Today Gail has a guest post up on the Sophia Network website, a group in the U.K. with a similar mission the The Junia Project. Here are the first few paragraphs and a link to the full post. While you’re there, check out the other great articles featured and sign up for their monthly newsletter!

I have a three-year-old granddaughter who loves to be read to.

When I start reading she always pays close attention, but sometimes when we get to the middle she abruptly closes the book, because she already knows how the story ends and is ready to move on to something new.

I realized recently that I have been guilty of doing the same thing when it comes to understanding what it means to be made in the image of God (Imago Dei) and the implications this has for gender equality. That is, my understanding of Imago Dei has been based almost entirely on the creation narratives of Genesis. In these first pages of the Bible there is true equality between the first man and the first woman. Both Adam and Eve are image bearers who equally reflect their Creator, both are under the authority of that creator alone, and both are given the mandate to fill the earth and have dominion over it.

End of story.

Or not?