Also of Interest to Professors from Brazos Press
Becoming the Pastor’s Wife How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s
Path to Ministry Beth Allison Barr
A trusted historian and Baptist pastor’s wife tells how the rise of a new and important leadership role for conservative Protestant women, the pastor’s wife, intersects with the decline of women’s independent leadership in the church. “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, more important, how the role of pastor’s wife has served as a dis- torted metaphor for how all women in the church should (or should not) function.”— Karen Swallow Prior, author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis “ Becoming the Pastor’s Wife is clear, empowering, and unflinching in its critique of the role of the pastor’s wife. Barr offers us a new vision for women’s active participation in the congregation and a new paradigm for women in ministry. Her work is timely, neces- sary, and undeniable.” — Kellie Carter Jackson, Wellesley College; author of We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance “With her signature exhaustive research and passionate yet nu- anced arguments, Barr has given us the book that the church has desperately needed.” — Sarah Bessey, editor of the New York Times bestseller A Rhythm of Prayer ; author of Field Notes for the Wilder- ness: 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 con- gregations are at their healthiest when women are allowed to use their abilities.” — Steve Bezner , pastor, Houston Northwest Church; author of Your Jesus Is Too American “An amazing book that exposes the grave disenfranchisement of women to the gospel ministry and sets the record straight for all to see. 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
MARCH 2025 • 256 pp. • cloth • $24.99 • 9781587435898
Beth Allison Barr (PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is James Vardaman Endowed Chair of History at Baylor University, where she specializes in medieval history, women’s history, and church history. She is the author of the USA Today bestseller The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Be- came Gospel Truth. Her work has been featured by NPR and the New Yorker, and she has written for Christianity Today, the Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News, Sojourners, and Baptist News Global.
ALSO BY THE AUTHOR THE MAKING OF BIBLICAL WOMANHOOD 9781587434709 • $19.99p
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