i am preaching today at st mary’s ealing as part of a series on paul’s letter to the ephesians. my passage is chapter 5 which is one of three passages in paul’s letters that are tricky to navigate in relation to women and men as on the surface they seem to suggest a traditional set of roles. it’s a passage that even gets a discussion in the westwing! (ht bryn)

[update: the sermon is online here]

i mention a couple of resources in the talk and am pointing people here to find them hence this post.

the first is a paper by jenny baker which gives an overview of what the bible says about men and women taking an egalitarian view (men and women as equal partners). she wrote it years ago but it is still really helpful and deals extensively with paul’s writing in those passages. click on this link to download it – what does the bible say about men and women. i won’t have time to go into anything like this level of detail. you may also like to read her book equals.

secondly i mention a letter from chimamanda ngozi adichie called dear ijeawele. she is asked by a friend for advice on how to raise a daughter as a feminist. i love her 15 suggestions for a feminist manifesto that she puts in a letter. i have given it to my son as he has three daughters. it is full of wisdom. i thought it was a bit of a different letter to paul’s (!) but a good counterpoint and one i think if he was around today, he would enjoy. you can buy it in online book shops as ever – it’s small and cheap. i bought it at we out here festival from the incredible thisisbooklove multi cultural bookshop – i also found a pdf of it here on an american foreign policy blog (which seems slightly random!).