Unveiling Paul's Women

Whether people realize it or not, the ideas in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 have had a huge impact on the role of Christian women in the church through the centuries. These fifteen verses have shaped worship practices, church structures, church leadership, marriages, and even relationships between men and women in general. They have contributed to practices that have consistently placed women in a subordinate role to men, and have been used to justify the idea that a woman should not occupy a leadership or teaching position without being under the authority or "covering" of a man. It is strange, therefore, that academics and pastors alike continue to note how confusing and difficult it continues to be to make sense of these very verses. In this little book, Lucy Peppiatt not only highlights the problems associated with using this text to justify the subordination of women, but offers a clear and plausible re-reading of the text that paints the apostle Paul as a radical, visionary, church planter who championed women in all forms of leadership.

"Lucy Peppiatt is an outstanding academic, writer and leader. In the excellent Unveiling Paul's Women, she offers sensible and insightful argument undergirded by rigorous scholarship. At last, in her thesis, the text finds a natural and logical flow. A flow that's consistent with what appears obvious from Paul's teaching and practice elsewhere in the New Testament."
--Roger Ellis, Global Coordinator of the 24-7 Boiler Room Network and Academy Director

"Unveiling Paul's Women is like Paracetamol Plus or Panadol ActiFast or Anadin Extra for some well-known theological headaches! She has treated us to a quick-acting, bite-sized, power-packed, tablet-shaped wonder medicine for the weary, wary or just curious. Prepare to end up inspired by honest and erudite wrestling with scripture, and in the future, make it a rule to get anything she writes and then share her books with friends."
--Chris Tilling, Graduate Tutor and Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies, St. Mellitus College

"I'm persuaded that Lucy Peppiatt is pushing us to significant improvement [in interpretation] when it comes to 1 Corinthians 11."
--Scot McKnight, Julius R. Mantey Professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary, Lisle, IL


Lucy Peppiatt is the Principal of Westminster Theological Centre and the author of Women and Worship at Corinth: Paul's Rhetorical Arguments in 1 Corinthians (2015).