There are things that overlap about men and women, but those things that overlap are not the category human.

It's just male and female, and they have things about them that overlap.

What we tend to do, though, is talk about the overlapping part of those two realities as the human part.

And that actually degrades male and female in a

significant way. Because what it says is, oh, to be woman is to be this thing over here. And we usually

don't talk about men that way. I understand the impulse by saying, you're a human, not just a woman.

But do you see how that actually degrades the full reality of being a woman?

Welcome to the Crossway podcast, a show where we sit down with authors each week for thoughtful

interviews about the Bible, theology, church history, and a Christian life.

I'm Matt Tully, and today I'm talking with Abigail Dodds.

Abigail is a wife, a mother, a writer, and a women's Bible study leader at Bethlehem Baptist

Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

She's also the author of Atypical Woman, Free, Whole, and Called in Christ with Crossway.

In our conversation today, Abigail and I discussed the Bible's teaching on womanhood,

whether or not complementarianism is a helpful term, and what Christian men, including pastors,

can do to honor and encourage the women around them.

Let's get started.

Abigail, thank you for joining us on the Crossway podcast.

Thank you for having me. So in the

introduction to your book, you note that you never really plan to write a book on womanhood.

You actually, you ask rhetorically, kind of humorously, has ever a topic been so fixated on,

so maligned, idolized, marginalized, criticized, and generally made a mess of.

...