The Pentecostal Gender Paradox by Dutko, Joseph Lee;

Long description:

"

The distinct subjects of eschatology and gender equality have seen an explosion of interest in recent decades, particularly within Pentecostal scholarship. Pentecostalism is regarded ideally as both an eschatological and egalitarian movement. However, many Pentecostals have lamented the inconsistency between the early egalitarian impulse of the movement and its current restrictive practices. This situation has been described as the so-called Pentecostal ""gender paradox,"" referring to the conflicting freedoms and limitations experienced by Pentecostal women. Pentecostals have also recognized the waning eschatological fervor within the movement and its shifting eschatological convictions, leading to calls to rediscover the eschatological heart of the movement.

Despite the renewed interest in both eschatology and women's equality, little research has been done to put these two areas into conversation with each other: eschatological convictions are often absent in the debate on gender roles in the church. For Pentecostals, eschatology has often been about urgency in ""saving souls"" rather than attending to social issues, but could Pentecostal eschatology be the key to (re)discovering greater equality for women in the church? Is the waning of both eschatology and women's equality within Pentecostalism potentially interrelated?

For over one hundred years the role of women in Pentecostalism has been debated without a firm consensus. By examining gender solely through an eschatological lens in history, Scripture, and praxis, this work provides a valuable and creative contribution to one of the most important theological and global issues of our time, women's (in)equality. This book is also one of the first comprehensive studies to approach a single social issue solely through an eschatological lens and to provide attention to developing a thorough and methodologically connected eschatological praxis. By uncovering the unified eschatological-egalitarian narrative thread within both the Pentecostal and biblical story, this work suggests that the present end of women's inequality begins with fidelity to the future eschaton of gender equality.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction
Gender Equality: Beginning with the End

Chapter One
Eschatology: Enemy of Equality?

Chapter Two
Women and Eschatology in the Early Pentecostal Movement: In Search of an Authorizing Hermeneutic

Chapter Three
The Loss of Eschatology as Authorizing Hermeneutic

Chapter Four
Imagining the Eschaton: (Re)Constructing the Eschatological Authorizing Hermeneutic

Chapter Five
Pre-Enacting the Promise: Solving the Gender Praxis Problem

Chapter Six
Participating in the Eschaton: Toward a Pentecostal Eschatological-Egalitarian Praxis

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index