Transfiguring Headship
A Figural Theology of Gender
- Theology
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2026
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Publisher's Description
“The man is the head of the woman” (1 Cor 11:3). There was a time when this claim was uncontroversial, taken as part of the fabric of the “good news” announced in Christ, and bound up with claims concerning the church’s salvation in him (Eph 5:23–33). But this time has long passed. This book explains how it came to be that the language of the Scriptures concerning male and female generally, and the naming of the man as “head” specifically, has come to be heard not as good news but as a word of offense, even for Christians. A significant part of this study traces, historically and sociologically, the genealogy of “headship” and its waning acceptance as a compelling theological and civil category. What we will find is that, scripturally speaking, the “head” is to be understood not as the “ruler” over the body (as is commonly supposed and argued for) but rather as the representative member of the body, and the body as the glory of the head.
Endorsements (5)
“Transfiguring Headship doesn’t simply offer new answers to old questions. More generatively, it reframes old questions for the good, not just of the genders individually, but of the social units of the family and church. With Jost’s academic work now available to a wider readership, it will test cherished assumptions, insisting that the Holy Scriptures define our reality. Like all good scholarship, the dogged pursuit of truth in these pages is sure to disturb, even as it instructs.”
“Transfiguring Headship addresses the intra-evangelical Protestant argument over ‘male headship,’ one of the cleavage points between evangelical and mainline Protestant churches. Jost seeks in part to relocate the debate over gender roles from a reliance on reading Scripture as thin prooftext alone to a fuller reading of Scripture as figure. Headship thus becomes the sacramental pointing to the headship of Jesus Christ over his bride, the church. Highly recommended for those interested in the evangelical framing of ‘male headship’ as well as their understanding of the nature of Scripture itself.”
“The apostle Paul’s claim that ‘the man is head of the woman’ is widely derided nowadays as being patriarchal, hierarchical, and oppressive toward women. Lyndon Jost’s Transforming Headship addresses this difficult teaching head-on. Neither defending patriarchy nor dismissing the authority of Scripture, Jost helpfully reframes our view of gender relations in light of the gospel of Christ. This is a splendid book by a promising young theologian.”
“What do you get when you bring together Ephraim Radner’s figural reading of Scripture, Barth’s Christological anthropology, Augustine’s totus Christus, Ivan Illich’s genealogy of modern gender and his account of gender’s ‘vernacular’ character, Reformed federal theology, and a historically and semantically careful reading of biblical ‘headship’ texts? In Transfiguring Headship, Lyndon Jost delivers a genuinely significant advance in contemporary theological debates about gender. Jost offers a rigorously argued, gender-realist alternative to both essentialism and constructivism, situating sexual difference within a sacramental cosmology and a figural, soteriological account of representation. This is a bold and promising work, one that deserves a wide reading.”
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