Paul King Jewett

Paul King Jewett (1920–1991^[1]) was an American Christian theologian, author and prominent advocate of the ordination of women and of believer's baptism. He taught systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He is credited with helping develop Fuller into one of the largest seminaries in the country.^[2]

Theology

Having studied at Wheaton College and at Westminster Theological Seminary, Jewett obtained a doctorate in theology from Harvard, and was an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).^[3] He is credited with being one of the major instigators of the contemporary Christian egalitarian movement in the evangelical church.^[4] In 1975 his book Man as Male and Female was published. This work reconsiders the biblical evidence for the role of men and women and argues that Paul was speaking as inspired by God when he argued from the equality of women, but with a Jewish rabbinic mindset when speaking of women as subordinate to man. Jewett called Galatians 3:28 the "Magna Carta of humanity".

Jewett was an extremely controversial figure in evangelicalism beginning with his book Man as Male and Female which reconsidered traditional theology on the male/female relationship going so far as to suggest Paul was at times a chauvinistic and uninspired in some areas of the New Testament epistles.^[5] His last work, co-authored with Marguerite Shuster was meant to be part of a larger systematic theology he was writing but died before completing. It revealed liberal views on evolution, abortion, capital punishment, and homosexuality.^[5] Jewett died of cancer in Pasadena on 10 September 1991.^[2]

Books

• Man as Male and Female: A Study in Sexual Relationships from a Theological Point of View. Eerdmans, 1975.
• The Ordination of Women: An Essay on the Office of Christian Ministry. Eerdmans, 1980.
• Infant Baptism and the Covenant of Grace: An Appraisal of the Argument That As Infants Were Once Circumcised, So They Should Now Be Baptized. Eerdmans, 1978.
• The Lord's Day. Fuller Seminary Bookstore, 1978.
• God, Creation, and Revelation: A Neo-Evangelical Theology. Eerdmans, 1991.
• Who We Are: Our Dignity As Human : A Neo-Evangelical Theology. (Edited by Marguerite Shuster) Eerdmans, 1996.

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-02-07. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
2. "Paul King Jewett; Scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary". Los Angeles Times. 16 September 1991. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
3. Douma, Douglas J. (24 January 2017). The Presbyterian Philosopher: The Authorized Biography of Gordon H. Clark. ISBN 9781532607240.
4. Ronald W. Pierce and Rebecca Merrill Groothuis (eds.), Discovering Biblical Equality, IVP 2004, pp. 59-60.
5. Clark H. Pinnock "Who We Are: Our Dignity as Human," Theology Today Oct. 1997.

External links

• Review of Paul King Jewett's writing