Numerous scholars, whether they agree or disagree with the book's basic premise of gender equality, consider ''All We're Meant to Be
to have been a major catalyst in launching the biblical feminist movement. It was preceded by two earlier articles Scanzoni wrote for Eternity'' magazine in 1966 and 1968.
Randall Balmer called the book a "landmark manifesto,"
Leora Tanenbaum said Scanzoni and Hardesty were "the first to offer alternative biblical interpretations to mainstream evangelicals." Sociologist Sally Gallagher said that ''All We're Meant to Be
established its authors as "two of the most prominent voices in second-wave evangelical feminism." Pamela Cochran, in her book Evangelical Feminism: A History
, said All We're Meant to Be'' was the "most influential work in helping launch the evangelical feminist movement" In
As Christ Submits to the Church: A Biblical Understanding of Leadership and Mutual Submission, Alan G. Padgett said there was a "new hermeneutic" for interpreting the Bible "regarding the place of women in church, home, and society" and asserts that "by all accounts, the first major book on this topic by neoevangelicals was Letha Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty's ''All We're Meant to Be: A Biblical Approach to Women's Liberation.''" One of the conservative critics of evangelical feminism,
Wayne Grudem, stated that the book reflects a "liberal tendency to reject the authority of Scripture" and that "while egalitarian positions had been advocated since the 1950s by theologically liberal Protestant writers, no evangelical books took such a position until 1974 . . .[when] freelance writers Letha Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty published their groundbreaking book, ''All We're Meant to Be
" Theology professor Jack Cottrell, in an online article titled "How Feminism Invaded the Church" said: "The major feminist writings during this period began with All We're Meant To Be: A Biblical Approach to Women's Liberation'', by Letha Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty (1974, then later editions). This was the early 'bible' of Evangelical feminism; it was called 'ground-breaking' and 'epoch-making.'" In Cottrell's opinion it and other books following such an approach to Scripture, falsely interpreted what the Bible teaches. According to the
Encyclopedia of Women in Religion in North America ''All We're Meant to Be
"became in many respects for evangelical women what the Church and the Second Sex'' (1972) by Mary Daly was for mainstream religious women" (p. 469). ==
Is The Homosexual My Neighbor and
What God Has Joined Together==