Volume 6, Issue 4, December 1996

THE GROWING APPRECIATION OF WOMANHOOD

Christmas, with its beautiful story of the birth of a baby in simple circumstances two thousand years ago in a poor province of Palestine, is a good time to reflect upon the growing appreciation of womanhood. Equality of the sexes has been a recognition a long time coming. There is still much to be done.

Let us recognize that through the centuries most have assumed that paternalism was a normal and proper way of living. I am using paternalism here in the usual perjorative sense. Through much of human history, power and decision-making have rested, in all societies and human institutions, in the hands of a small elite - the few who had wealth or education or status. Most of humankind was assumed - perhaps correctly - to be incapable of ruling or making decisions. The king, the priest, the lord of the manor, the president of the corporation, or the father in the family was the decision-maker and the provider. Everyone else knew their place, stayed in it, did what they were told to do, and was expected to be grateful. Many of these power figures have been good people, generous and benevolent. They claimed, and honestly believed, that they were motivated by the best of intentions - they sought the "good" of those they ruled. But it was always the "good" on their terms, as they understood it.

There is still too much of this kind of paternalism in the structures and life of our society today. It exists still to a large extent in government, education, and religion.

The church has been greatly at fault in this. It has had good reason to know better. Too much has the church imitated the Old Testament patriarchial point of view, rather than the liberating viewpoint of the New Testament. St. Paul in his letter to the Christians in Galatia states: "you are all children of God by your faith in Jesus Christ (for all of you who had yourselves baptized into Christ have taken on the character of Christ). There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you belong to Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:26-28).

One of the extraordinary aspects of Jesus' ministry was his acceptance of woman as equals. A perceptive reading of the New Testament shows he made contacts with women as well as men, and he had women in his many followers. He gave them the same responsibilities and opportunities as the men. The writers of the New Testament being males in a patriarchal society downplayed this aspect of Jesus' ministry.

After Jesus' death social unrest seized the women of the Corinthian church. They felt the hot promptings of the Spirit in their souls just like the men, and rose to prophecy. They, too, felt their intellectual life enriched with new thoughts and a wider outlook; why should they not have the right to teach in the church? They felt the emancipating sense of equality and the joyous sweep of the new fellowship in the new society of Christianity. They felt emancipated and discarded their veils over their faces and the long-standing customs of social inferiority that had been forced upon them. The spirit of Christianity had accomplished that result in the slow in the slow progress of the centuries. Now our women are freer and more equal even than then.

As the movement spread among the women of the New Testament church alarm arouse among the men, even St. Paul who cautioned them to keep within the bounds of customary modesty and restraint. ( First Corinthians 11:2-16; 14:33-36).

The spirit of Christianity did not spread only sweet peace and tender charity, but the leaven of social unrest. It stirred women to break down the restraints of custom. It invaded the intimacies of domestic relations.

All this is neither strange nor reprehensible. No great historic revolution has ever worked its way without breaking and splintering the old way to make way for the new. New wine is sure to ferment and burst the old wineskins.

Jesus saw that his teaching of the realm of God including all people would disturb the traditionalists. He had a ministry to create fire in society, not peace but the sword. He was willing to pay the price to bring about the realm of God.

Christianity began not just as a religious movement, but also as a democratic and social movement. Or, to state it far more truly: it was so strongly and truly religious that it was of necessity democratic and social also.

We are living again in a time of great social upheaval and change. More people are better educated than ever before.

Institutions have become so complex that no one person or small group can know enough to make all the decisions.

We are realizing paternalism is no longer an adequate expression of love. Even in our language of God paternalism is inadequate. God is our figure of speech for supreme love, the most sacred and holy aspect of life.

Women today face their most dynamic opportunity, their most decisive challenge to realize the full potential of womanhood. In the light of Jesus' teaching, woman stands beside man not as his competitor, not as his servant, but as his equal partner, his full associate, each complementing the other. We must recognize that whatever assails the dignity of women attacks the well-being and security of civilization and humanity. Feminism was born of women's natural reaction to the depressed condition in which they found themselves in a secularized, masculine, industrial culture. The best of feminism not only demands equality, but does not conceive this equality on a masculine pattern. Men often consider women lesser because they do not fight aggessively, hurtingly, indiscriminatingly, personally, as men are wont to do. Women are often above this level and must be commended for it.

When men realize they cannot merge with women, take them over, or be taken over by them, we will meet women as a separate persons, and our relationships will become vastly more peaceful and our culture much more productive.

Search Articles by Keyword

 


Back to Issue Summary || Issue Index || Home

"Religion NOW" is published in limited edition by the Rev. Ross E. Readhead, B.A., B.D., Certificate of Corrections, McMaster University, in the interest of furthering knowledge and participation in religion. Dialogue is invited and welcomed.