Becoming the Pastor's Wife
How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry
About
As a pastor's wife for twenty-five years, Beth Allison Barr has lived with assumptions about what she should do and who she should be.
In Becoming the Pastor's Wife, Barr draws on that experience and her expertise as a historian to trace the history of the role of the pastor's wife, showing how it both helped and hurt women in conservative Protestant traditions. While they gained an important leadership role, it came at a deep cost: losing independent church leadership opportunities that existed throughout most of church history and strengthening a gender hierarchy that prioritized male careers.
Barr examines the connection between the decline of female ordination and the rise of the role of pastor's wife in the evangelical church, tracing its patterns in the larger history (ancient, medieval, Reformation, and modern) of Christian women's leadership. By expertly blending historical and personal narrative, she equips pastors' wives to better advocate for themselves while helping the church understand the origins of the role as well as the historical reality of ordained women.
Contents
Introduction
1. Where Is Peter's Wife?
2. When Women Were Priests
3. The Not-So-Hidden History of Medieval Women's Ordination
4. The Rise of the Pastor's Wife
5. Two for the Price of One
6. The Best Pastor's Wife
7. The (SBC) Road Less Traveled
8. The Cost of Dorothy's Hats
9. Together for the Gospel
Chronological List of Pastor's Wife Books
Endorsements
"Becoming the Pastor's Wife is clear, empowering, and unflinching in its critique of the role of the pastor's wife. Beth Allison Barr illuminates how churches have taken this role, which is not discussed in the Bible, and made it a cornerstone of church culture. Barr examines the myriad of ways women have led in the church and ministered to the congregation throughout the Bible and history. Not leaving us alone with our frustration, she offers us a new vision for women's active participation in the congregation and a new paradigm for women in ministry. Barr's work is timely, necessary, and undeniable."
Kellie Carter Jackson, chair of Africana studies, Wellesley College; author of We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance
"With her signature exhaustive research and passionate yet nuanced arguments, Barr has given us the book that the church has desperately needed. Becoming the Pastor's Wife offers illuminating historical background and compelling biblical context for the role we've created for pastor's wives within our churches, and it provides a Christ-centered roadmap of freedom and flourishing waiting on the other side."
Sarah Bessey, editor of the New York Times bestseller A Rhythm of Prayer and author of Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith
"With historical acumen and personal anecdotes, Barr clearly, systematically, and powerfully demonstrates that women have always ministered in the church in a variety of roles and that congregations are at their healthiest when women are allowed to utilize their abilities. As I read this book, I found myself both challenged and encouraged--challenged on the historical origin of many of my theological assumptions and encouraged to help the women in my congregation lean into their God-given gifts. I imagine other pastors will feel the same."
Steve Bezner, pastor, Houston Northwest Church; author of Your Jesus Is Too American
"Growing up in the church, I knew I would never marry a pastor. I didn't have anything against pastors, but I knew I didn't want to be a pastor's wife. This is exactly why Becoming the Pastor's Wife is such a helpful book. Beth Allison Barr demonstrates that the stereotype of the pastor's wife within modern evangelicalism cannot be sustained by history or the Bible. The book powerfully challenges not only the way the literal role of pastor's wife has been unnecessarily narrowed and reduced but, even more importantly, how the role of pastor's wife has served as a distorted metaphor for how all women in the church should (or should not) function. Becoming the Pastor's Wife paints a truer picture in brighter colors."
Karen Swallow Prior, author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis
"What happens when unexamined and deliberately perpetuated cultural prejudices collide with historical fact (and good Christian decency)? Well, if you bring Beth Allison Barr into the mix, you get an amazing book that exposes the grave disenfranchisement of women to the gospel ministry and sets the record straight for all to see. Becoming the Pastor's Wife is eye-opening, informative, comforting, and . . . pastoral. I am excited to see the impact this book will have on the lives of women who pursue the ordained ministry and their partners who support them."
Peter Enns, author of Curveball; host of The Bible for Normal People podcast
The Author
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Dust in the Wind Photography Beth Allison Barr
Beth Allison Barr (PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is James Vardaman Endowed Chair of History at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where she specializes in medieval history, women's history, and church history. She is the author of the USA...
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