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Roundtable: Julia Higgins and Christy Thornton on Complementarianism

Christ and Culture Podcast | March 18, 2022
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In the Christ and Culture podcast with Ken Keathley and Benjamin Quinn, we explore how the Christian faith intersects all avenues of today’s culture through conversations with leading thinkers.

Today’s Episode: What is complementarianism? Today Drs. Julia Higgins and Christy Thornton join us to discuss this doctrine, clarify a few key misunderstandings, and explore how it should affect local churches.

Plus, Dr. Quinn talks about who St. Patrick really was (hint: he was more interested in missions than shamrocks), and Dr. Keathley answers a listener question about reformed theology.

If at any point women feel marginalized or abused... then we are misapplying a belief of complementarianism that's not consistent with what it teaches.

Highlights

  • Dr. Higgins: “[Complementarianism is] the belief in the dignity, value and worth of men and women, and the idea that men and women have been created with different roles and responsibilities in the home and the church.”
  • Dr. Higgins: “Those appeals of Paul to the Genesis account are helpful for us to see that he wasn’t necessarily dealing with a cultural thing that wasn’t a timeless principle for us. Because he appeals to Genesis, we see it as something that’s for the church for all time. So for me, rooting complementarianism in Genesis 1-3 is really helpful.”
  • Dr. Thornton: “There are a group of people who hear complementarians talk about role and function, and they hear being — so that women are lesser than being, because we have different role and function. Which is not what complementarians have ever really said, certainly not in our confessional documents. That’s an unfair understanding of what complementarians are, perhaps a misunderstanding that we think of this differing role and function as some sort of inferiority of being between men and women, which is not complementarianism.”
  • Dr. Higgins: “If at any point women feel marginalized or abused… then we are misapplying a belief of complementarianism that’s not consistent with what it teaches.”

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