Book Review: A Short History of the Headship Doctrine in the Seventh-day Adventist Church

A Short History of the Headship Doctrine in the Seventh-day Adventist Church by Gerry Chudleigh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Male Headship / Complementarianism is incompatible with Seventh-day Adventist theology and history.

This is a very short, concise book summarizing how the Adventist church got from being co-founded by a woman, preaching from the pulpit, to today where a huge controversy exists on whether or not women ought to be given full inclusion in ministry.

This book confirms what I have come to suspect: the introduction of Calvinist/neo-Reformed theology into the Adventist church and a slippery-slope fear of radical feminism.

Chudleigh provides a succinct, but excellent summary of those points of Calvinism that are most problematic to Adventist's historical Arminian/Wesleyan theology in regards to gender roles and relations. He shows that historically the church is silent on the issue until the 1970-80's with the rise of certain proponents of headship and complementarian theology in the Reformed Evangelical world: Gotham, Piper, Grudem, etc. and the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Chudleigh shows how these forces made strong impressions on certain Adventist leaders, who then in turn propagated these to the rest of the church.

Chudleigh shows how the argument for headship is flawed and circular. He shows that by accepting one premise, all arguments against are automatically invalidated with no room for dissent or even discussion.

He writes, "So the headship principle is a closed system. Once Eve's original, pre-sin role has been defined as submission to Adam, no other argument or text can disprove it." (Kindle ed., location 503)

In conclusion he writes, "Were it not for the new headship doctrine, the church might have easily adopted a policy of unity in diversity, allowing each division, union and conference to decide how to incorporate women into ministry. Instead, the church is faced with the difficult task of learning how to relate to a new theology that is rooted in a Calvinistic view of God and that permits no compromise or diversity." (location 543)

He makes a very insightful observation and asks a very important question, "No one is advocating that Seventh-day Adventists adopt the entire package of Calvinist predestination theology. But is it possible to pick just one apple [headship] from the Calvinist tree without changing Adventists' traditional understandings of such things as the gracious character for God, the spiritual relationship between Christ and his followers, the commitment to religious liberty for all, and the urgency to take the gospel to every person on earth?" (location 547)

Although this book is directed specifically to Seventh-day Adventists, it may be of interest to others involved in the issue of women in the church. It is a very short read and can be completed easily in one or two sittings. There are extensive endnotes supporting the research.

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