Is the Bible bad news for women? Is Jesus misogynistic?
Or – as some claim – were the teachings of Jesus in fact the basis of a revolutionary change in the way women were seen and treated across the ancient world, as Christianity spread?
Meet our guest
Dr Rebecca McLaughlin is a returning guest on Undeceptions, having last appeared on episode 18 ‘Confronting Christianity’. She is the author of ‘Confronting Christianity’, named Christianity Today’s 2020 Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year. When not travelling the world speaking, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she writes excellent books and helps run Vocable Communications, a speech-focused, data-driven communications firm dedicated to helping leaders deliver messages that change minds.
Links
Thanks for listening to our first live episode of Undeceptions, recorded at the Sydney leg of the Undeceptions Conference, in 2023!
Special thanks to our season sponsor Zondervan Academic. Get discounts on MasterLectures video courses and exclusive samples of their books at zondervanacademic.com/undeceptions
A transcript of this episode is available here. Please note, that due to software not not all exchanges between guests will be completely accurate.
Check out these helpful links below for more info on what was discussed in this episode.
To Read
- Here’s a PDF of all we have of the Gnostic Gospel of Mary
- Here’s a fantastic review of Rebecca’s book Jesus Through the Eyes of Women, which touches on all the themes of the text
- This article from Common Grace helpfully unpacks the revolutionary spirit of Mary’s Song, as recorded in Luke chapter 1
- There’s a whole cast of women who followed Jesus that we don’t hear enough about today. Here’s an explainer of Joanna “the wife of Cuza”
- For all other things Rebecca McLaughlin, here’s her website
- Here’s a helpful explainer on why the testimony of women was so crucial to the spread of Christianity in the first century
To Watch
- Crowd-funded TV epic The Chosen has been a sensation in recent years. Check out its moving depiction of Jesus healing the bleeding woman here
- In this episode, Rebecca lifts the veil on the treatment of women in the ancient world. The YouTube channel World History Encyclopedia has a few videos that go into this further. Check it out here
- A big part of this episode is shining a light on some of the women in the Bible we don’t hear enough about. This cute animation is really helpful to introduce us to some of these
To Listen
- Check out Rebecca’s own podcast Confronting Christianity where she touches on some of the issues we’ve explored in this episode
- Here’s pastor H.B.Charles preaching on Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, recorded at the Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference
- Here’s some more Rebecca McLaughlin wisdom – a presentation that can be watched or listened to – asking the question; ‘Isn’t Christianity Denigrating to Women’?
- We’ve covered some of the Biblical matriarchs before; check out episode 22 ‘Remembering Women’, with Dr. Lynn Cohick
… and finally
- This wasn’t Rebecca’s first rodeo on Undeceptions. Check out her last appearance – Episode 18 ‘Confronting Christianity’ – here
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