Classic complementarian work “Man and Woman In Christ” reprinted by Tabor House

One of the most complete volumes of the biblical view of gender roles in the home and church is again available after several years of non-publication.

One of the most complete volumes of the biblical view of gender roles in the home and church is again available after several years of non-publication.

First published in 1980, a few years before the term complementarian was coined, Man and Woman in Christ: An Examination of the Roles on Men and Women in Light of Scripture and Social Science has long been considered the magnum opus in detailing the complementarian position of biblical manhood and womanhood.

Author Stephen B. Clark, a Yale sociologist, writes from a Christian perspective and aims his volume at an ecumenical audience. The work, recently reprinted by Tabor House, presents a detailed look at gender roles from a biblical perspective and deals with feminist arguments from social science.

In his examination of Scripture, Clark looks at the social structures of both the Old and New Testament cultures as well as individual sections and texts to demonstrate that gender roles are woven into the fabric of God’s special revelation.

Clark also unpacks the view that that the light of nature—God’s general revelation—also demonstrates complementary differences between men and women as well. This is seen in the work of the social sciences, he shows.

Clark exposes the faulty methodology that feminist social scientists use to arrive at their conclusions that there are very few differences between males and females. Feminists employ these methods to advance an explicitly political agenda, Clark argues. Clark interacts with major feminist figures and their arguments.

Donald Bloesch calls Man and Woman in Christ “a welcome antidote to the barrage of propaganda from the egalitarian left that blurs the distinction between the sexes and denies the biblical teaching of hierarchy in the order of creation.”

Man and Woman in Christ is available through The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood’s webstore here.