Wayne Grudem

Wayne Grudem (b. 1948) is the scholar who built the academic infrastructure for evangelical patriarchy. Where James Dobson delivered the therapeutic version to millions of radio listeners and Mark Driscoll delivered the street-level version from a Seattle pulpit, Grudem provided the seminary-level theological argumentation that made patriarchal headship the mainstream position of evangelical scholarship. Grudem completed his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge (1981) and has taught at Bethel College, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Phoenix Seminary. In 1987 he co-founded the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood with John Piper. The foundational document — the Danvers Statement, drafted in Danvers, Massachusetts in December 1987 and published in 1988 — establishes that male headship in marriage and the church is a creation ordinance predating the Fall, and therefore permanent and non-negotiable. Grudem's central argument: the Ephesians 5 and 1 Timothy 2 texts commanding wives to submit and prohibiting women from teaching or exercising authority over men reflect God's design for human relationships from creation, not merely cultural convention. This argument has direct political implications — if the gender hierarchy is built into creation itself, then feminist social arrangements are not merely impractical but cosmically disordered. Key texts: - *Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood* (1991, co-edited with Piper): 566-page academic defense of complementarianism; the movement's foundational text. - *Systematic Theology* (1994): one of the most widely used evangelical seminary textbooks in the world; contains sustained arguments for complementarian positions. - *Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism?* (2006): argued that accepting egalitarianism is a first step toward abandoning biblical authority entirely. - *Politics According to the Bible* (2010): his explicit political theology applying these principles to government. Grudem endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2016, published a widely read essay titled 'Why Voting for Donald Trump Is a Morally Good Choice,' retracted partially after the Access Hollywood recording, then re-endorsed Trump. The arc was noted by many as illustrating the logical endpoint of a theology that privileges authority over character.

Documented themes

• Patriarchy
• Anti-LGBTQ
• Gender & Patriarchy

Connections from Wayne Grudem

• influenced → Trump Evangelical Advisory Board (2016) (2016) — Wayne Grudem published 'Why Voting for Donald Trump Is a Morally Good Choice' in July 2016, providing academic theological cover for evangelical support of Trump. He partially retracted after the Access Hollywood tape, then re-endorsed. The arc illustrated the logical endpoint of a theology that privileges authority and political outcomes over character — the same trajectory that defined the evangelical advisory board's collective decision.
• founded → Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood (1987) — Grudem co-founded CBMW with John Piper in 1987, co-authored the Danvers Statement, and co-edited the movement's foundational text 'Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood' (1991). CBMW was the institutional vehicle for his academic complementarianism.
• influenced → Mark Driscoll (2001) — Grudem's complementarianism — the academic argument that male authority in home and church is a permanent creation ordinance — was the theological foundation Driscoll built on. Driscoll took Grudem's seminary-level argument and translated it into street-level masculine theology, stripping the academic hedges and amplifying the authority claims. Acts 29's doctrinal standards required agreement with Grudem-style complementarianism.

Sources

• Jesus and John Wayne — Kristin Kobes Du Mez (2020), pp. 196–222
• Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood — John Piper and Wayne Grudem (eds.) (1991), pp. 1–60
• Evangelical Feminism: A History — Pamela Cochran (2005), pp. 88–130