who could rightly be described by the contemporary term "feminist."