In light of the recent and lively debate about the Eternal Subordination of the Son and gender, here is Kevin Giles on the word "role." The French word role originated in reference to the part an actor played on stage. In the 1930s, it became a key term in functional sociology. It was only in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the study of sociology became established in the universities, that the word began to be widely used in the English-speaking world. I can find no evidence of Christian usage of the word in theological discourse before this time. 1 Giles then gives an example of an officer and a private in the army. They have different roles, but the roles do not imply inferiority of one to the other. Likewise the roles are not intrinsic to the persons involved. A private may be promoted up the ranks. The officer may be demoted. 2 Makes sense, right? A parallel cannot be made with the complementarian-hierarchical view of women. In this case, because a woman is ...