Daughters of Eve: See below the College-Girl Evangelist

Mary Agnes Vichestain in full preaching pose!

My CTS Story

I began teaching at Calvin Theological Seminary in 2000--the first full-time woman professor in the school's 125-year history. In 2003, less than 3 months after Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. was installed as the new president, I was, without warning, removed from tenure track and given a terminal appointment. I have repeatedly asked that all the evidence be opened only to be blocked by a dishonest cover-up. When independent mediators were retained by the seminary board in 2005, they called for "retroactive pay to 2003," among other things. That report was buried. I finished my second terminal appointment on August 31, 2006, and shortly thereafter published my story at www.ruthtucker.net.

My Review of Keeping House by Margaret Kim Peterson

People will be turned off by the title of this book because they are turned off by keeping house. How unfortunate! I'm an academic whose days are spent reading books and staring at a computer screen----except for keeping house, which I use broadly to include gardening, painting siding, and just puttering. "Ora et labora" was the motto for the Benedictines--a term as fresh today as it was centuries ago.

Margaret Peterson pulls wonderful anectdotes and readings and poems from a wide range of histories, biographies, and magazines. It's a fascinating book. It would serve as a wonderful text for courses on culture or gender----or a course invented just for the book. I'd find a way to use it for a seminary course if I hadn't been booted from my teaching position ("My Calvin Seminary Story"). The vast majority of my students were men, and they need this book most. The central thesis of the book is: "A Christian home, properly understood, is never just for one's own family. A Christian home overflows its boundaries; it is an outpost of the kingdom of God, where the hungry are fed and the naked are clothed and there is room enough for everyone."

My Amazon Review: THE REAL MARY

This book is for Evangelical Christians, but even more so I believe for Catholics. How sad that this first lady of the New Testament is seen as so far and above and beyond regular folks. Years ago I was driving home to Grand Rapids in the late afternoon amidst a blizzard. My mind was on the weather but even more so on my young adult son. He was screwing up his life so badly and I felt helpless in getting him to turn things around. As I drove east on highway 196 toward my exit on Fuller Avenue, I noticed up on the hill St. Isadore Catholic Church where there is a large statue of Mary holding young Jesus. I turned off the highway and circled around to the church. I climbed the steep hill as the snow swirled around me and I knelt in the snow weeping before the Virgin Mary. "You prayed to Mary?" asked an incredulous student who heard me tell this story. No, I wept in front of a statue, I said. I tried to make a case that it wasn't the same thing--thus sparing myself the terrors of hell! But Mary nevertheless was, to me, and awesome lady in whose presence--even in a statue--I was subdued. But Scot McKnight has made Mary approachable. His version of Mary is a lot more like me than is the statue. "Mary was not a 'nice' girl. If 'nice' means meek and mild and mind-you-own business, then Mary was not nice. In fact, Mary scared 'nice' passive girls because she was dangerously active. Instead of minding her own business, Mary was minding Herod's and, as we will see, Ceasar Augustus's. And well into Jesus' own ministry, we will see that Mary minded Jesus' business, too. . . . Mary was a muscular, wiry woman . . . whose body evoked a robust confidence in the God who was about to turn the world upside down through her son." (pp. 26-27) Mary was a feisty lady who would look good in my T-shirt with the words: "Well behaved women rarely make history." I think she would resonate with my own struggles with not being able to conform to the ideal of the "nice" girl ("My Calvin Seminary Story"). The Mary in McKnight's book is not some sort of postmodern Mary. She's the Mary that walks right out of the pages of Scripture. This book is a gem. Buy it, read it, pass it on to a friend.

My Amazon Review of Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism? by Wayne Grudem

Once again Wayne Grudem is over-stating his case. There are instances to be sure of evangelical feminists going down the path to liberalism, but the general trend in recent decades and historically is not that at all. In fact, there have been many denominations and megachurches that have slowly moved to a more conservative stance on social issues, including the women's issue--not the least of which is the Southern Baptist Convention. And, there are those who in theory talk the talk of evangelical feminists but treat women very differently on a practical level, as was true in my own ministry ("My Calvin Seminary Story"). Grudem misses these nuances.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

See below the College-Girl Evangelist