Letha Dawson Scanzoni, (October 9, 1935 - January 9, 2024)[1] was an American independent scholar, writer, and freelance editor. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[2], she authored or coauthored nine books,[3] the most well-known of which are All We're Meant to Be and Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? Scanzoni specialized in the intersection between religion and social issues.

From 1994 until her retirement[4] in December, 2013, she served as editor of both the print and website editions of Christian Feminism Today (formerly EEWC Update), the publication of the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus.

Biblical Feminism and All We're Meant to Be

Numerous scholars, whether they agree or disagree with the book's basic premise of gender equality, consider All We're Meant to Be to have been a major catalyst in launching the biblical feminist movement. It was preceded by two earlier articles Scanzoni wrote for Eternity magazine in 1966 and 1968.[5]

Randall Balmer calls the book a "landmark manifesto," [6] Leora Tanenbaum says Scanzoni and Hardesty were "the first to offer alternative biblical interpretations to mainstream evangelicals."[7] Sociologist Sally Gallagher claims that All We're Meant to Be established its authors as "two of the most prominent voices in second-wave evangelical feminism."[8] Pamela Cochran, In her book Evangelical Feminism: A History, refers to All We're Meant to Be as the "most influential work in helping launch the evangelical feminist movement"[9] In As Christ Submits to the Church: A Biblical Understanding of Leadership and Mutual Submission, Alan G. Padgett speaks of a "new hermeneutic" for interpreting the Bible "regarding the place of women in church, home, and society" and asserts that "by all accounts, the first major book on this topic by neoevangelicals was Letha Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty's All We're Meant to Be: A Biblical Approach to Women's Liberation."[10]

One of the conservative critics of evangelical feminism, Wayne Grudem, states that the book reflects a "liberal tendency to reject the authority of Scripture" and that "while egalitarian positions had been advocated since the 1950s by theologically liberal Protestant writers, no evangelical books took such a position until 1974 . . .[when] freelance writers Letha Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty published their groundbreaking book, All We're Meant to Be"[11] Arguing similarly, another critic, theology professor Jack Cottrell, has posted an online article titled "How Feminism Invaded the Church"[12] in which he writes: "The major feminist writings during this period began with All We're Meant To Be: A Biblical Approach to Women's Liberation, by Letha Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty (1974, then later editions). This was the early 'bible' of Evangelical feminism; it was called 'ground-breaking' and 'epoch-making.'" And, in Cottrell's opinion, it, along with other books following such an approach to Scripture, falsely interpreted what the Bible teaches. According to the Encyclopedia of Women in Religion in North America[13] All We're Meant to Be "became in many respects for evangelical women what the Church and the Second Sex (1972) by Mary Daly was for mainstream religious women" (p. 469).

Homosexuality and Christianity - Is The Homosexual My Neighbor and What God Has Joined Together

When Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? Another Christian View, coauthored with Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, was published in 1978, the publisher reported that "some 16 different titles on evangelical Christianity and homosexuality [were] currently being published, with the Scanzoni and Mollenkott volume being the only one which takes a positive stand.[14]

Scanzoni’s last published book was What God Has Joined Together: A Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperOne, 2005, 2006), coauthored with psychologist David G. Myers. In an added feature for the 2006 paperback edition, the authors interviewed each other and told how they came to hold the views presented in their book—views that have been both praised and criticized.

Taking issue with Myers and Scanzoni's views, Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, declares, "Their book offers positive proof that what drives proponents of same-sex marriage is a psychological worldview that is directly at odds with the worldview of the Bible."[15]

Rosemary Radford Ruether sums up the book's arguments and concludes: "Scanzoni and Meyers [sic] argue that accepting gay marriage, far from threatening marriage, will confirm and strengthen the ideal of marriage itself for all of us, heterosexuals and homosexuals."[16]

Personal life

Letha Dawson Scanzoni received a B.A. with high distinction, honors in religious studies, and membership in Phi Beta Kappa from Indiana University (Bloomington) in 1972. Earlier, she studied at the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester, NY), 1952–1954, and at the Moody Bible Institute (Chicago), 1954–1956.[17] She married John Scanzoni in 1956. They were divorced in 1983.[18]

Awards and honors

All We're Meant to Be has received numerous honors. Designated as Eternity Magazine's "Book of the Year" in 1975, it was later listed among the 100 Christian Books That Changed the Century,[19] named by Christianity Today for its 50th anniversary issue as one of the "Top Fifty Books that Have Shaped Evangelicals" (2006), and included in Besides the Bible: 100 Books That Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture[20] (2010)

Bibliography

  • Youth Looks at Love (Fleming H. Revell, 1964)
  • Why Am I Here? Where Am I Going?: Youth Looks at Life (Fleming H. Revell, 1966)
  • Sex and the Single Eye (Zondervan, 1968). Reissued as Why Wait? (Baker Book House, 1975)
  • Sex Is a Parent Affair: Help for Parents in Teaching Their Children about Sex (Regal Books, 1973; revised updated second edition published by Bantam, 1982).
  • All We're Meant to Be: A Biblical Approach to Women's Liberation, coauthored with Nancy A. Hardesty. (Word Books, 1974). Second edition (Abingdon, 1986), with a new subtitle, "Biblical Feminism for Today." Revised, expanded, updated third edition (Eerdmans, 1992).
  • Men, Women, and Change: A Sociology of Marriage and Family – a college textbook coauthored with John Scanzoni (McGraw-Hill, 1976; second edition. 1981; third edition, 1988).
  • Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? Another Christian View, coauthored with Virginia Ramey Mollenkott (Harper & Row, 1978. Revised, updated, expanded edition, Harper Collins (HarperOne imprint), 1994. In the 1994 edition, a new tag line, "a positive Christian response," was added after the title. This second edition also features an expanded preface telling the book's backstory. ISBN 0-06-067078-9
  • Sexuality, a volume assigned by Westminster Press and written as part of its "Choices-Guides for Today's Woman" series, each volume addressing a single topic and given a one-word title (1984).
  • What God Has Joined Together? A Christian Case for Gay Marriage (with David Myers, HarperOne, 2005, 2006) ISBN 0-06-083454-4

References

  1. ↑ Christian Feminism Today, "Remembering Letha Dawson Scanzoni (October 9, 1935 – January 9, 2024)", January 9, 2024.
  2. ↑ "Letha Dawson Scanzoni," in Randall Balmer, Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, 2004; also see Who's Who of American Women, 13th edition, 1983.
  3. ↑ "Letha Dawson Scanzoni" Harper Collins website.
  4. ↑ "Announcing Letha Dawson's Retirement as CFT's Web Content Manager", Christian Feminism Today, December 9, 2013.
  5. ↑ See "Women's Place: Silence or Service?" and "Christian Marriage: Patriarchy or Partnership?" (published as "Elevate Marriage to Partnership"). See also Daniel K. Williams, "Gender Issues, the Sexual Revolution, and Abortion in the 1960s," in Axel R. Schafer (ed.), American Evangelicals and the 1960s (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013), p. 107.
  6. ↑ Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, 2004, p. 237.
  7. ↑ Taking Back God: American Women Rising Up for Religious Equality, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009, p. 105.
  8. ↑ Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life, Rutgers University Press, 2003. See also Susan Frank Parsons (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  9. ↑ Evangelical Feminism: A History, New York University, 2005, p. 25.
  10. ↑ As Christ Submits to the Church, Baker Academic, 2011, p. 8.
  11. ↑ Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism? 2006.
  12. ↑ Jack Cottrell, "How Feminism Invaded the Church". May 8, 2013.
  13. ↑ Encyclopedia of Women in Religion in North America, Indiana University Press, 2006.
  14. ↑ Clayton Carlson, Harper & Row Publisher, press release at the launch of Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, CA, June 20, 1978.
  15. ↑ R. Albert Mohler Jr., "A Christian Case for Gay Marriage?", Albert Mohler, August 26, 2005.
  16. ↑ Rosemary Radford Ruether, "Why Marriage between Homosexuals Is Good for Marriage", Patheos, July 7, 2009.
  17. ↑ See "Backstory: Women's Place: Service or Silence?" on Scanzoni's official website.
  18. ↑ Scanzoni wrote about the divorce under the title "A Long Time Grieving: Recovery from Unwelcome Midlife Divorce", in Daughters of Sarah magazine (January/ February 1989), which was reprinted in Reta Halteman Finger and Kari Sandhaas, The Wisdom of Daughters: Two Decades of the Voice of Christian Feminism (Innisfree Press, 2001), pp. 171–175.
  19. ↑ William J. Petersen and Randy Petersen, 100 Christian Books That Changed the Century, Fleming H. Revell, 2000, pp. 181–183.
  20. ↑ Dan Gibson, Jordan Green, and John Pattison, Besides the Bible: 100 books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture, InterVarsity Press, Biblica Books imprint, 2010.
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