Rev.B.Zirsangliana
Introduction
The position of every individual in society is determined by religion and the value system of the culture. Down through the ages there had been a broad concensus that man and woman have different roles and position in the society. Women are considered lower and inferior to men. From where this bias conception emerged? Do Christianity support oppression of women? This paper will be a response to the question.
At the outset so as to deal with the topic, a retrospection of socio-religious background of the said theologians would take a precedence over everything else. More over, “the early theologians” would be refered to those who are from the Patristic period to reformation period.
Philosophical backgrounds
The early church fathers, to a great extent, are influenced by the philosophical teaching of their contemporary. Therefore, their views and ideas in many aspects are shaped up by philosophical view of the Greaco-Roman world. Philosophical theology arosed in the 17th century as a result of progress in scientific knowledge. Within the fold of philosophical theology the influence of it’s ancient roots are to be found, Platonic dualism which has to do with dichotomy opposite sex was still lingering in the mind of theologians. In regard to this, Ingulf U. Dalferth rightly said, “it’s impact on Christian thinking has been constructive as well as critical and destructive” .Thus it is necessary to look in to the philosophical teachings of their time particularly in regard to position of women. Here are some of the philosophers who expressed their views about women;
Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE)
Aristotle was plato’s most famous pupil. Untill the middle age he was not the major influence on Christian theology. But when he gradually became known to Christian theologians through Islamic and Jewish philosophers. From that point on his influence was a clear and strong rival to his master’s. He was a consistent advocate of sex polarity , refuting any notion that the female contributed to the generation of the species. The inferiority of woman is to be explained by reference to her subordinate physiology; she is to be compared with “matter”. While man resembles superior “form”. The female is also characterized as deficient: inadequate in the elements of heat and moisture necessary for the generation of life. Hence, the Aristotelian notion of the female as “misbegotten” male, a departure from the true human essence.
Plato( 428--348 BCE )
Plato classes women together with children and servants, and states generally that in all the pursuits of mankind the female sex is inferior to the male. Like wise,Euripides says “ women are impotent for good, but clever contrievers of all evil
Religious background
One of the characteristics of the first Christians or Judeo-Christianity was Judaism. Though Christianity has been a new form of worshipping community, the Bible itself reveals that there had been much influence from Judaism(Acts 15 :1f). More over, the early Christianity,to certain extent, was also influenced by the practices of Romans world. At the early stage the Greek church even practiced baptism of nude women when they are received in to the Greek church . Catherine the first wife of peter the Great was also Baptised in this primitive Christian manner. Until the time of Peter the Great, women were not recognized as human beings in that great division of Christendom known as the Greek church, the census of that empire counting only males, or so many “souls” no woman named . There had been a fundamental suspicion among the male church leaders towards an institution of marriage so physical and so bound up with sexuality that they perceived as their moral Achilles heel. This lead to a lowering of the status of women.
Social background ( Greaco-Roman world )
The mode of thinking and social structure in Greaco-roman world was patriarchal and male dominated society. Women did not take part in the public administration, decision making, in literature and so on. The early Christians also, to some extent conform with their contemporary in different aspects of life. In Rome the rule of a husband over his wife was despotic. Woman was treated like a slave, and had no share in the social economy. Elaine Graham right said, “for fear of causing offence ,the earliest Christians also counseled conformity to the graeco Roman household codes” It is obvious that our thoughts and outlook are always influenced and shaped up by the context where we lived in. So also for the the early Christianity, there must be certain areas in which their mode of thinking and world should be guided by the Greaco-Roman world.
APOSTOLIC FATHERS
Apostolic fathers are the first theologians who shaped up and took the initiatives in formulating Christian theology. Their views and What they have expressed had been inherited by the following generations. And surprisingly most of the leading figures expressed negative attitude towards women;
Tertulian ( c.160 – c.225 AD ): is one of the advocates of ascetism who even condemned attendance at theatre and other public amusements, second marriage and military service. His attitude towards women is like that of Augustine. He even considered sex within marriage as sinful. It is presumable that this attitude could be caused by his indulgement in worldly pleasure at his early life.
Origen ( 185 – 245 AD) : was a man who was leading an ascetic life of self denial. His overly literal reading of Matt 1:12 and worried that teaching female catechuments might leadhimin to sin, Origen made himself an eunuch for the Kingdom of Heavens sake. According to some hostile accounts Origen’s sexual self control was brought about by the use of drugs or a minor operation of some kind.
Augustine(345 – 430 AD ): Augustine, a theologian and a philosopher is considered as the most important author of the patristic period. For more than a millennium after his death, he was an author who simply had to be accommodated. He shaped medieval thought as no one else did.
In the best platonic manner, Augustine views the world as hierarchically arraged. The principle of ordering is one of intrinsic value. Thus the better or more worthy something is, the higher it stands in the hierarchy of things. God is at the top ( like Plato’s form of the good), physical objects occupy a very low position , and human souls are somewhere in between, the souls of good people higher than those of wicked ones. Thus Agustine viewed all the matters or creation in hierarchical order. For him higher things must have power and rule over the lower ones, and this is also obvious in his notion of the opposite sex.
Anselm Of Canterbury(1033- 1109AD ): Anselm of canterbury is one of the leading figures among the early theologians. His attitude towards women is seen in his interpretation of the role of Mary, the Holy mother. “Mary, the Holy mother, as Anselm put it, redeemed the sin of Eve: just as the sin which was the source of our lost originated in woman, so too the father of our righteousness and our salvation was born to woman.
Abelard (1079 – 1142 AD ) : According to Abelard, woman who lived a full sexual life(married woman) ,rather than a nun ,conceiving and giving birth in natural fashion ,remains an inferior being, arousing revulsion. This attitude is strikingly evident when he writes, “ The redeemer could have choosen another part of woman’s body to be conceived there and born from there, and not that despised part where other sons of man are conceived and born. Thus Abelard elevates the female part of the virgin which did not function in the way of nature, and thus indirectly but clearly expressed disgustat the part of sexual women who give birth naturally.
THE MEDEAVAL AND REFORMATION PERIOD
In the middle age Greek theology and philosophy strongly influenced later Christian thought. The introduction of Aristotelian philosophy brought about another compromise between biblical theology and pagan philosophy. And the medieval age- theological interpretation and mode of thinking, to a great extent laid the foundation for the succeeding generation. “ Medieval women were barred from participating in the universities on account of their gender” In the 11th century,celibacy was required by the church in the west of it’s priest as well as of the religious. This could be considered as dedication of oneself for purity and consecration. But on the other hand the motive is deeply rooted in the concept of women among the early Church fathers and their interpretation of the original sin.
Thomas Aquinas (1225- 1274 B.C.): who is considered as the official theologian of the Roman catholic church continued with the thinking of Augustine and Jerome with regard to women inspite of his great erudition and depth. He belived that the natural person has the capacity to distinguish between and good and evil which he called synteresis. But unfortunately he did not exercise this ability for discernment with regard to women. He thought of her as a rapidly growing weed, a being which is less perfect than man since nature devoted less attention to her. He had stated that “Woman was made to be a help to man, except in generation because another man could rove a more effective helping anything else”. At one time he had written, “ If however ,the husband ultimately persist in his request, she must yield to his demand. But it would not be safe for her to make known her dissatisfactin, less this make her husband entertain a revulsion towards her, unless his prudence can be taken for granted. His masculine arrogance becomes explicit with regard to menstrual period of the women in marriage. She is expected to render the marriage debt even during that period to her husband lest he falls in to sin through her refusal.
Martin Luther( 1483 – 1546 AD ): Luther, a great reformer challenged the traditional thinking of the church on sexual life. He questioned the superiority of the monks and the nuns because of their avowed virginity and celibacy. But at the same time his understanding of original sin is quite similar to Augustine. For Luther, The original sin or the fall brought the epileptic and apoplectic lust of sinful sex and subjection of woman to man. Gerda Lerner says, “ The first gender-defined social role for women was to be those who were exchange in marriage transactions. The obverse gender role for men was to be those who did the exchanging or who defined the terms of the exchanges. Even the reformer still held this notion. For Luther, “ woman is the agent of generation, the bearer of children and remedy of man’s lust.He, once put it as “ woman was made either to be a wife or a prostitute” .
Thus from what had been mentioned it is apparent that theology of the churches till date is male dominated theology, Tissa,in her “Planetary theology”, boldly expressed, “ The Clergy teaching in seminaries and universities has maintained a virtual monopoly over theology. Theological preoccupations were very much those of persons within Church institution and dependent upon them. Thus theology persued many interests of concern to adult,male clerics and,in the case of catholics,celibates. They tended to read the scriptures through an adult male(celibate)lens. They naturally were inclined to find in revelation many texts that reinforced their authority,importance,and indispenseability.
Thus, most of the early church fathers, the shapers of theology and their followers in later period did not consider women as full human being.This attitude and theology had been passed on from one generation to another. In the rerformation period the reformers rehabilitated marriage as an acceptable way of life but their inherited distrust of sex could be seen in their counsels to avoid excess even within marriage. This restoration of status to marriage should have enhanced the status of women but the need to submit to those God had put in authority ,including husbands and fathers, was taken for granted by all thinkers at this time. So, in practice,by rejecting a monastic life(because of it’s abuses and it’s link with the system of two tier morality),the reformers denied women what had been an independent sphere of authority.
A reflection on the tradition of the church
Here the term, “tradition” implies the Church practices and literatures. As we know the Bible has been written and interpreted for centuries by men who are in the patriarchal societies, where women are subordinated to men. The Christian literatures which we inherited from the early Christianity needs a rereading from a feminist perspective. Whether they are poetic,narratives or legalistic or dogmatic, they are male-productions. Theological formulations and practices were done with a patriarchal mindset, in which women were considered as insignificant. Therefore even the Church history is also to be re-examined from the feminist perspectives. A number of Biblical texts treat women as inferior and subordinate to men. On the other hand it also challenges the silence and oppression of women; in the Bible we found women prophet, supportes of prophets(Jugde 4:4f/I Kings 17:1f/2Kings 4:1f) and followers of Christ( Lk 8:1f )Thus we ought to have a critical textual study to do justice in our Biblical interpretation and theological formulation.
Inregard to the eccleciastical structure and practices, the exclusion of women in the priesthood has to be questioned in the light of teachings of Christ. Even the existence and practice of Nuns, though outwardly devotional and sacrificial is also questionable. What would be the motive behind the emergence of this practice?
A reflection on Classical interpretation of the Bible
1)Image of God:-
The classical concept and interpretation of “image of God” is androcentric view. This interpretation denotes exclusion of women. Augustine even says, “ It is only if man and woman are seen as one essence that one can say that woman was created in the image of God. Regarded alone, she is not an image of God, since she was created in the image of Adam,where as man even alone ,is an image of God. Her subjugation to man is the fruit of her sin. Thus women is regarded as subordinate and a helper to men.Where as
St.paul reveals the ideals for the believers who are being created in his image.(Rom 8:29/2cor 3:18/ Col 3:10).Since there had been sex difference with our image of God. Therefore we need to have an inclusive for which can accommodate all genders.
2)Original sin
The classical interpretation of the fall or original sin is quite oppressive to women. Original sin is ascribed to female(Eve). Augustine described the fall or original sin in sexual terms. He defined that after the fall, Adam and eve became conscious of a new impulse, this is as concupiscence. The whole of humanity is driven in all aspects of life by concupiscene, whose chief characteristic is insatiability. Therefore, for him no sexual union takes place without the corrupting effect, this is the result of sin and the punishment of sin according to him. After his own encounter and experiment with opposite sex, he boldly advocated virginity and celibacy, and also rejected loving and pure marital intercourse. For Luther too, The original sin or the fall brought the epileptic and lust of sinful sex and subjection of woman to man.
A reflection on the life and ministry of Jesus
When we reflect upon the life and ministry of Jesus we need to know that they are not trying to give accurate account of his life and work. And they were also conscious of the prejudices of their culture. Luke, a gentile writer(who didn’t share the Jewish-view) is the only gospel writer who mentioned clearly about Jesus interaction with women, his sympathy and concern for them.He accepted them as his followers. They are befriend of Jesus and evangelized his name( Lk 8:1f/ 8:40f/10:38etc). Inspite of the negative depiction of Women they were the faithful followers till the crucifixion and also the first to witness his resurrection( Lk 23:27/24:1-12)
CONCLUSION
From all accounts it is certain that women have become the victims of patriarchal system for generations. In the history of Christianity, they are understood as different from men in their capacities, virtues and social roles. This has been regarded as a sign of inferiority. Inspite of developments and moral changes in modern world women remained in the lower position. What is more, The emerging capitalist mode of thinking reinforced traditional view and subordination of women
As Elaine Graham said, “The emergence of modernity, identified with the propagation rational scientific methods of observation, the accumulation off capital and it’s application to social and economic organization, is often associated with the greater social control of women. Thus both in philosophical and material terms,the development of modern society carried the seeds both of women’s objectification and of their emancipation”.
Women are not destined to the patriarchal bondage. It is our theological task to give more accurate view women and of christ’s teaching and treatment of
Women, and have sought to separate patriarchal culture constraints from the gospel and vision of the church for all genders and races.
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