Cracking Open what is Hidden: The Legacy of Catherine Clark Kroeger

By Idelette McVicker | Twitter: @idelette

I have my Bible open this morning. It’s The Women’s Study Bible, New Living Translation, edited by Catherine Clark Kroeger and Mary J. Evans.

What is particularly significant about this open book today, is the legacy it represents of a woman who spent her life cracking wide open what had been shut.

Last week, on Monday Feb 14, Dr. Catherine Clark Kroeger, one of the editors of The Women’s Study Bible and author of over ten books and articles, passed away suddenly at the age of 85. She was president of PASCH (Peace and Safety in the Christian Home), an organization she founded to rally academics, professionals, clergy and laypeople around the problem of domestic violence in the Christian home. Catherine was also founder and first president of Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE).

Scholar, activist, mother, mentor

Dr. Catherine was a renowned scholar, activist, wife, mother to her own five children, as well as foster children, grandmother to ten and mentor to many more who came on her path. She was a champion for the marginalized and the abused. At the time when I got to meet her, she was a respected white-haired professor, but I chuckled again last night, while watching a clip of her speaking during a Seed of Revival event at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary on how she was very comfortable calling out idiotic behavior. I am so thankful for this beautiful, wise lady who had both a gentle, prayerful spirit and a lot of spunk.

Dr. Frank James of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where Catherine was Ranked Adjunct Professor of Classical and Ministry Studies wrote: “She will be remembered as one of the most respected Bible scholars of our day, a champion of the equality of women and a staunch opponent of domestic violence.”

I Suffer Not a Woman

Catherine held her Ph.D. in classical studies from the University of Minnesota. In her own words, from a testimony on God’s Word to Women, Catherine explained why she continued her studies:

“As I tottered out of my dishpan and back to graduate school, one verse above all others impelled me: I Tim 2:12. In the King James Version, it reads, “I suffer not a woman to teach or usurp authority over a man.” From the writings of Katherine Bushnell, I knew that there might be other ways to translate and to interpret this Bible verse that had obstructed so many women from a full-orbed ministry. In particular, Bushnell had targeted the Greek infinitive authentein, traditionally translated “to have power or authority over.” She observed that it was a rare word, used only here in the entire New Testament; but that in other types of Greek literature, it had other meanings that could lead to quite different understandings.

Bushnell had called for women translators and interpreters who would give themselves to the task of conscientiously and faithfully examining the difficult texts that were often used to disbar women from certain types of Christian service. I determined, as God led, to enter the department of classical studies at the University of Minnesota in order to deal with many different Greek materials to examine usages of authentein in other occurrences and to understand all I could of the lives and religious practices of the women addressed by the Apostle Paul. I sought a reconciliation of the difficult Pauline passages with the clear directives empowering women to proclaim Christ.

I Suffer Not a Woman, a book she produced in collaboration with her husband Richard Clark Kroeger, sought to set forth a new understanding of 1 Tim 2:11-15.

“It was written with the prayer that God might use it to open new doors of gospel opportunity for women and men alike,” Catherine said.

From the Shadows

I had the privilege of meeting Catherine on three occasions. Once to pick her up from the Langdale ferry terminal and drive her to the home of Gwen McVicker, my mom-in-law for a meeting of the Task Force on Abuse Against Women of the then-World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF). The second time was at the 4th Annual PASCH conference in 2008 in Takoma Park, Maryland. I helped carry boxes of books, listened, learned and was further engaged at this conference to open doors to freedom for those who are abused and repressed.

The third and last time was last year, at a planning meeting for the upcoming PASCH conference in May 2011 in Abbottsford, BC. In a few months, a community will gather around the theme: Loving, Reflecting and Pursuing Justice Together. No doubt the conference will miss its founder deeply, but perhaps draw comfort in these thoughts expressed by CBE President Mimi Haddad:

Only with faith can we accept her passing, in what seemed like the zenith of her labors. However, if one could call Cathie on the phone and ask her advice, as so many did each day. I’m sure she would jump to her feet and exhort us to dry our eyes, have a talk with Jesus, go for a good walk, and resume our ministries. Cathie would want us to move forward the projects she cared for deeply. She would also call us to celebrate the joyful opportunity of serving others through our vocations and God-given gifts.

I am part of a generation that gets to come after Dr. Catherine and walk in the light of a vision of equality she has paved with faith. While there’s still much work to be done, we don’t have to stumble through the bushes. Thanks to the leadership, scholarship and devotion of people like Dr. Catherine Clark Kroeger, I sense a powerful heritage: a highway to walk on.

May we do it justice.

About Idelette:
Idelette is founding editor of shelovesmagazine.com. She’s a bit intense, granted, but she’s getting to be really ok with it. She was born and raised in South Africa which shaped her longing for justice and freedom for everyone and a deep, deep love for Africa. She also worked in Taipei as journalist and discovered that Heaven might look like lingering over oohlong tea in the mountains of Chiufen. She moved to Vancouver, Canada a month before the millennium turned. (She calls it the Land of Milk and Maple Syrup.) She is married to Scott, has three young children and loves Sisterhood. She blogs at idelette.com and tweets @idelette.