Description: Do you remember TV shows such as Leave It to Beaver, Father Knows Best, and Ozzie and Harriet, and how the wife, after cleaning all day in pumps and pearls, greeted her breadwinning husband at the door with a smile and his slippers? Have twenty-first-century women, as the ad says, "Come a long way, baby", or are men and women, with no structured roles to guide them, adrift on a sea of gender confusion.

Though the opening description may be somewhat idealized, the decade of the 1950s was, according to sociologist and theologian Elaine Storkey, the last period during which public attitudes were largely premodern, or marked by predictability and tradition. But the status quo did not hold for long. World War II had challenged patterns of relationships, hierarchy, and values, and by the 1960s, modernists had begun to question hidden assumptions concerning male-female roles.

The debate continues today in our post-modern generation. Are men and women created or constructed? Does nature or nurture determine our roles and relationships?

Christians are not immune to this debate. How do we function in this environment while attempting to remain true to the historic Christian faith? After tracing the history and exploring the various aspects of this discussion, Storkey offers a biblical alternative to the premodern, modern, and postmodern positions, insisting that "in the gospel of Christ all things can be made new".

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