William Webb's Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals

1. More than one person has recommended William Webb's 2001 book to me, Slaves, Women, & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis. I suspect they have done so in part because Webb articulates positions similar to ones I have articulated over the years. I would like to blog through it over the next couple weeks.

On a very minor note, I'm not too fond of the title. I would have preferred "Slavery, Gender, and Sexuality" or some such. Indeed, his use of a particular word at one point in chapter 1 made me think, "Hmm. This book is nineteen years old."

I'm sure he didn't mean it, but the title ironically implies a male perspective (as well as that of a free heterosexual). It is a book that is going to talk about women (and the others). The title ironically implies a position of dominance in order to talk about egalitarianism.

2. Having said that, the introduction suggests that he is going to express in probably more convincing terms the kinds of positions that I have argued my whole teaching career. When I look at the list of instructions from the Bible on pages 14-15, I see passages to which I have referred throughout my teaching to make similar points.

The question he poses is, "Which of these instructions from Scripture are still in force for us today exactly as they are articulated?" Here are just five of the some forty scriptures he gives:

• "Be fruitful and multiply."
• "Greet one another with a holy kiss."
• "Sell your possessions and give to the poor."
• "Love the LORD with all your heart."
• "Use a little wine because of your stomach."

The question he raises in effect is how we know which we apply to today completely as stated and which we modify in some way in our application.

The book moves in three parts. The first section lays the groundwork--"Toward a Hermeneutic of Cultural Analysis." He will set out culture and present what he calls a "redemptive-movement framework." This is similar to what I have called a trajectory in Scripture and that some call "progressive revelation."

The second section lays out criteria. Webb will set out 18 criteria to determine what components within the biblical text have ongoing application in a straightforward rather than indirect form. Key to this task is to find internal criteria, that is to find the principles for such hermeneutical discernment from within Scripture itself.

The last section both corroborates the ideas with reasoning outside the Bible and he also plays the Devil's advocate against his own perspective.

3. Chapter one is titled, "The Christian and Culture." He starts giving the familiar comparison of culture to the water in which a fish might swim. "What awakens us to culture is contrast" (21). In other words, we best realize that we are in a context by seeing how our context differs from other contexts.

Sometimes, he argues, Christians are to be counter-cultural. At other times, they go along with the culture ("paracultural"). "It is necessary for Christians to challenge their culture where it departs from kingdom values; it is equally necessary for them to identify with their culture on all other matters" (22). The key is to know what kingdom values are, which is not always as easy as you might think.

As an aside, I was reminded of discussions we had in 2007 as we were putting together the initial outcomes for the Wesley Seminary curriculum. Norm Wilson suggested that the phrase "kingdom values" was complicated because of the tendency to confuse them with values that are really Christianity played out in our culture. To put it another way, kingdom values never exist in the abstract. We can only observe them played out in particular times and places--"contextualized."

Here is a key point--kingdom values are always contextualized in Scripture as well. "Within the text of Scripture we find portions that are transcultural (e.g., love for one's neighbor) and portions that are cultural, or more accurately, portions that contain significant cultural components (e.g., slavery texts)" (23).

He does mention something that I think is important here. In one sense, this language is misleading. "In one sense all of Scripture is cultural" (24). Indeed, I do not like the term transcultural. I prefer to use the term, "omnicontextual." Every word of the Bible--and anything else--is cultural in the sense that we cannot escape culture or contextualization.

Nevertheless, he uses terms like "cultural confinement," "cultural relativity," and "culturally bound" to refer to parts of the Bible that would not translate well into other times and places.

4. The chapter ends by setting out the spectra of positions on "the women's issue" and "the homosexual issue." Again, don't really like the way this is phrased.

The spectrum on the role of women
1. Strong patriarchy

• No instance of women in leadership over a man

2. Soft patriarchy

• Women in lower ministry positions, just not senior leadership, ok in secular society

3. Evangelical egalitarianism

• Women in any role, mutual submission in marriage

4. Secular egalitarianism

• equal rights rather than submission of some kind, work can take priority over family

The spectrum on homosexuality
1. Marital heterosexuality only

• traditional position

2. Covenant adult

• Homosexuality can only be expressed in a monogamous, covenant (we would now say marital) relationship

3. Casual adult homosexuality

• any expression involving consenting adults

So those are the categories Webb will be using. More to come...